Second Sight, an amatuer review by TCN

[the cow ninja]

Second Sight

Introduction:
Second Sight was made by Free Radical Design, makers of the TimeSplitters series. It was released in 2004, 4 years after TS1, 2 years after TS2, and 1 year before TSFP. Unlike the TS series, though, Second Sight is not only a third person shooter(whereas TS games have been first person thus far), but plot and characters are a great focus compared to the run-n-gun style of the TS series. Also unlike the TS series, SS was released for the PC. I’ve no idea how good that is compared to consoles, however.

Note: I am reviewing this for the PS2 version. If there are any discrepancies from the GameCube or Xbox version, I’m sorry.

Another note: I’m highly unorganized. Just a forewarning. Now onto the review itself.


Story:
You are… Who are you? Where are you? You are a man in a hospital ward, with a sickly figure. Why? The story in this game raises many questions, and when the answers hit, they hit hard. The story is highly original, and the ending, while somewhat expected, is just phenomenal. These men knew what they were entering when they developed this, and they delivered.
10/10


Gameplay:
The controls are extremely confusing at first, and remain so for I’d say an hour or so. But once everything’s in place, it’s good to go. I’ve discovered no glitches through my flythrough. The A.I., though, can be total ass at times. For the general part, they act solidly, but there were a few… “ugh” moments. The game is only single player, unfortunately. Co-op, for the most part, would have been possible, and deathmatches, capture the flags, etc, would’ve been easily manageable. I can only hope if a sequel is made, multiplayer is included.

Entailing the single player: 1 word: Atmosphere. Second Sight is incredible at this. Yes, I said the controls were iffy in the first sentence, but even with that obstacle, the game is amazing in creating the atmosphere. The game has a significantly slower pace than the TimeSplitters series, but even so, the gunfights are guaranteed to get adrenaline rushing. The game just has a slow-paced-epic feel to it. Each level is highly fun, albeit lacking some originality. The puzzles can be infuriating, until you figure out what to do. Then you just have to smack your head for not figuring it sooner.

Controls: As I’ve said before, the controls get to you until you figure them out. But here’s the basic breakdown of what the game allows you to do:

Movement:
Left Analogue Stick - Move in 3rd person/lean in 1st person
L3(left click) - Alternate 1st/3rd person
Triangle - Alternate locked/free camera angle
Right Analogue Stick - Look around in 1st/move free cam in 3rd person view
Square - Crouch/Stand
Start - Pause game

Weapons/Powers
Up/Down on D-Pad - Select weapon
Left/Right on D-Pad - Select power
L2 - Lock onto target
L2 + Right Analogue - change target
R2 - Fire weapon/use power
Right Analogue - Manual/Refine aiming
Right Analogue - Telekinetic movement
R3 (right click) - Use/Hide weapon
Circle: Punch(unarmed) or pistol whip/club with weapon

Context Sensitive:
X - Interact w/ environment or special moves
R1 - Special moves(peek through doors, press against walls, etc)

Sorry for taking so much space just for that. But at the end of the day, the gameplay stands strong, despite a few flaws here and there.
8/10


Graphics:
Oh dear, definitely a low point of the game. The game has the cartoony style of the TS series, which may or may not work out for you, depending on your tastes. I thought it worked well, although more “serious” models would’ve been appreciated. The colors are vibrant when needed, and dull/dank/depressing when needed, no problems here. But dear lord, JAGGIES! THOUSANDS OF THEM! While higher res than a PS1 game for sure, the jaggies cut my eyes. If you can withstand that, then kudos to you. But hopefully they won’t be too hard for you, and can enjoy the rest of the game.
6/10


Music/Sound:
Free Radical definitely know their shit when making music, and this is definitely no exception. The music is FANTASTIC in every category. Unfortunately, the music is a lot less upbeat than past works, but music like that… isn’t really needed. 10/10 no question.

The sounds for the most part, do their job extremely well. However, when in first person mode, the reloading sounds compared to the graphics were a bit contrasted. I’m not sure if this would be a graphics issue, sound issue, or glitch, but oh well, the problem still stands. It may just be my copy, it may be fixed in other versions, I don’t know. It wasn’t much a problem, and didn’t affect anything other than my perception of the game, but it is still there. 8/10

Average: 9/10


Replay Value:
On the first play through, you may want to play some missions over. However, after a while, the game’s value drops at an extreme slope. With just the single player, no co-op, no multiplayer, nothing, this score is damaged heftily. However, going a month or so without playing the game, and replaying it, almost recreates a feeling of playing it for the first time again after forgetting everything.
6/10

Overall(Rent or Buy):
Overall, the game gets an average of 7.8, despite how good the first time playing is. If you want to buy it, more power to you. However, I’d suggest renting, or buying used(as if it isn’t cheap enough already, being 3 years old), because after that play through, you may not want to play it again.

[F8soldier]

Good review, TCN. You describe the game perfectly when you say it has "Atmosphere", which is what essentially drawed me to this game.