Psychonauts

"Another weird experience from Tim Schafer that proves to be excellent."

If you're into video games, you should know the name Tim Schafer. He's behind some pretty cool games like Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. His newest bizarre mind-child has had to go through 4 plus years and 2 publishers to get out. That's a long time. Thankfully, this game is incredible. It's probably going to be the sleeper hit of 2005.

GRAPHICS: 9/10
As you'd expect from a Tim Schafer game, the characters look kinda weird. Sort of a cross between Tim Burton and Pixar. While they look weird, they also look great. In this kind of game, the characters don't necessarily have to be clean cut suit wearing people, and Schafer knew that and used it to full advantage. The environments themselves are very diversed, especially when you get into people's minds (more on that later). They look so out there that it works brilliantly. The only thing wrong is I kind of thought the camera was a bit of a pain.

SOUND: 9/10
Another area this game excels. The music is as varied as the environments. It's got sort of this cartoony feel to it and it's okay. The sound effects are pretty well done too. WARNING! THIS GAME HAS A FEW BUGS! WATCH IT! Luckily, those are minor bugs and nothing to get worked up about. The voice-overs in this game fit the characters extremely well. After hearing the main character, Raz, talk for a while, you knew it wouldn't work if someone else's voice came out of that watermelon of a head. The voice-overs make the game even more bizarre and funny. And so the sound is incredible in this game. Let's hope the rest is as good.

MULTIPLAYER/REPLAYABILITY: 8/10
Man, it would have been really cool if this thing had multiplayer. The main story itself doesn't take more than 15 hours, unless you're digging around for hidden stuff. That'll take a lot longer. You'll get your money's worth for this game, even if there is no multiplayer.

STORY: 10/10
This is a delightfully weird experience. You play Rasputin-a.k.a. Raz-as he escapes from the circus so he can join a summer camp. However, this summer camp is actually the secret training ground of the "Psychonauts", also known as psychic warriors. All of sudden, Raz's friends in the school start losing their brains, making them TV junkies (Do you think Schafer is trying to teach us some morals here?). Raz has gotta find out who's behind all this, and why they're doing it quick. All of the dialogue in this game is pretty good. A lot of it is actually hilarious. This is hands-down one of my favorite stories in a video game yet.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10
In case you haven't gotten my drift, this game is bizarre. It's also a blast to play. Think a weird Schafer-esque Psi-Ops. In the real world, you get a melee attack, jump, and use a plethora of psychic powers. As you upgrade them by finding items, you get telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and levitation. There are more, but that's a general overview. You get all the basic platforming stuff, but it never gets old. The real joy in playing Psychonauts is going into brains. In the brains, everything changes drastically. Instead of a somewhat cheery camp environment, you get a weird barren land filled with the certain person's dreams. For example, a security guard is dreaming of the '50's when you enter his mind. In another person's mind, you play against Napoleon in a board game (0_0). You do all the basic platforming in here again, but playing inside minds seems not only morbid, but fun as well. All in all, this is an incredible and fun game.

FINAL SUMMARY:
This game probably won't get a lot of attention, but trust me, it's very very good. If you have an Xbox, surprise yourself and buy Psychonauts.

FINAL SCORE: 9/10
RECAP:
+Great goofy graphics
+Good music and sound effects
+Well-acted dialogue
+Weird but funny story
+Platforming never gets old
+Playing inside minds is very fun
-Probably will be underrated
-Sound bugs apparent
-Camera is a bit of a pain
-No multi-player

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/05