Remembering the old. PSI-OPS: The Mindgate Conspiracy

Hello, dear friend. Do you know what parapsychology is? This is a pack of various pseudoscientific disciplines aimed at studying all supernatural mental abilities in people and not only. Once upon a time, serious scientists were engaged in the study of this topic, and now it is actively operated to create a variety of entertaining content. And now one studio decided to take the topic of superpowers, insist it on the equally fertile topic of the Cold War and add a pinch of enslavement of the world. And about what they did and talk today, so get comfortable, and I will tell you about PSI-OPS.

Let’s start by tradition with the game about the game:

In 2004 studio Midway Games, that I created such games as Area 51 and a whole stack of games from the series Mortal Kombat, I rolled out my shooter with a third-person view of American stores, seasoned with all sorts of super-resistances called PSI-OPS: The Mindgate Conspiracy.

It is worth noting that 2004 was very generous on a variety of shooters: Far Cry, Painkiller, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Doom 3, Killzone, Half-Life 2, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. And despite the such high competition, PSI-OPS was accepted very warmly and was able to get both good reviews of critics and love gamers.

And apparently the financial success of the game was so great that in 2007, as a thunder among a clear sky, a lawsuit against Midway Games thundered. A writer named William L filed a court for an eminent publisher. Kroford III, As far as I understood, he worked as a screenwriter in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series and the 1991 psychopath film. The claim was significant: the evil publisher was accused of theft of the script, characters and their abilities. It turned out that this writer wrote a script with the same plot about government agents with psi-capacity in 1998 and called it “PSI-OPS”. Someone too many coincidences. In addition, William claimed that he was trying to repeatedly sell his script, and even discussed it with Midway. William estimated his damage at one and a half million evergreen dollars and many were sure that he would receive them, but in 2008 the California District Court made a decision in favor of the game studio, so Midway continued to spread dollars with a thick layer. Although not long – in 2009 the studio went bankrupt.

Apparently, for the joy of victory in court, everything in the same 2008 Midway Games begins to spread PSI-OPS for free: anyone could be free without registration and SMS download and completely go through the game. However, the game was attended by advertising, and to turn it off, it was necessary to throw money in the monitor.

Initially, PSI-OPS was developed for PS2 and Xbox already surviving their age, and then ported to PC. This fact was extremely negatively affected by the visual of the game: the graphics are frankly weak, the models are angular, the animation is twitching, and management on the boyar platform sometimes throws surprises. Although the curvature of animation, as well as problems with management, can be due to a poor -quality port.
But in contrast to the clumsy visual part – the game has a very high -quality sound series, which competently and harmoniously complements what is happening on the screen. In addition, the American rock band Cold had a hand in the creation of the soundtrack, which recorded 4 tracks for the game, performed with them at the E3 exhibition, and later released a clip for one of the songs.

This project visited Russian gamers only in December 2005 entitled “PSI-OPS: Gates of the Mind”, the Loca Loca Localizer and the publisher acted. The localization turned out to be successful: there are a lot of voices, they sound decent and there are no critical jambs. There is of course an abnormality and excessive pathos, but this fits into the general atmosphere of the game.

Let’s move on to the essence:

The plot of the game is at least not masterpiece and strongly gives categories B militants, but it’s nice to follow it. The canons of the genre are unequivocally observed: a cool and pathos hero with his girlfriend against a cool and pathos villain. Betrayal and predictable “unexpected turns” and all this is flavored with canonical evil laughs.

The plot itself begins during the Cold War: two superpower used all the means for superiority over the enemy, therefore, at a certain moment, the United States and the USSR launched projects to study people with superpowers and the use of these citizens for military purposes.
In general, there are rumors that such studies were really and in an interview, the developers claimed that they collected information about these studies and almost communicated with people involved in them.
As this program was called in the country of Serpov and Molotov, and in the United States this project was named Mindgate (gates of reason). General William Craiger led this whole undertaking. This character did not possess his abilities, but thanks to the ideal track record, he was put at the head of the project. As a result, a detachment of soldiers with a variety of superpilies was created. This elite detachment of military psychics enters the protagonist of the game – Nick Kruer.

By the end of the Cold War, the financing stopped and the project of the “Gate of the Reason” closed. The general did not arrange a comrade of the general and he created an organization entitled “Movement”, where he was able to attract devoted people from the “Gates of the Reason”, and later recruited powerful psionics from around the world. The mission of the organization is, Who would have thought, Establishing power over the world of a certain circle of psi elite.

Nick refused to take part in this adventure and he was erased by the memory of all the events of the project “Gate of the mind”. Now he has become simple, but very cool, sergeant, and the general and his organization began his way to world domination.

After some time, an entire https://deluxewincasino.co.uk/games/ army of “movements” attacks various industrial and military facilities, capturing all in a row. And how difficult it is to guess Nick Skroyer on the basis of the organization as a captive. From this moment the game begins.

She really starts with the not the best part: the first time the game is trying to portray stealth and makes the player hide, steal and quietly shoot a soldier. And doing it is absolutely not interesting.
To begin with, Stals does not cause positive emotions: the developers of course endowed enemies with vision and hearing, but they do not work very well. As a result, the enemy now does not see Nick, then notices the hero crawling in the shade at a great distance.

With shooting, everything is also not very good: as a result of a non -quality port of the game on a PC, we have shooting with a certain likeness of the auto -spell, which is extremely not convenient.
To everything else, the nickname dragged only two weapons on itself, one of them is a gun, and its usefulness is actually no. In general, any weapon has an effective range ends with 10 meters, and then wild spread and slaughter force like a foam. In a sniper rifle, the indicators are undoubtedly better, but when the enemy is at the baptism of the optical sight, the impression is that the nickname from the hangover and the rifle cannot hold exactly. We add to this twitching mouse control and murder from a sniper rifle begins to represent Challenge.

There, on this base, we meet a warhead of the hero since the project of the “Gate of the Reason” – Sarah, which Nick does not recognize due to amnesia. The girl turns out to be an agent of the government that she wants to ruin the entire organization from the inside and wants to help Nick be saved. And in confirmation of her good intentions, she releases the hero from the camera and work hard to him with a drug that will gradually return the memory and, accordingly, all superclines. Of course, it will not immediately return – the memories are smeared according to the game timeline in an even layer, and each ability pops up in memory at the time required for the game.

The first superpower that Nick remembered is telekinesis. And with his appearance the game is transformed and completely changes the pace. The developers prescribed physical properties to all objects for locations, and the Havok 2 engine.0 shows what he is capable of and works out these properties in full. The hero, like a real Jedi, sends boxes and exploding barrels into flight, sticks the soldier into the walls, simultaneously pulling cartridges and first -aid kits to him. All this looks and feels extremely cool: the carcasses of soldiers have not only a simple ragdall, they still try to kick, but some and to shoot back while the hero lifts them into the air with the power of thought. The boxes break, the glasses break, the barrels explode, and a huge marble ball running into the corridor spreads the soldier who met in the path. The firearm will fade into the background for a long time, because why enter into shootouts, suffering from a curve for the sale of weapons, losing extremely modest ammunition and health, when you can take and paste out a fel with a nightstand on the head? With the original enemies, this action greatly resembles the beating of puppies.

There is no need for stealth – enemies do not have time to inflict serious damage before Nick, before they start flying by location.

At first, it will not work out with telekinesis at first: the hero has energy that is consumed on the use of abilities and it ends quite quickly, and containers with local manna do not come across often. But after some time we are given a new ability: devastation of the mind. With the help of this ability, we simply suck out the energy so necessary for us from enemy soldiers, simultaneously exploding the poor fellow head. But for the best efficiency, you need to process a living enemy, because such a “battery” will give out more energy than dead, and if lead in her head is in her head, you will have to look for a new victim. No brain – no drin.

The list of abilities is not limited to telekinesis and devastation of the mind, there are 6 of them:

Remote vision allows you to leave the physical body and walk around the location in the form of an incorporeal spirit. In this form, no one notices the hero, and he can pass through the door. But there is often no reason to use this ability. There are several plot points when you need to penetrate the closed room and spy the door opening code, but otherwise the ability is useless, at least at the normal level of complexity.

Control over the mind – Nick takes control of an enemy soldier, while the body of Nick remains defenseless. The ability is very useful and is used often: you can capture a soldier and kill a couple of associates, and then sleep. It is also used in plot points, for example, when you need to press 2 buttons in different ends of the corridor, and time only 5 seconds.

Pyrokinesis – the hero throws in front of him something like a fiery wave. A very useful tool for exterminatus enemy. In addition, the game has a chip with the burning of objects: if you set fire to one box, then after a short period of time the closest to it will light up, and if there is an explosive barrel or a cylinder nearby, then it will undoubtedly tear.

View Aura is the last ability that Nick receives. This ability sends the hero to drugrip makes it possible to see outside human capabilities: Nick will be able to see hidden passages, secrets inaccessible to the human view, aura of people and will be able to detect invisible enemies.

Despite the convenience and deadly of telekinesis, you will have to use all the abilities, and in the second half of the game even pick up the firearm, because the enemies are at least not diverse, but numerous.

Most of the game will be opposed by ordinary soldiers. These are the people who were captured by the organization who washed the brains. Under the influence of hypnosis, these guys without unnecessary questions fulfill the order of the leadership, not paying attention to fatigue, pain or lack of limbs. Such puppets in the game 3 types:

The first is the simplest and most numerous caste of soldiers who simply formed the brain, modest weapons and armor compensate for the numerical superiority. Mostly used machine guns and shotgun.

The second are more serious opponents who not only cleaned the brain, but also conducted some suggestion. As a result, these are more cunning and smart opponents who are able to shoot at Nick, even dangling in the air under the influence of telekinesis. They are more serious than the first type: in addition to PP and shotguns, they own machine guns and grenade launchers. In fact, the same stupid blanks, just a little smarter and thicker.

The third is the most dangerous. These guys re -flashing these guys specifically, as a result, super -soldiers, with serious skills, were obtained. Armed mainly by machine guns and shotgun, but guys with grenade launchers and flamethrower come across. They are dressed in strong and sealed armor. Always on guard and in the battle mode are not subject to the action of telekinesis or control of the mind, as well as their armor can neutralize one charge of pyrokinesis, And the second is no longer hehe.

Closer to the end of the game, a new enemy will appear: Aura creatures. These are energy monsters, called into our world from another dimension by one of the psionics of “movement”. At rest, they are invisible to the human eye and just swim around the location, howling densely, but it is worth coming closer and they are materialized with piercing screaming and rushing at the hero, like a hipster at an iPhone. They always attack near either an extremely powerful blow, or cover the hero and gnaw the whole brain in one motion, just like your former. Dying quickly-a pair of bullets from any weapon is enough, but the situation exacerbates the fact that they are extremely fast, and their scream attracts 5-6 of the same creatures.

Animate enemies include laboratory assistants and technicians. The laboratory assistant is harmful in that it can turn on the alarm, and the technician is trying with all his might to draw with a wrench, but both are weak and particularly dangerous.

There are still a couple of harmful pieces – automatic turrets and power mines. Turrets, although they are able to cause significant harm, but die quickly and are extremely rare. Mines are also found only a couple of times per game, but their nerves can be patted. To begin with, they are invisible in normal mode – you need to use the “vision of the aura”. In addition, they hang in the air, and in large groups. They do not respond to any inorganic objects, but when contacting a person, even dead – the latter immediately tears into a bloody fog. Moreover, the chitbox of this thing is crooked and can be destroyed even if it just went too close to this thing.

This small list of enemies is diluted by bosses, of which there are not few here, and the battles with them are coated with pathos a little more than completely.

What is the blind Mongol named Job Leonov that, with his consciousness, subjugated the whole army with his will and cleverly controls it?

Or master of telekinesis – Edgar Barrett. A huge black man in a raspberry jacket with an exorbitant ego, hatred of people and problems with anger management, which will be the power of thought to throw cars, tanks and containers at the hero.

And how about the former hired killer in the service of the Chinese government? The masters of illusions, by the name of Vai Lou, are really masters – her abilities are so strong that she easily hides two giant skyscrapers in the center of the metropolis. This cute lady will first make the hero run on the labyrinths of hallucinations, faced with the ghosts of the soldiers who were killed by him, and then turn into a three -headed creature, spitting poison.

And I will not notice this yet. The bosses here are diverse, incredibly cool and charismatic, besides, each needs their own tactics and you need to adhere to it. The only one who disappointed is the main villainous villain – General Craiger, for the battle with him is very boring.

And it may seem that to fight with such a slight variety of adversaries, albeit with a sufficient number of bosses, can quickly get bored, but there is one detail here. The fact is that the duration of the game is three hours. Even with my curvature, frequent deaths and replaying large pieces of level because I forgot to survive – four hours. Therefore, when the end comes, not only does the gameplay do not have time to shore, it is not enough. Of course, the game has bonus levels, an arcade regime and everything else, but this is not so interesting. On the other hand, the developers may have made the right decision that they did not stretch the gameplay and sticking the towers, because with such a short duration the game would definitely not have time to get tired. In addition, the game has open ending and to be continued.

It is worth saying that in 2010, PSI-OPS was noted in the book “1001 Video Guide to which you should play before you die”. She also fell into such lists as “123 games with unused franchise potential” and “25 games in need of continuation”, because despite the good grades and financial success of the sequel, and did not appear.

As a result, there is a very suitable joker on the evening, which is nice to play and now, it’s a pity the truth is that with the continuation it has not grown together.
And on this I have everything to the imminent exciting.