Second Sight | DJcube

What happened to John Vattic?

EU release: 3rd September 2004
NA release: 21st September 2004
JP release: N/A
Developer: Free Radical Design
Publisher: Codemasters
NGC Magazine Score: 90%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

After the huge success of TimeSplitters 2, Free Radical Design tried their hand at making a more narrative-focused game. It tells the story of John Vattic, who wakes up in a strange lab with amnesia (don’t worry, it actually works in this story) and psychic powers. As he learns about himself, it brings up memories from six months earlier, where he gets recruited for a dangerous mission because a mystic said he was needed. After these flashbacks, it seems some details have changed it.

Second Sight does try to do a bit too much at once – it’s a narrative game, with stealth, and psychic powers, and cover-based shooting, and some mild puzzle solving. Even the camera itself tries to do multiple things. It starts off with a fixed perspective camera, but you can turn it into a regular camera (I would have liked to be a bit closer to John) or a first person camera for precise aiming (you can’t move). Really, you’ll be using the regular camera 99.9% of the time. One really neat thing the game does with the camera is the sniper rifle. In third person mode, you get a picture-in-picture view of the zoomed in view and in first person, the zoomed-in image is on the rifle’s scope. It’s a great way to handle sniping.

That said, while it doesn’t excel in any particular area, it’s still a wonderful all-round experience. The shooting is lock-on based but still requires fine tuning if you want to pull off headshots, so slightly more involved than normal. The levels in the past are more straight shooters while the current day events lend themselves to stealth and investigation, so it helps with mixing things up throughout the game. The psychic powers also give you plenty of freedom in combat.

Telekinesis is the first one you get, which then gets upgraded to let you force choke and throw enemies around. Another great one is astral projection, which lets you activate objects or even possess enemies. You can also regenerate health, make yourself invisible and more. The powers are a ton of fun to mess around with and it’s great to come up with your own way to tackle a situation. While you can be stealthy, you can also just blast your way though – you just have to deal with a lot of reinforcements.

The game is also full of nice little touches. When you access a computer, for example, you have to browse the simple operating system to access cameras, unlock doors and find information – one early one requires you finding a file in the recycle bin, for example. It’s a simple thing that helps make the world feel more real and is another thing I’d love to see used by more games.

Great

The music is delicately composed and really enhances the mood of the locations. The levels are tightly designed, offering plenty of score for replay, while its distinctive style and original touches make it one of the most memorable games we’ve played In ears.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #97

Remake or remaster?

A remaster would be great. The more cartoony TimeSplitters style cleans up nicely with a resolution bump.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Second Sight.