Psychonauts Review
Note: I wrote this for another site, but I thought it would be cool to put it up here too, so people get to know what a great game this is.
THERE ARE VERY MINOR SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW, BUT NO MAJOR PLOT ADVANCEMENTS ARE IN THE REVIEW.
Introduction (you can skip this if you want, but it gives insight into the review):
Tim Schafer, as more informed gamers will know, is one of the most innovative, creative, funny and clever game creators of all time. Like many of the excellent former Lucasarts employees, who were sadly and, some would say foolishly let go because of losses of budget, Schafer has returned into action with his own new company, Double Fine. Bill Tiller (working on A Vampyre Tale), Ron Gilbert (working on something untitled) and a group of other designers who formed Telltale (working on Bone and the long-awaited Sam and Max 2), are all other examples of workers from Lucasarts who have started their own individual projects.
Schafer worked on the Monkey Island series (one of my longtime favourites, which I like just as much as Final Fantasy), Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and most notably Grim Fandango at Lucasarts. (So, if you like the old adventures, you will probably like this, even though it is a platformer and not an adventure.)
Grim Fandango (which you all should also check out along with Psychonauts, because it is amazing) is an adventure game with decent 3D graphics, superb puzzle gameplay, an excellent storyline and one of the best music scores of all time (primarily jazz, and some Spanish-sounding pieces as well). It is also one of the longest games I have ever played, not as long as FF7, but certainly very long, especially if you don’t use the walkthrough a lot. It tells the story of Manny, a cool skeleton dude who is traveling to Heaven through the Land of the Dead over 4 years. (Each “year” you play through could easily be the length of a regular game, so think 4 times the gameplay!) I won’t spoil the story, but there is plenty of mystery, conspiracy and some subtle humor (unlike Schafer’s other games, the humor here is not as noticeable-you have to keep your ears pricked for the hidden in-jokes.)
And now, 7 years after Grim Fandango, the new, superb Psychonauts has arrived. Unlike the classic Lucasarts Adventures, this is a platformer which integrates adventure, RPG and action elements to create and addictive and constantly interesting experience.
Story-Rated 7/10:
Psychonauts introduces you to Razputin (yes, with a Z, not an S) or Raz for short-a likeable, funny and friendly young character. He sneaks his way into a camp which trains psychically adept youngsters (of about 10 years old) in powers such as telekinesis, clairvoyance, invisibility and levitation, against his father’s wishes. As he makes friends and enemies among the kids, and meets the camp instructors, Raz explores the campgrounds. There’s a host of characters:
-Coach Oleander: The militaristic and gruff head coach, who trains the psychics in “Basic Braining.” The Coach has some weaknesses, as you find out later, and some secrets.
-Sasha Nein: The enigmatic secret agent, who teaches Raz in advanced training, and becomes a sort of ally as Raz explores the minds of the camp instructors. Sasha is logical and practical to a fault, but relatively friendly.
-Milla Vodello: The Brazilian (I assume) Levitation Instructor. She is very kind and motherly, and always light-hearted.
-Ford Crueller: At first he seems like a bumbling old multi-campground-maintenance-worker (such as Ranger, Admiral, Cook, Janitor), but he has a hidden personality, which you find out pretty soon in the game.
-Bobby Zilch: The camp bully.
-Lili Zanotto: Raz’s new girlfriend.
-A Whole Bunch of other Kids
-The Mentally Ill Residents of Thorney Towers (found later in the game)
As he explores and makes new friends, Raz gets training in the camp. It is provided within the camp instructors’ brains. (That’s the whole idea of the game-you have full levels of exploring the psyches of other people. It gets really interesting when you explore the minds of insane patients later! Cool concept, eh!) He even goes into his own brain! (I know that part seems not to make sense). He also gets higher ranks as a student training to be a Psychonaut, and cool new powers.
When Sasha leaves behind a special psychic tool (a little door into people’s brains) you start to travel through the insane asylum and into mentally ill people’s brains, solving each of their individual dilemmas.
I won’t spoil any more of the plot, but that gives you an idea of the story.
Gameplay-Rated 8/10:
Addictive, zany gameplay! As you explore the campground collecting scavenger hunt items and other items to collect, you can fight the psychically enhanced animals, talk to the kids, and level up. The dialog is the real forte here: witty, funny, clever and always interesting. Many gamers don’t really care about dialog, but it’s the little things that make a game rock in my opinion, like clever dialog. It makes you want to take your time and just chat with the kids.
At the same time you’re jumping, swinging, climbing and fighting your way through amazingly creative levels of people’s minds. For example: a whole level of going through a mind which has a chess-like game in it, where you are at level with the chess pieces, talking to the pieces and making them join your army. Or: A level with the most weird graphics ever (sort of like being in a van gogh painting of a city at night) where a bull is constantly running towards you. Or: a level in which you’re in one of those episodes of the Twilight Zone where there’s this whole 50s like neighborhood and it’s deserted, with a twisted sort of mirror-image of a regular neighborhood gone wrong. In these minds you find mental cobwebs, emotional baggage, and figments of the imagination, which you collect to further level up.
What makes it really fun is your powers. You can go invisible, float on a Levitation Ball, shoot psychic aggression (a form of ammo) from your head, see through other people’s eyes (Clairvoyance), set things on fire (Pyrokinesis), move things you’re your mind (Telekinesis), use a mental shield, and confuse people with special grenades, among others.
Collecting is simple, fun and addictive. I collected everything in the game (it’s the only way to get up to level 100).
So basically, its the usual platformer engine (run, jump, fight), with special powers, leveling up, collecting, extremely creative levels and crisp, lively dialog. Sounds good…
Graphics 8/10:
Think Voodoo Vince but better quality. The whole thing is like an artsy take on regular Xbox graphics (well, I played it on Xbox, BUT IT IS ON PC AND PS2 AS WELL, IF YOU WANT TO BUY IT). Everything looks pretty good-the characters all look a bit cartoony, and the backgrounds all look pretty strange and cool for those used to those same old types of water, rock, trees exc.
Music 8/10:
Peter McConnell! The genius is back! He scored Monkey Island 1-4 (a reggae/jazz/instrumental sort of soundtrack), Grim Fandango (jazz/Mexican/Spanish sort of soundtrack) and is one of my favourite composers ever! Try out this link for his work: http://soundtracks.mixnmojo.com/ Not all of that is him; some of it is Michael Land and Clint Bajakian, both also excellent composers.
In this soundtrack he combines country-influenced rock, regular rock, jazz, some Spanish stuff, and more. This guy is good enough for movies, for sure. All of it sounds better than most of the sh*t other composers pump out (ok, sorry if that’s a little harsh, but nowadays music is pretty bad in games). Example of bad VGM : Beyond Good and Evil, Max Payne, Oddworld Series, Star Wars KOTOR. All good games with bad music, and they would be better with some good music.
That having been said, this is consistently good BUT not quite as good as Grim Fandango or Monkey Island. It’s excellent, to be sure, but not quite at that level of perfection.
Cons:
The game is short. It’s surprising the man behind Grim Fandango could have made such a short game. Also, the second half of the game was darker, and seemed a little rushed. I prefer the campground to Thorney Towers-if only the whole game was at the camp!
Overall:
I give this an 8.5/10. My “Reviewer’s Tilt” (which means that I can lower or heighten it a bit as a Tilt on my opinion) is 9/10.
CRIME:
The crime is that its sales of this game aren’t doing well. It has gotten tons of acclaim from reviewers, and those who have played it love it (especially Europeans-there is a huge fan base there) but not enough people have bought it. If you like action, adventure, platforming, RPGs or just plain GOOD GAMES, with quality and all the little things that make a game good, buy this! NOW! BECAUSE IT IS MY FAVOURITE GAME ON THE XBOX EVER! (Not my favourite game ever, but in my top 10 for sure) I was so sad that it ended so quickly. Mr. Schafer, please make a sequel! Please!
