Have you ever been on an acid trip? No? Well, my friends, I’d like to welcome you to the world of Psychotoxic: an acid trip of a PC game. Psychotoxic puts you in the shoes of Angela Prophet, an attractive female who was randomly selected by the FBI to save the world. Angela also reminds me of a cat; don’t ask why. In a nutshell, the Apocalypse has hit earth and all the continents of the world are in furious battle with each other. Angela discovers a Satanist named Aaron Crowley (who tries to mimic the deeds of an ancient Alisteir Crowley) who is trying to protect the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, who happens to be the exact person our Angie needs to defeat in order to save mankind. Bummer, eh? Well, this of course gives the game a storyline and that means you have to play through it in order to see the "spectacularity" (exaggeration) of it unfold. Psychotoxic is really quite the stoner’s paradise. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Dream World VS Real World
A major feature of Psychotoxic is that it puts you in two different environments; dream worlds, and the real world. Every time you complete a level, you usually alternate in between one and the other. Dream levels are what seem to make the story unravel. While in the real world, you’ll usually come to some sort of stop sign in the game, which is when the dream sessions take over. Whenever you have to come in contact with a certain person, they always seem to be out cold when you find them. So, Angie uses her "mysterious" powers (more on that later) to actually warp herself into the thoughts of whoever she’s out for. You are immediately warped into that person’s dream - this is where it gets scary. I wouldn’t classify Psychotoxic as a horror game if it weren’t for the dream worlds. In the real world, all you basically do is gun-down cops and the nameless thug here and there. However, in the dream worlds, you’ll encounter a myriad of demonic characters, ranging from a ghost that looks like a white bed sheet and cows with gun-utters, to sick blood-thirsty zombies and insane psychotic killers. The dream worlds also seem to represent the mini-game portion of Psychotoxic. In one level, you must scavenge throughout a medieval town destroying a number of clocks to stop time in order to save your friend Lindstrom from having his head run through by a guillotine.
The dream worlds have a number of trippy effects to them. In a level, occasionally you’ll have an effect that seems to make you dizzy as a merry-go-round, and changes of colors in the environment are also common. Dream worlds vary from satanic cathedrals (oxymoron intended) to abandoned hotels covered in blood, to a cartoonish world a la XIII. This adds a little variety to the game, and a few scares as well. I’ll admit, it was getting damn scary to me in the Happy Hour dream
"Psychotoxic is really quite the stoner’s paradise. "
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level, where a crazy serial killer with a sickle keeps chasing after you, even after you empty an endless amount of clips into him. He chases you all throughout the level, and you can imagine how scary it might get.
How Could This Be Interesting?
If you find the world coming to an end is your idea of a great story, then good for you. Personally, I didn’t find the story likeable at all. I’ll admit this - it had great potential. The developers definitely could have stepped it up a bit with some seriousness and actual thinking in between levels. It seems like the game was put together in a mere month just because the story is so ridiculously boring. After some major event happens and you should be going out and trying to find clues, Angie decides she wants to find out who she really is. While the world is calling out for help, she visits her Aunt Julie and a priest named Father Maloy to try and figure out what the big deal is about herself. Why jump out of the story when it begins to get good? Beats me, but it really did turn me away from the story.
The sheer unrealisticness to Psychotoxic is what kills me. New York is supposed to be in a state of emergency, and Angie is taking cabs into strip clubs. What happened to the state of emergency? And if Angie is trying to save mankind, why is it that in every other level, the only enemies she seems to be killing are police officers and SWAT team members? Sure, you’ll encounter the rare afro-thug, but what happened to Aaron Crowley and the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?
Nuclearvision Entertainment seems to love to send their fans on wild goose-chases. This is another example of what made the game so unbelievably boring to me. Angie ventures to Central Park in New York to rendevous with Professor Lindstrom at the Central Park Zoo. The place is flooded with cops - aren’t cops our friends? When you make your way across the park to the Zoo, Lindstrom decides that there were too many "shady characters" (police officers) around, so he says he’ll meet Angie at a statue instead. After venturing to the statue, Lindstrom leaves another note saying he’ll meet her at the Museum instead; and so on. Who likes doing that? It made me feel damn stupid trekking around the park like a moron killing cops. How is this good for mankind, anyway?
Don’t Talk Like an Idiot
Psychotoxic came armed with the most ridiculous dialogue I’ve ever heard in my life. Following the opening intro, you’ll have your first chat with your personal hacker, Max. After becoming acquainted, you’ll learn that Max seems to have a problem putting his words together (he doesn’t, it just sounds like he does). Seriously, though, this game sounds so unbelievably cheesy that you’ll want to put it down within the first five minutes of playing it. Here’s an example of the ridiculous dialogue:
Angie: I wonder who I’m working for, anyway?
Max: Hmm... I don’t know, Angie. Who are you working for?
Angie: Hmm. I don’t know...but who are you working for, Max?
Max: Only for you, Angie!
You really have to hear it in order to see what I mean. Nuclearvision didn’t press the spell-check button, either. There’s a good number of spelling errors throughout the whole game. The voices are mostly suitable for their characters, which is a plus, but the dialogue just makes me want to puke, straight-up.
Graphics to Die For?
Psychotoxic actually has some decent graphics. Of course, that’s not paying attention to the huge amount of visual errors you’ll experience. When I first booted up the game, I went to the video settings to modify my graphics settings as I always do and changed the
"It seems like the game was put together in a mere month just because the story is so ridiculously boring."
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resolution to the maximum setting - bad idea. The game wigged out on me. I was bombarded with errors, most notably a fatal error that forced me to reinstall the game twice before I could get it working again (also after running a registry cleaner). Most people would think it’s some sort of unique error that probably would only happen with my computer, but I have actually talked with another person who has experienced the same problem to an extent. In-game, the graphics definitely outdo the cinematics - which was quite a disappointment. Psychotoxic’s cinematics were such a disappointment and so poorly rendered I just wanted to close my eyes for the duration of each one. Aside from the cinematics, the in-game visuals ran pretty smoothly.
There was nothing special at all when it comes to the visuals, but everything managed to look pretty clean and crisp. Don’t expect much detail, though. The only environment interactions you’ll get are windows shattering from gunshots, and other things similar to that. I would like to note that the flushing of the toilets in the first level was indeed my favorite interaction. The urinals were also quite shiny! I came upon a number of glitches, including the infamous death-through-wall and camera spasms. The background images for the levels can be good to extremely bad. In Central Park, the background of a nightly-lit New York was pretty to the eye, yet deceptive. It looks extremely old and dull, while it is a pretty picture. I wouldn’t expect much from these visuals, but I’ll admit one thing - they can surely beat Pac Man’s.
How Low Can You Be To Steal From AOL?
The audio for Psychotoxic was pathetic; absolutely pathetic. One of the first things I noticed was the interesting sound used for opening doors. Whenever you open a door with the action button, what I heard was a near exact duplicate of the AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) sign-on sound. Yep, you heard right! If it wasn’t sad enough to steal chat sounds from AOL, it sounds damn distorted as well, as do nearly all the other sounds in the game. Gunblasts are fine, and voices are cleared also, but the sound effects are absolute trash. Turn your speakers down, because the distortion from the explosions will blow your eardrums straight out, and I mean that with pure sincerity.
Psychotoxic’s soundtrack ranges from heavy-metal dance music to well-beyond-creepy music. You’ll find the more modern music to be present in the real world, and the scary stuff in the dreams. While the soundtrack is adequate for the game, it’s really nothing special that I would ever want to hear repeated a second time. If you die in a mission and you have to start over, God have mercy on your soul. Be sure to save... constantly.
An Unending Torture Session?
Rest assured, if you make the insane decision to purchase Psychotoxic, you’ll be spending a lot of time on beating it. The game claims to have a good 20 to 25 hours of gameplay, and there are over 30 different levels, which do add some variety. If you can take the amazingly bland gameplay, then go for it. A sane person like me just isn’t able to handle it. There’s a few goodies here and there, but nothing you’re really going to get enveloped in.
Quite A Decent Arsenal
I’ll give this to Nuclearvision - they came up with a damn good arsenal of weapons. There are two different sets of weapons included in Psychotoxic: dream weapons, and real weapons... can you guess the differences? The Udder Gun, Pitbull Trap, and the Candlelight Dinner Flamethrower are just a few of the interesting dream weapons you’ll encounter. In the real world, be prepared to use assault rifles, Gatling guns, ion rifles, revolvers, uzis, the Tonfa (cop club), and let’s not forget the Tenko Tease Me, a weapon carried by single women to ward off stalkers! Though the selection isn’t vast, I like the fact that there are two different weapon sets in both worlds. Either way you look at it, they all get the job done.
Angie Is A Witch!
One of the factors that makes Psychotoxic stand out are the special powers that Angie has. Angie can supposedly read people’s minds (that explains venturing into their dreams...) and obtain certain powers throughout the
"The game had a good presentation, but when you get behind the controls of it, you’ll realize this is one poorly put-together game."
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game. This definitely adds to the fun of it. There are four different powers: protective shield, self-healing, slow motion, and invisibility, all of which are fairly self-explanatory. Slow motion is definitely a blast to use when you’re in a crowded room of zombies with your Candlelight Dinner Flamethrower.
How Can The AI Be Any Dumber?
This was one of my biggest gripes with the game - the AI. Psychotoxic definitely has its challenging parts, but sometimes the artificial intelligence seems dumber than a rock. Turn on invisibility, then venture into a group of enemies and kill one of them. You’ll see absolutely no reaction from the enemies, not even a mere blink of the eye; they don’t even try to shoot at you! On the other hand, you could say the AI is extremely smart - but unfair. Even though they don’t have the sense to shoot at the ghost that just killed their friend, when you turn a corner and see an enemy, they have quicker reflexes than a cheetah. They’ll fill you up with lead unless you can kill them first, which really isn’t a challenge anyway.
A Little Mature?
Psychotoxic obtained a Mature rating from the ESRB for three main descriptors - Blood, Sexual Themes, and Violence. The blood aspect reminds me thoroughly of Soldier of Fortune - don’t worry, you see no body parts flying in this one. You’ll see some good puddles of blood from one or two gunshots, so the gore fans shouldn’t be disappointed with this one. Violence is a given, but I fail to see many of the sexual themes in the game. Granted, you can see the outline of Angie’s thong, but is that really enough to consider sexual? I guess Crowley could be considered a pimp, too. Psychotoxic does have a few creepy parts to it, so you might want to keep this one away from the kiddies. Honestly, though: Do you really want to subject them to such a bland game?
Wasted Potential
Psychotoxic really is what I consider wasted potential. If Nuclearvision had spent a year (or even a half-year) on the game, they could have had an excellent title. Unfortunately, Psychotoxic was probably just another rushed case of the "we want money" disease. The game had a good presentation, but when you get behind the controls of it, you’ll realize this is one poorly put-together game. Take the horribly boring gameplay, the so-so looking graphics, disgustingly criminal audio, and over 30 hours of all of that. What do you get? One crazy acid trip from Nuclearvision Entertainment.
