Psychonauts

hey YOU. yes you! do you delight in originality, creativity, surrealism and the delightfully bizarre? Then psychonauts is the game for you. And don't worry if you don't, because this game is also for you!

It's almost impossible to sum up psychonauts as a whole. I don't really know why, or how..all i know that it is unequivocally the greatest game ever made. I think the closest I can get to beginning to grasp the brilliance of psychonauts is by listing some of the events that it features, out of context: -A deep voiced turtles' brain in a psychic death tank.- -A giant mutated lungfish called Linda.- -Homicidal girl scouts.- -A giant flying theater critic that shoots adjectives like 'vulgar' and 'uninteresting'- -Fiery dream milk flung by a psychotic milkman.- -A mental projection of napoleon that likes breaking bridges and a cougar with pyrokinesis.

SO WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING. sitting here reading this review..the nerve of you! GO OUT AND PLAY THIS GAME OR YOU WILL HAVE LIVED ONLY HALF A LIFE!

Why hasn't everyone played this game yet? It's original, funny, intelligent and a total blast to play. The story of Raz, a pre-adolescent psychic training to become a mental warrior at a deranged summer camp, is brilliantly conceived by madman Tim Shaffer, voiced by top-quality actors and written with a biting wit. The worlds you visit are the minds of insane people, and pack enough innovation in each one to easily carry ten games. From the Stratego-esquire levels of a man who thinks he's Napolean to the trippy, black-lit velvet villa of an artist with rage issues to the paranoid, topsy-turvey suburban neighborhood populated by double-agents, you'll find your greatest challenge in the game will be choosing which part you like the best. So people, please, track this down!

You are Raz(Steven Horvitz, excited to be there, to feel he has a purpose and isn't a burden like at home), a 10-year-old gifted boy who runs away from the circus to try to sneak into a training ground for those with similar powers to become a "Psychonaut", a spy in that realm. It's disguised as a Summer camp, where you can, not have to, roam, listen to and/or talk with the other children... at least a dozen, each with their own personality, conflicts, relationships including romantic ones. He finds that there is a sinister plot occurring there that only he can stop. Someone stole the brain of your fellow trainee. There's also shared nightmares about a scary figure, who somewhat resembles Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Of course, this entire plot starts slow and late, only to dump a ton of exposition on you that then takes away the surprise from every upcoming development. And this happens in the cut-scenes, except for when it doesn't. Most of what you, yourself, do in this doesn't affect the story.

After a couple of too long, boring and barely necessary tutorials, the actual levels begin. The few there are – that would be fine if this went for one mood, instead, it goes for all that it can in those, meaning, yeah, not that many. And while you may do a little detective work, you are helping insane people deal with their issues. This is something that could have been done before and without you, and would not be required at all if you got for free the favors that they offer after you've been in their mind. I mean, this is a pretty big deal. Can we focus on that? Anyway, that does mean that you are moving through the bizarre, absurd, creative, unique and surreal mind every time you "go in". In one, a 50's suburban neighborhood that you move on like a series of Möbius strips, overrun by G-men, all claiming to belong, working the sewer, the road, or the like, with their suit and shades clear for anyone to see, and there are cameras hidden in lawn ornaments that every so often pop out and snap a shot, the top of every car has a radio transmission tower. You'll find yourself inside at least one old-fashioned game, like a game of cards. Or a board-game, where there are three layers, or sizes. First, you look at it set up, you could grab it with a hand. Then you get onto it and get an overview. Finally, you're smaller than the pieces for it, and can knock on a door of a house that you could have had in your hand seconds ago. You'll see neon, encounter dogs and wrestlers. A few of them, you can choose which order to do them in. They're all memorable. They do, sadly, all overstay their welcome and lean on one mechanic too much. It helps a little that they each have a different one.

Since you've been learning acrobatics, you can grab, shimmy and climb ledges, walk or swing from tightropes, slide swiftly down lines and double-jump. Though there are numerous elements vital to making something like this be enjoyable, the game-play is ultimately what I consider to be the single most important one. Unfortunately, here it is... just OK. Without it, it might as well be an interactive movie or the like. 3D, compared to 2D(which recent demos of Rayman, both Legends and Origins, does, and it's so much more comfortable. So it can, and sometimes is, still being done like that today), makes it far harder to do the action/adventure plat-former. Much less do it well. And a lot of the early examples of this didn't yet know how to deal with it. Sonic, Earthworm Jim, Prince of Persia... this is, thankfully, far better than those. The problem is that the added dimension opens it up, and with more to take in, the momentum comes and goes. Or dies entirely. The camera has big problems. Even with the sensitivity maxed out, the mouse will sometimes move it very slowly, *too much so*, it *will not* keep up, there are even times where you have to constantly, laboriously, manually adjust it. Worse, the Marksmanship Blast aiming is awkward, and, with this issue, not fast enough. There are a few times where you have static views forced upon you, where the direction you go in either shifts suddenly as it pops to a different place, and/or just makes it hard for you to tell which one you'll be going in. That hardly ever leads to your death, it's mostly in areas safe from harm. A few places, it can't "follow you" into a small room, so you can't see anything until you leave it again. Completely unacceptable.

You'll gain psychic powers such as: telekinesis: pick up small items, enemies and the like, and throw them, such as for attacks. It is a strange decision to force you to hold down the key... why not allow toggling? And you adjust the predicted path with the movement ones...why? Levitation: it's the "running" feature, with a ball of energy under your feet. You can use it to Float, gradually getting closer to the horizontal surface, as you inch further in one of the four directions while in the air. You can set some things on fire. These can either be awarded by completing certain missions or by gaining ranks. You can assign three of these to your controller or keyboard for quick use. All earned ones are available at any time through a selection screen. You can't pick which ones you get. You save up for certain things, it's not really "choice", just something to earn, which is perfectly fine, makes it more accessible.

There is some creepy, disturbing and twisted material in this. I recommend this to fans of old school entries into this already unforgiving genre. 6/10

If you grew up hooked on quirky, funny Lucas Arts adventure games like Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion/Day of the Tentacle, and so on, this game is for you. You might not realize it, since it's disguised as an action-packed 3D platformer, but this game has the heart of any of those greats. You spend as much time exploring, talking and finding/using items as you do smashing and burning things with your awesome psychic powers. The dialogue is hilarious, the voice acting is superb (anyone notice that Raz is actually Zim, from Invader Zim?), and there are plenty of funny gems to be found by those who think creatively enough to find them (light a squirrel on fire for some funny lines from Raz, for example). The only problem is the action and difficulty level is a bit inconsistent throughout: some levels are excruciatingly difficult and some are a breeze, in no particular order. However, the overall fun and vision of the game is more than enough to keep you pressing through the more frustrating moments. Definitely a must-play.

The richness of the environments and characters, and the depth of story telling will make you wish that many other games were like psychonauts. I could go on and on about how great I think the game is, but other reviews on numerous other websites and publications have done that. So, instead I will counter a couple of arguments that some may have against the greatness of the game.

For some there may be some jumping or fighting in the game that may be a bit difficult, but a little patience or maybe a break in those situations would help. The camera angles might bother a few, but if you don't get used to them with a little time, you can always play the PC version and control the camera with the mouse and movements with the keyboard. There are also a number of things to collect, and for those who do not like to collect them, then you can ignore all the items that you can't find easily or find a walkthrough that tells you the location of the items. There are walkthroughs available that only tell the locations, and nothing else, for those who feel a full walkthrough would ruin the game. I think you only need to get about half of the items to get most of the good stuff, and after that the rest will just give you a secret cut scene, but my memory is not so great so I could be wrong about that.

I think everyone should really enjoy the game once they give it a chance and go through at least 2 levels, and explore the environment and talk to the characters.

Best of all, in the US, this game can probably be found for $10-25 because it has not sold as well as it should have here. It is worth much more than that, but for that price it's worth a buy for everyone. If you don't like it, you can give it to someone who will.

There are also demos available for ps2, xbox, and PC. I do not know how to find the demos for ps2 or xbox and it may be impossible, or not worth the expense. However, the pc version is easily available for download, if your computer can run it. The xbox360 controllers can provide a console-like experience for those who do not like the mouse and keyboard controls, as they can plug into the usb slot. There are also third party adapters for almost every other console controller on the market, though your mileage may vary.