I have to be honest: I am a Tim Schafer fanboy. It is hard not to be, given his portfolio, which include titles like Full Throttle, the Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango, and Day of the Tentacle. The titles that he works on always turn out to be creative, fun, and in many cases, quite humorous. So, when Psychonauts, Schafer’s newest title, finally hit the shelves, I was all over it like a cat on yarn.
Psychonauts is, in a word, one of the most unconventional games I have ever played. The base story is quite unusual. It starts out with a boy named Razputin, Raz for short, who is having a few family problems. Normally, when you hear this, the conventional wisdom is, “Oh, the kid is going to run away and join a circus.” Of course, this is the very first monkey wrench the game throws at players; he is running away from the circus, and not for some mundane life, but one even more bizarre. After finding a pamphlet for a summer camp for the psychically gifted that doubles as a training ground for secret agents, Raz picks up his traveling sack and makes his way to the camp. Raz convinces the camp staff to let him stay, and he is then tasked with completing the Psychonauts training (as well as solving an even bigger mystery) in a day, because his parents are coming to pick him up the following day.
A Psychonaut is basically, like the word implies, a psychic astronaut of sorts. The body never leaves the real world, but the mind jumps into another. The Psychonaut enters the mind of a disturbed individual, battles the evil within, and cures them of their illness. Yes, a Psychonaut is a more effective version of the psychologist, and you get the added bonus of having your memory improved and having your emotional baggage removed.
Psychonauts plays like most platformers we are all used to. You run, jump, attack, and search for stuff to collect. Unlike most platformers, they actually make what you collect realistic and with real benefits. In the past, if you managed to collect all the stuff a game asked you to collect, normally there would be a slightly adjusted ending or a basic congratulations. No real benefit other than a half-hearted job well done. Psychonauts not only makes what you collect more realistic (in a strange sort of sense), but also makes it so you get intermittent rewards throughout the game experience for collecting them. For collecting items, you gain rank. With the increase in rank come new powers. You open up more important stuff early on like Pyrokenisis, and later down the line you open up expanded ammunition, and at the top of the line, a bonus movie and unlimited ammunition. Believe me, the unlimited ammo is a good reason to find all the collectables. The game does a good job telling you how much was collected, what is left, and what area it is left in.
Outside in the real world, you collect stuff for a scavenger hunt and cards lying around; in the mind, you clear out mental cobwebs, remove emotional baggage, and pick up figments, all of which lead to a healthy, happy mind. In the way are a number of jumping puzzles, which are completely acceptable given this is a platformer, and mental constructs of assorted unpleasantries. Figments are a pain in the rear to find though. They are two dimensional and are almost invisible if you come up on them from the wrong angle. There are a couple of levels in the game where there is one figment left thatI haven’t been able to find.
Never once do the controls get in the way of your task. Everything is very smooth and responsive from the get go. The only real issue I had was I can’t rapid fire the psi-bolt attack, but that is quite understandable as you are trying to fire a piece of energy from your mind. Raz is quite the little acrobat, coming from the circus and all, and navigating the world along with other powers such as levitate are a breeze. Even ropes and other of the Netjak hated balancing puzzles aren’t apparent given that Raz automatically traverses them like the well trained sky performer he is. So don’t worry when you see that first tightrope, you don’t have to spend all day tilting left to right to keep him from falling off.
Raz has an assortment of powers at his disposal. Many are useful, like Pyrokenisis, which obviously sets things on fire, levitate, which creates a ball you roll around on and with higher rank use to take out enemies, and the psi bolt, which fires concentrated psychic rage at your opponent. There are even ones purely used for fun, like the clairvoyance ability, which does nothing more than lets you see things from another person or entity’s point of view. It is quite comical as you get to see Raz as other characters see him, like the female characters seeing him as a fly.
To go along with the solid, responsive gameplay is the brilliant level design. Every level is wildly different and matches the personality of the character the level is in. Levels range from a strange world filled with meat to a board game of Waterloo. The design is impressive. If you can see it, chances are you can find a way to get to it. Stuff is well hidden, too, like cobwebs and baggage, though the length the designers went to hide those tiny figments is irritating.
When it comes to graphics, it takes a lot to get a 9 or a 10. In normal cases, it is to push the bounds of realism. In abnormal cases, it is to have an outright wonderful artistic flair that is unrivaled. Psychonauts falls solidly into the second, and very rare, category. Everything is stylized in a very unique flavor. Every character and location has a drastically different look, but at the same time all fits together in the complete visual package. Effects in the game are also impressive. What I like are how the world details are high polygon yet never once scream, “I’m trying to be true to life”. That takes a whole lot of skill.
The audio department is also top-notch, most specifically the voice acting. Majesco grabbed onto one hell of a good voice acting crew. Everything is remarkably well acted and never once does a poorly said line show up. Everyone from the irritating cheerleader types to the hyper soldier Coach Oleander to Raz himself are all so well done it feels like they are actual people themselves, not someone playing them. Psychonauts is the perfect example of what should be done when voicing characters over. The voice actors belt out many humorous lines to full effect. Other sounds and music are also impressively well done and are highly varied given what you are doing and the level you are in. All in all, we are looking at the ideal audio presentation that other gaming companies should take note of.
Replay, well, this is a bit tough. On one hand, the game lasted 30 hours. Yes, 30 hours, and only about two of that was trying to find that last figment in various levels. That is an impressive feat for games these days. On the other hand, there isn’t really much of a reason to rush through the game again any time soon. I see this title the same way I see the Monkey Island series or Sam and Max Hit the Road; it’s something to play once a year, enjoy, and then pack up for a later playing. So, ultimately, the long term replay is going to be astronomical with this title, but nothing in the short run.
Overall, Psychonauts is just a hair’s breadth from perfection. The only real flaw comes in the form of the difficult to locate figments littering the levels. Everything else was incredible. The gameplay was smooth and responsive, the audio presentation was beyond impressive, and the visuals display a rare artistic value not seen in many games these days. I am willing to go so far and declare Psychonauts as being a strong contender to this years Game of the Year, and do so with great confidence that it can win. Psychonauts is a game all gamers who like having fun should pick up and play.
