Reviewed: May 2, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Whiptail Interactive

Developer
NuClear Vision

Released: March 21, 2005
Genre: FPS
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature

5
6
6
6
5.7

System Requirements

The year is 2022, the place is New York City and as Angie's role as savior unfolds so too does her understanding of why she is the only one that stands in the way of the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse and the destruction of civilization. Throughout the game, Angie continues to discover a series of unique abilities, such as invisibility, the slowing of time and the infiltration of other's dreams, all of which aid her progress.

Sounds great, huh? And I suppose at its core there is a decent game hidden beneath all the tried and true clichés that pepper this 29-level shooter with a story. But at the end of the day when my brain is cooling down from psycho power overload and I’m cleaning my backpack full of weapons, I can’t help but feel that I have done all of this before.

Therein lies my biggest complaint with Psychotoxic. There just isn’t anything here I haven’t done before. It’s basically a rehashing of old game designs mixed together with a decent story, and presented with a untried and frankly unimpressive graphics engine. I just came away from the whole experience feeling rather blasé about the whole thing.

Left in control of Angela, you’ll quickly settle into a standard first-person game experience. You run and jump and shoot a variety of weapons. Important items are lit with a neon-like blue glow while other pick-ups like ammo clips and such are integrated right into the detailed backgrounds. Thankfully, they are hinted at with a sparkly flare that will prompt closer investigation.

Other standard fare includes the health and mental powers indicated on the HUD with the orange and blue meters. Health is restored through the use of med kits. Your mental powers use the blue meter and can be sustained for as long as you have energy. This includes probing the minds of certain people and exploring their dream worlds.

There are eight such dream worlds in the game and these represent some of the most original aspects of level design and gameplay in the entire game, but again, when this game is sitting on the shelf right next to Psychonauts the dream world concept loses a few points of originality.

Weapons range from the standard arsenal of firearms to the downright freaky designs of the weapons in the dream worlds including an insect-powered sniper rifle with insect-vision scope and even a weapon that is triggered by smell. The enemies have their own set of bizarre attacks that range from sick and twisted to mildly amusing.

The enemy A.I. isn’t especially smart but they do have a supernatural ability to detect and attack with ferocious speed and accuracy. This prohibits you from ever developing any tactics or strategy during most of the combat. Just find a good place to take cover and unload as the enemy comes at you. Enemy pathfinding can be a bit wonky so you can often get some free shots when they get hung up on the environment. Plus, there is no location-sensitive damage, so a shot in the hand or foot is just as good as a headshot.

To conclude this section, the game features a few noteworthy bugs that will randomly crash the game to your desktop. I’ve had a few of my save games become corrupted as well. The physics engine is off, especially in movement physics that will have you moving more than you should – a real pain in the jumping puzzles. And finally, you have some gameplay that requires stealth tactics but you are not given any stealth awareness input, so it’s all pretty much random luck.

Character design is pretty good, especially the model for Angie, but since the game is first-person we only see her during the movies. Enemy and supporting cast character models are good but their animation can be a bit stiff at times. There just aren’t enough animated frames to support smooth movement. Some characters even stutter or glide when they move.

Level design is again, above average, with some truly remarkable designs in the dream worlds making me wish this entire game had taken place in somebody’s mind. There were a few clipping problems and even some vanishing textures and the framerate dipped at times, although we were pushing the game at 1600x1200 on our super game rig. There is ample use of advanced shaders and lighting effects to give the game a bit of polish on an otherwise simplistic architecture.

During the game the voices devolve into a string of catchphrases that would make Bruce Willis grimace. Given the frequency of the one-liners I would have enjoyed a bit more variety. I can recall several phrases repeating upwards of five or six times in a row.

The designers focused on the story and the single-player experience to the exclusion of any multiplayer content, so when the game is over it truly is over.

I think we can classify Psychotoxic as a learning experience. You really have to have at least one original idea and a solid bug-free engine if you hope to compete in today’s market. While I did enjoy a few very minor aspects of the story and the presentation, when I actually had to play the game it just didn’t work out like I had hoped.