Psychonauts

""He picked me up with his mind power and shook me like a dog!""

You've probably heard the name Tim Schafer before. You may not have realized who he was, or why he was special. For those of you who can place yourself in either group – here's the lowdown. Schafer is one of the most creative guys in the gaming industry, along the lines of Shigeru Miyamoto and Will Wright. Unlike those two, his games have never achieved great commercial success. But judging from this game, it is through no fault of his own.

STORY
Psychonauts revolves around a young boy named Raz who sneaks into a summer camp for psychics. Apparently his father doesn't much care for people who can light fires with their minds, but Raz is determined to become one of the Psychonauts (basically, the psychic CIA). Not long after he arrives, extremely strange things begin to happen (even stranger than telekinetic children) and people begin to lose their minds, quite literally. Raz soon uncovers an evil plot to steal the brains out of all the kids for a sinister plan and must stop it before it comes to fruition.

GRAPHICS
This is the main indicator of how badly this title was ported over from the Xbox, or at least how much more powerful that system is than the Playstation 2. Everything in this game has taken a major hit in the looks department, making some of the areas so ugly and warped that it is almost impossible to tell what the hell it once was. The texture work is downright awful with most of it being extremely muddy, and in other places just nonexistent. For instance, the top of a tree is simply a collection of flat green and brown surfaces. And, while the game is still colorful, it is nowhere near as vibrant as it used to be.

Even so, the game has its own visual style which helps compensate for the extremely downgraded graphics. Every character in the game looks like a Saturday morning cartoon got into a fight with Tim Burton's creative side. They've all got disproportionately big heads and limbs and big crazy eyes that make them all seem like unholy freaks. The environments often possess the same “cute but hideous” look, especially once you start traveling into minds. For instance, in Raz's mind many things seem to be created out of meat… Strange.

SOUND
In all my years of gaming, I've never played something that was as funny as Psychonauts. The writing is of such high quality and the voice actors have been picked so perfectly that everything just clicks into place. Events such as a boy named Dogen talking to invisible squirrels that want him to kill people and a man whose mind has been taken over by his ancestor Napoleon Bonaparte (who speaks in a hilariously overblown French accent) had me doubled over with laughter.

Unfortunately, the perfect writing and voice acting is somewhat overshadowed by the numerous glitches found throughout the game. There are certain segments when a character will repeat a few lines again and again for no reason, and sometimes a single note of music will get caught in a loop. The biggest glitch I encountered was when the sound went out completely and the subtitles automatically skipped to the very last line of the conversation, leaving me completely in the dark about what was going on.

GAMEPLAY
At its core, Psychonauts is just a platformer. But when you have access to psychic powers and can enter the minds of other people, the tired genre becomes quite interesting. The platforming itself typically works quite well and it is no big challenge to quickly move across the crazy obstacles in the environment. But there are a few places when it does break down and begin to feel like a chore. Anytime you are jumping on something bouncy, in order to get a higher jump, it is very hard to land properly for reasons I never quite figured out. And in the final level, you are made to do some extremely finicky moves which have to be executed perfectly in order to stay alive. However, these moments are few and far between and don't affect the game as a whole.

Most of the platforming takes place while in another person's mind. In the beginning you'll be entering the minds of the training camp's teachers for instruction on your psychic powers. Later on you'll be going through actually trying to sort out a person's personal demons for whatever reason. The mind-levels all manage to be quite different (in design and objectives) and interesting in their own way. My favorite one has Raz playing a strategy game against Napoleon Bonaparte. However, Raz is actually on the board getting the pieces to help him by doing certain things. Once you have the help of any given piece, Raz has to switch back to regular size and move them where he wants them. Another has Raz helping a woman in a theater. The overall goal is to get to the rafters of the theater, but he has to continually switch the background and lighting in order to change the set and get to the goal.

Despite the light-hearted theme of the game, there are some undeniably dark moments to be found. In one level it is possible to find a hidden area in the mind which contains some disturbing memories of a deadly fire. A level mid-way through the game also has a twisted foundation with lots of shady characters moving standing around. The level itself is meant to convey the paranoia of the character's mind, and it accomplishes that with ease. Moments like these do a great job of illustrating the psychological framework that the game is built upon as well as showing the mind isn't always a nice and ordered place.

While in a mind or the real world, Raz has access to a decent number of psychic powers which include all the old standbys – levitation, pyrokinesis, and telekinesis – along with a few new ones such as the ability to confuse people or shoot energy out of his hand. These powers are not only used to fight off enemies, but find ways around any given area or conquer puzzles.

Your Psychonaut rank greatly affects the powers you have for use. The rank – one to one hundred – is basically a level. By doing certain things such as picking up figments in the minds of others, collecting psi-cards and psi-markers, along with completing a few other events you can increase your level. At given intervals new powers will be unlocked and old ones will be upgraded for better use (for instance, the pyrokinesis power turns into an explosion).

THE VERDICT
Overall, the positive characteristics of Psychonauts overwhelmingly make up for the clumsy port job from the Xbox. Despite the bland graphics, terrible audio problems and the worst final level I've ever encountered, I still remember the fun I had rather than the frustrating moments. And while the game is a respectable length (eleven to twelve hours) it seems much shorter because it is so fun. If you're looking for a truly unique game, this is it.

HIGHS
- Cool powers
- Awesome level designs
- Hilarious dialog

LOWS
- Long load times
- Severe audio and visual problems
- Camera bugs out at times

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/08, Updated 05/05/09

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