Why Second Sight 2 wasn't made

A sequel to cult hit Second Sight never materialised because, according to its developer, the game failed to generate enough interest.

Crytek UK, which formed from the ashes of Timesplitters creator Free Radical Design, said that despite the team having ideas good to go, it was felt the psychic-powered Second Sight "didn't have any momentum".

"Overall it didn't generate sufficient interest for us to feel it was worth making a sequel," Crytek UK boss Karl Hilton told Destructoid.

"We had some ideas ready, but we decided it didn't have any momentum as a new franchise. Codemasters gave Second Sight good support and we even released a PC version (which wasn't part of the original release plan). Ultimately history appears to have been much kinder to the game than we would have thought after its initial release."

Eurogamer's 2004 Second Sight review discovered an 8/10.

"A key ingredient in its success is its engaging concept," wrote reviewer Kristan Reed, "which comes layered with a satisfying narrative structure and credible characters."

"Second Sight does crop up occasionally in discussions in the gaming community about good narrative in games and games that were 'sleeper' hits (although you could never describe the final sales figures as a hit)," Hilton continued.

Why did it fail to set tills alight? Because, according to Hilton, it didn't have enough time to drum up hype among gamers.

"As a developer you always automatically want more marketing as it is always a positive and should help your game to sell more," he said.

"However, I think the lack of a proper 'build up' phase when we didn't have a publisher hurt us more in the long run. A new IP needs to build anticipation and hype in the gaming community and Second Sight didn't get that chance. In terms of press reviews, it certainly didn't get the overwhelmingly positive response that you always hope for. Most reviewers 'liked' it and it got a mix of reasonable scores for story, graphics, sound etc. but nothing outstanding."

Still, Crytek UK, which created the multiplayer portion of recent shooter Crysis 2 and is rumoured to be working on Timesplitters 4 for launch on the next-generation of consoles, retains the Second Sight IP rights. You never know.