Psychonauts

"The best game ever made"

Psychonauts deserves better sales. It's one of the best games ever. It's such a pity it isn't selling well. In any case, any gamer worth his salt needs to play this game. Buy it, even.

Story: Psychonauts tells the tale of Razputin (Raz), a young psychic with dreams of becoming a psychonaut. Psychonauts are psychic soldiers with the ability to dive into the minds of others, to confront their inner demons. To achieve this, Raz heads to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, which, as the name implies, is a summer camp for young psychics. However, Raz has no parental permission to be at the camp, and has only a few days until his father comes to pick him up.

The plot of psychonauts is original and well-paced. Aside from the larger story arc of the game, each level, which takes place in the minds of various other characters, forms it's own mini story. These, while not always great, offer insights into the personalities of the cast, and allow for more characterisation.

Also, it's really funny. I should probably mention that.

Gameplay: The gameplay in psychonauts is varied. Each of the minds have a different theme, and the gameplay is adjusted accordingly. So some levels will be purely combat, others platforming, or puzzle solving, or psychic combat. However, each level manages to add a little bit of each element, so don't expect any area to be neglected. In all cases the gameplay is really good, although sometimes a little hard, mostly due to the game not even giving you hints as to what you are supposed to be doing.

Graphics: The graphics in Psychonauts are okay. For the most part they look pretty damn good, but occasionally they become sub-par. For most of the game, the graphics are absolutely fine, although I suppose they aren't as technically adept as other games.

The character and level designs are unique, and uniformly look awesome. Just by looking at the scenery in the different levels, you can see elements of the characters backstories.

Sound: The music in this game, while not perfect, is actually really good. It can dip quite heavily in some levels, it is mostly pretty good. The sound effects are okay, if a little uninspired. The voice acting is superlative. Each and every character ( qite a feat, considering Psychonauts has such a large cast) is voice-acted perfectly. All voices fit the character like a glove. Raz is voiced particularly well ( Richard Horvitz provided the voice)

Overall: As i've said, Psychonauts is the best game ever made. It isn't perfect, but even at it's worst it's a better game than most. If only there was a possibility of a sequel, so that Double Fine could learn from their mistakes, and improve upon them... So buy Psychonauts, and show that imagination sells. Your brain will thank you for it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/06