Not only is it necessary to stack boxes to reach higher places, float on crates and grates like Magneto, mind control enemies to flick switches, and sometimes separate mind from body to scope out the next area, it's also damn fun to just throw people around and sadistically soak in the ruthless results only this exact liberal combination of telekinesis and pyrokinesis can offer. Thankfully, this emphasis on using the game's psychic selling point to overcome bosses carries over to mid-mission play as well. Since he's impervious to small arms fire, you'll have to throw little boxes and crates at him. The bullet-proof Michael Clark Duncan uses telekinetic powers Darth Vader would be envious of to throw a bunch of garbage around a room until he bores and focuses on hulking train cars and gas tankers. The only way to survive his assault is to toss these enemies about with your mind. In combat, Jov appropriately "urges" enemy soldiers to attack Nick and "insists" some of them eventually explode on contact. Give Me Your Brain Throughout the game, each villain will eventually double as a boss fight of sorts, and add a bit of spice to the occasional non-interactive cutscene. It's an eccentric cast of unnecessarily power-hungry lunatics, but their appeal is not because of their absurd character, but rather because of their absurd abilities. He's so Kingpin in design we can't help but chuckle, especially when he stumbles between Jov, the telepath that commands legions of men with his mind, and The General, who has seen it fit to tyrannically lead The Movement but also to appoint himself a variety of superfluous accommodations he probably created just to make his jacket look cooler. We're especially fond of the nefarious Michael Clark Duncan clone - former pizza devouring trainer of Nick who now spends his off hours playing with gasoline trucks and the massive crates of every shooter's obligatory warehouse levels. These twists are of the typically predictable videogame variety, but the acting isn't half bad and the characters are laughably evil/seductive. Of course, there are a few twists along the way. The plan is for him to be captured by The Movement, which he'll then infiltrate after his memories are restored by another operative. In order to crush The Movement, an army of brainwashed meat puppets controlled telepathically by ex-Mindgate personnel, Nick is memory-wiped and dropped into a hopeless battle. Trained by the Government's Mindgate department, Nick is a telekinetic telepath who can also disembody himself and float through doors. Nick's a normal guy, only he can kill you with his brain. But in this case, the benefits of a lethal cerebellum far outweigh the negatives of being a brightly burning flame that's perhaps a bit too ambitious. Psi-Ops still suffers from baffling design decisions and is an ultimately short-lived experience.
Unfortunately, boasting the most well-developed psychic brain in action (a brain that's even better than those of the super-powered Jedi in games of a similar nature) doesn't imply perfection within the genre. It's a game that necessitates the use of its initially gimmicky psionic slant, but also provides gamers the option to approach situations with a little more finesse than its mundane competitors would.
Which is a shame to say the least, because there really hasn't been anything else like it since.With Psi-Ops, Midway has managed to create a well-rounded third-person shooter with an optional stealth component. The Mindgate Conspiracy was released to generally favorable reviews, but despite that it's been largely forgotten over time.
And when you've got everything from mind control to astral projection to play with, you can imagine the kind of stuff Midway cooked up. With the implementation of Nick's various powers and abilities making up the bulk of the action, Psi Ops deftly sidestepped the monotony of traditional shooter-based conventions, instead opting to apply Nick's powers in a variety of intense, one-of-a-kind combat sequences and puzzle segments. Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy Boasting some impressive ragdoll physics (for it's time anyway), and an awesome hook in the form of "PSI Powers" - abilities which allow you to do everything from levitating enemies and objects, to setting dudes on fire - Psi Ops places you in the role of Nick Scryer, an amnesiac who is forced to infiltrate and destroy a terrorist organization.