Psychonauts

"This game will make you go CRAZY! (Hypothetically speaking, of course)"

I'm here to take you into a world you would have probably never imagined on your own. A world where panthers can light you on fire. A world where bears can pick you up with out using their paws. A world where you can run away to a camp and find a little premature love. You are probably asking me why I'm telling you these things. Come, and I will tell you a tale like none you have ever heard.

"Psychonauts" was Majesco's first game that went into the big gaming industry. You know, that battlefield where Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are constantly at war. Psychoanuts had many good reviews. Although the scores for the game weren't perfect, the scores for the game were NEAR perfect. Many big reviewers rated this game about 4/5 (8/10), and many a lot more than that. You'd think that a game that was this well received would sell great, like Halo, Super Smash Brothers Melee, and Metal Gear Solid, right? Hahaha, WRONG! This game only sold fewer than 100,000 copies in it's first year. This was prior to it's success in Europe where sales sky-rocketed. This amount was far fewer than Jaws Unleashed, which came out about a year later. Why would this happen to such a game? The real question is, how could ANYONE not buy this game? Let's see here....

Plot

You've heard of your traditional "hero saves princess" and "lonely boy saves planet" stories. But I
bet you've never even IMAGINED a plot of this grand design.

You start out as 9-year-old Razputin (Nicknamed Raz). Apparently, you've ran away from home to become a Psychonaut-a Psychic warrior. You run off to a camp where you can get your psychic powers heightened and more dangerous, but also cool and under control. Little do you know what lies in store for you at this oh-so-innocent looking camp.

The characters are very unique in this game, even though they're based off of normal categories. You've got the camp bully, you''ve got your valley girls, and you've got the camp weakling. The camp has a LOT more personalities than that. The game takes it further by giving each and every character in the game his/her own little background story that evolves throughout the entire game. May of the stories intertwine with each other to add more suspense than you already get with the main plot.

Further into the game, the plot gets a little generic with a minor "hero saves princess" tone, but that doesn't stop the game creators from making a kick-ass plot that'll keep you on the couch for a good 2-3 days. Maybe even more! The actual main story itself isn't very long. But the difficulty and fun meter rise with each and every field of battle you enter. I'm about to explain that in the next section.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Psychoanuts is a lot like a collection of the gameplay from several other games that were combined into one, and polished up a lot. You are able to upgrade your character by moving up in mental ranks. You start off at rank 1, and you progressively make your way to your ultimate goal, Psychomaster (rank 100). Although it's possible to get to rank 101 using a mini-game near the beginning of the game that you can visit later on.

As you climb through ranks and collect mental power, Raz's offensive and defensive skills will increase in power. For example, a Psi Blast in the beginning of the game only hits one enemy. After some ranking up your Psi Blast can hit multiple enemies at once, increasing your effectiveness in battle and think situations.

Ranking up can be done in a multitude of ways. You can collect Psi Cards that are scattered throughout the camp and many other places. You are also able to collect figments of the imagination (which are shortened to just being called figments in the game). The figments show what the person's past was like and what seems to be troubling him or her.

The controls, as simple as they are in the beginning, start to be of use later in the game once platforming becomes the major ingredient, and not battling. The areas in which you have to battle in are called "mental landscapes" which can be accessed via mini-door. These mental landscapes differ from person to person. They all have one common thing, though, they all reflect on what's troubling the owner of the mental landscape. Early in the game, these landscapes are usually nothing more than training zones for Raz to learn and refine his psychic abilities. Later in the game, however, the difficulty increases drastically. Usually when the difficulty of a game increases, the fun of the game starts to get depleted. Psychonauts doesn't do that. Along with your new abilities, there are many puzzles to solve and many ways that you can lose mental health.

The only problem with traversing between the real world and sections of the mental landscape is that the loading times are extremely long. Most people can get easily past this, but when you have to get somewhere extremely far from where you are at the moment, it can get pretty annoying. Although a certain mode of transportation that's unveiled early in the game allows you to bypass this.

Voices/Music/Sounds

-Voice Acting
One of the highest points of the game. You have a lot to look forward to in the part of the game. The voice acting is TREMENDOUS. The people at Majesco hired just the right people to voice the characters in this game. The voices are highly believable. It'll make you think why this game only sold 100k copies in the United States.

-Music
So you've got a great game. What makes it so special? Well, my friend, it's the audio department that makes a game stand out, and this game stands out quite a lot in this category. From eerie music that makes your skin crawl all over you, to some familiar pieces that partake in somewhat familiar areas, you will not be disappointed wit the choices that the game creators made.

-Sounds
From lighting girl scouts that sell cookies on fire, to blasting a superhero that controls a whole city as a dictator with a blast from your noggin, the sounds in Psychonauts are easy to differentiate from each other. I just hope you don't get TOO madly in love with them.

Graphics

I have to admit the graphics in this game are pretty mixed. In some parts, you find that the graphics can be pretty dull. But you can also find rival areas that are highly creative and full of color. Certain characters are also pretty bland, while there are also many others that are highly creative.

The mental landscapes are highly colorful. You have almost every color in this game. Each color defined to a specific type and area. This wonderful blend of colors and parts will definitely make your eyes burst with excitement.

Replay Value

Even after defeating the game once, there's still a lot that you could miss. There are countless amounts of voiced skits that you could have missed and many other skits among them that give some small details about what the character's personality is like. Unless you Wikipedia this game, you'll have a lot to do even after replaying it several times.

Overall~9/10

This game is almost perfect in every way. You've got your sounds department that blows you away. You've the the very creative and unique plot that surrounds you. You've even got little mini-plots that go on within the camp. I can't guarantee that you will enjoy this game, but I CAN guarantee that once you get hooked, there's no going back. Psychonauts is a game that will pull you in and keep it there. And with only around 400k copies worldwide, you'll want to get your greedy little paws on this game as fast as you can, or else you'll miss out.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/08

Game Release: Psychonauts (US, 06/21/05)