- Nov 16, 2006
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God damn, Psychonauts is a few rough edges away from being a spotless masterpiece. Its a platformer originally released for the Xbox way back when, but the PC port gets a much better treatment than many of the games from that time period with native support for high res, full Xbox controller support, plenty of options.
You play as Raz, a kid who grew up in a circus (what a great reason for main character to be able to function in a platformer) who stows away to a summer camp for young kids with psychic powers (and who is himself gifted).
The game has a small overworld that consists of the camp and another location, with most of the action happening *inside* the minds of the camp counselors and others. This allows the level designers and graphic artists to go completely nuts (literally and figuratively, with how much the game confronts mental illness) with some truly bizarre levels and landscapes. Some of my favorites happen inside the mind of a local lake monster and the mind of an insane painter. The levels are like a work of art, each has its own style and rules, for better or worse.
The game does encounter some pitfalls, namely from those changing rules in the more advanced levels. Like most Tim Schaefer games, there is a lot left to the player to figure out, and it can really get frustrating when the game makes you guess at the solution instead of logically figure out what you can and cannot do. Its really a 10 hour game that pads out the play time with frustrating puzzles and bosses instead of the now in vogue massive empty MMO world with a billion meaningless tasks to complete. Also the collectibles. God damn there are a lot of collectibles, and at some point you just have to accept that you're not going to get everything (unless you're into that kind of thing) and move on with life.
That being said, its a great game and with the sequel around the corner (and Double Fine Studios picked up by MS so that means $$$), you're doing yourself a favor by trying out this excellent adventure.
You play as Raz, a kid who grew up in a circus (what a great reason for main character to be able to function in a platformer) who stows away to a summer camp for young kids with psychic powers (and who is himself gifted).
The game has a small overworld that consists of the camp and another location, with most of the action happening *inside* the minds of the camp counselors and others. This allows the level designers and graphic artists to go completely nuts (literally and figuratively, with how much the game confronts mental illness) with some truly bizarre levels and landscapes. Some of my favorites happen inside the mind of a local lake monster and the mind of an insane painter. The levels are like a work of art, each has its own style and rules, for better or worse.
The game does encounter some pitfalls, namely from those changing rules in the more advanced levels. Like most Tim Schaefer games, there is a lot left to the player to figure out, and it can really get frustrating when the game makes you guess at the solution instead of logically figure out what you can and cannot do. Its really a 10 hour game that pads out the play time with frustrating puzzles and bosses instead of the now in vogue massive empty MMO world with a billion meaningless tasks to complete. Also the collectibles. God damn there are a lot of collectibles, and at some point you just have to accept that you're not going to get everything (unless you're into that kind of thing) and move on with life.
That being said, its a great game and with the sequel around the corner (and Double Fine Studios picked up by MS so that means $$$), you're doing yourself a favor by trying out this excellent adventure.
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