This Week In Retro: Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (Patreon)

June 14, 2004: I'll show you the life of the mind!

by Diamond Feit

Amongst the pantheon of traditional superpowers, I've long held extra-sensory perception in the highest regard. Each and every day I imagine what life would be like if I had access to telepathy, telekinesis, mind control, etc. Don't get me wrong, I can see the appeal of super strength and shooting laser beams from my eyes, but I continue to hold out hope that sometime in the future I might finally find a direct link between my brain and the outside world.

I find mental abilities so fascinating because they strike me as one of the few science-fiction concepts that remain plausible yet beyond our reach. There's no way human beings will ever come up with a method of flying without a vehicle or running faster than the speed of light, but given how little we understand about the minute details of our brains' functionality, I just think there's a chance we'll eventually figure out how to discover genuine psychic skills.

In the world of video games, where anything is possible, I find few characters take full advantage of their gray matter to solve problems, instead relying on firepower, high technology, or magic to battle the forces of evil. When a game does include mind reading or other mental manipulation, they typically appear in cutscenes as a means of exposition or to set up a sequence where the protagonist has to fight his friends under the control of an malevolent force.

This relative scarcity of games about big-brained action makes the few psychic-heavy releases stand out to me, hence my interest in an otherwise unremarkable military shooter released this week in 2004. Though it still stars a boilerplate army guy with no hair but plenty of guns, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy also lets players engage enemies with a full array of mentalist means.

In its opening cinematic, Psi-Ops introduces a number of people and elements to the player in a hurry. We see Nick Scryer, our leading man, undergo a memory wipe at Mindgate Headquarters as two gentlemen discuss the urgency of his mission. They praise Nick's psychic prowess but also insist that he must become a blank slate in order to successfully infiltrate a fascist organization called The Movement.

Cut to a remote oil refinery where two sides fight each other in a massive clash complete with aircraft, heavy weapons, and hundreds of men charging at one another on the ground. Thanks to their enigmatic leaders taking direct control over their troops, uniting and guiding them into a relentless wave, The Movement quickly overtakes the opposition. The Movement captures all survivors, including Nick, in order to replenish their own army with these prisoners. Nick ends up in solitary confinement after resisting but his stunt gets the attention of Sara, another undercover Mindgate agent inside The Movement. She frees Nick from his cell and gives him a handgun before scampering away, leaving the rest in the player's hands as the game begins.

These initial minutes of Psi-Ops resemble a dozen other stealth action games, since Nick uses a silenced pistol to sneak his way out of prison. Things take a turn once he and Sara rendezvous and she tries to bring him up to speed. From his standpoint, she's a complete stranger, but Sara claims the two of them are elite commandos trained to take down The Movement from within. She also attempts to reawaken his dormant ESP abilities with a surprise injection, although Nick has no idea what she's even saying, let alone if he can trust her.

As players guide Nick towards his alleged goal, he will periodically remember his psychic training sessions at Mindgate. Each time he flashes back to the past, he unlocks a new power and gives the player a safe environment to learn how it works. Nick's first memory restores his Telekinesis, enabling him to lift anything not bolted to the ground and fling it aside. This includes other people, giving him an immediate tactical advantage in making his escape; you can't take cover behind a crate if you're facing a psychic capable of picking up said crate remotely and smashing it on your head.

The further Nick progresses, the more Mindgate lessons he recalls. Remote Viewing lets him peer through doors and spy on enemy movement. Mind Drain sucks energy out of other brains to refuel Nick's own Psi meter. Pyrokinesis creates a burning wave of flames that can spread across any flammable surface, human or otherwise. Mind Control allows Nick to direct the lesser-willed to do his bidding, such as unlocking doors or engaging in friendly-fire. Lastly, Aura View gives Nick visions of objects and creatures hidden from ordinary people, a crucial skill for following footsteps or finding weakened walls.

Each subsequent power Nick rediscovers holds value, but some prove more essential than others. Aside from one specific snooping circumstance to investigate a hidden passcode, I found Remote Viewing offered Nick little help. Alternatively, the one-two combination of Telekinesis and Mind Drain remained useful throughout the game; knocking guys to the ground so I could refill my meter never got old.

The flexibility and versatility of these powers makes Psi-Ops a lot of fun to play, but it also undercuts other elements that offer less entertainment value. The developers at Midway clearly put a lot of effort into the game's stealth mechanics, yet the second Nick regains his telekinetic skills there's little reason to fear attracting attention. If anything, the opposite is true: Triggering an alarm means more guys arrive for Nick to grab and toss around like rag dolls. Likewise, no amount of firepower can match the sheer amusement potential of Nick's mental mastery, making all the guns in Psi-Ops underwhelming.

I also felt Psi-Ops disappoints in the narrative and storytelling departments. The player starts the game aware that Nick Scryer has a past which Mindgate knowingly erased, yet this never pays off later beyond a single level suggesting Nick may have committed war crimes. Whenever a Movement member implies that Mindgate might have deceived Nick or that he is acting out of ignorance, he brushes them off without consequence. A late-game conversation between Nick and his ex-partner Edgar almost feels like a Magneto vs Professor X moment, as Edgar condemns Mindgate for taking advantage of their Psi-talents, but Nick just disagrees on principle and that settles the matter.

Really, it's hard to abide Nick Scryer as a protagonist, as he couldn't hold any less appeal to me. Like his impossibly gruff name suggests, Nick grunts and scowls his way through his mission, never showing a hint of personality. Only the weirdos in charge of The Movement get to have any charm, appeal, or even basic fashion sense, while Nick and Sara spend the entire game in pseudo-military garb defending the status quo. I don't sympathize with The Movement or its overtly fascist tactics, but Psi-Ops does little to convince me that Mindgate or its field agents stand on the side of justice.

I failed to look past the superficial failings of Psi-Ops 20 years ago and never thought to play it for myself, an oversight I sought to correct in preparation for this column. Despite all my misgivings listed above, I felt Psi-Ops made good on its promise of a game built around psychic powers, as I consistently found new tricks to try with Nick's cerebral craftiness. I'd also argue that Psi-Ops deserves more credit for its physics-based Telekinesis system, one that arrived before Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun or BioShock's Telekinesis plasmid.

Unfortunately, Psi-Ops didn't get much credit or attention at retail when it arrived in a very busy year for video games. Director Brian Eddy told Cinelinx.com that "the group in charge of Midway, at the time, determined it did not sell well enough to warrant a sequel." A 2007 lawsuit claiming Midway stole the ideas behind Psi-Ops from a screenplay of the same name did the game no favors; a judge found no copyright infringement but the company didn't have much time to celebrate. Facing bankruptcy, Midway sold most of its assets—including Psi-Ops—to Warner Bros in 2009. Given how many headlines WB makes for not releasing already-completed projects, I wouldn't hold out any hope for a Psi-Ops 2.

The silver lining on this brain cloud is that no one needs Warner Bros' permission to make an all-new video game about psychics. We'll never see a resolution for Psi-Ops' cliffhanger ending, but I don't think anyone loses sleep about that these days aside from Brian Eddy—and even he left video game design for pinball years ago. Having said that, it occurs to me that a pinball game featuring psychic powers might be the best combination of concepts I've ever accidentally stumbled upon, and if I concentrate hard enough Brian just might hear me and we can set up a meeting.

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.