The Psychotron by Merit Software is sort of like a beautifully wrapped Christmas present from your color blind second aunt from Terre Haute. After you tear off the ribbons and paper, and open the expensive carton, you are left with an uncomfortable itchy scarf.

	Well, all metaphors aside, the game is based around an interesting and unusual premise.  (This would be a good time to put the Hunt For Red October soundtrack on your CD player.)  As the Russians were trying to recover from their various political upheavals, they sold an impressive piece of top secret hardware to their old enemies, the U.S., for a bit of handy cash.  This is the title gizmo, the Psychotron, and it can manipulate the human mind.  It can induce psychic visions or pull confessions from stubborn criminals.  This device was en route to its new home, escorted by four CIA agents, when the plane crashed into a barn in Virginia.  Everyone on board was killed, except that one of the agents is unaccounted for, and the Psychotron is gone!

	You are a freelance agent given the task of finding the Psychotron and whoever stole it, and finding out why.  Why doesn't the CIA handle the matter internally instead of farming it out to an outsider?  That's a very good question.  Unfortunately, it pretty much goes unanswered.   The CIA director gives some sort of lip service about how he can't be seen investigating his own men.  Does that sound like the CIA to you?  Those guys would like nothing better than an excuse to slip microphones onto each other's coffee mugs.  On top of this, the director doesn't stay consistent to his own "fuzzy logic" and later in the game has been "doing a little investigation of his own."  Typical double speak, I guess.

	If this sounds overly picky, believe me, it's just the tip of the iceberg.  The holes in the plot are so large you could drive a tank through them.  In fact, the whole game suffers from an intensely frustrating lack of focus.  In one scene, the director seems to be trying to create a taut psychological thriller.  In the next,  you may feel like you're watching an episode of Green Acres.  (Go to your CD player and replace Red October with The Best of Flatt and Scruggs.)

	But I don't want to take the easy way out and pretend that this is a game with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  It deserves credit for some outstanding visuals.  Not only are the animated computer graphics extremely smooth, but the digitized video is excellent.  It really brings the characters to life.  Now if only the actors could have done the same thing...

	Yes, I'm afraid we're not talking about Oscar level performances here.  The Psychotron becomes yet another painful reminder that just because someone is a professional actor, that doesn't necessarily make them any good.  The money for the visuals probably came out of the casting director's pocket.  Not only is the talent a bit lacking, we are actually short of people!  In a scene contrasting two news stories from rival networks, the same "reporter" is shown, wearing different colored trenchcoats!  Either these guys are twin brothers, or someone is moonlighting.

	Plot holes and bad performances are not enough to destroy a game by themselves, they just get one off to a good start down the drain.  In The Psychotron, these problems are compounded by an almost total lack of replayability.  Anyone with half a brain could solve this puzzle in one or two determined afternoons.  There is only one possible answer!  If you go back and play it again, you can change around a few conversations and get some information a little earlier than you would otherwise, but everything else is the same.  You do get points for asking the questions that lead to the most information, but the possibility of getting a slightly higher score is not a good enough reason for most people to suffer through these badly acted scenes more than once.

	The Psychotron describes itself as an "Interactive Mystery Movie."  Needless to say, it does not exactly achieve the timeless quality of a Citzen Kane, but perhaps Highlander II makes a fair comparison.  Like that misguided piece of celluloid, this game has lots of glitter and flash, and nothing below the shiny surface.  This was not a cheap game to make, and the rationale for its existence may well have been the number of mediocre to bad movies cranked out by Hollywood.  But if you go to see the worst movie on the planet in the theater at full price, you are out ten dollars at most, including popcorn.  The only way to "see" The Psychotron" is to buy it for sixty some-odd dollars.  That's going to make for some very disappointed consumers who will remember Merit's name with anger.  Guys, take my advice and wait for Harvester!