[Games] Supernatural

by Nick Judin
September 7, 2005

A Review of 'Psychonauts'
Platform:
PS2 | Xbox | PC

Razputin, the psychic son of a circus trapeze artist, runs away from home to enter Whispering Rock Summer Camp, a training facility for possible psychic secret agents, the “Psychonauts.” Using powers like clairvoyance, telekinesis, pyrokinesis and levitation, he will uncover a sinister plot involving the stolen brains of his fellow campers.

Did that make any sense to you? No? Good. Games as quirky and fun as Psychonauts don’t come along very often, but with the minds of Tim Schafer ("Grim Fandango," "Day of the Tentacle") and the others at Double-Fine Productions, it’s easy to see where the innovation came from. "Psychonauts" is an Action/Platformer game, and it really does the genre justice.

The game follows a main storyline through the areas of the camp and beyond, but more importantly, into the minds of several characters. The contents of their brains are based on their personality. The war veteran Oleander’s mind has a destroyed and action-packed landscape. The paranoid conspiracy theorist Boyd’s is a topsy-turvy ‘50s-style neighborhood where secret agents abound. A lake monster you subdue has you going into a city of miniature lungfish, becoming the gigantic monster terror known as Goggalor, and on the last level, a combination of two minds is … well, strange, to say the least.

The point of the levels is either to reach the end, cure the person of their insanities or insecurities, or to simply survive. The game also lets you collect hundreds of figments, (doodles the person has conjured up in their heads), sort emotional baggage, unlock vaults with the person’s guiltiest secrets and even fight their personal demons. The story, as mentioned previously, is somewhat short, but always original. Both the gameplay and the storyline are top quality, and my only concern is that games this good are too few and far between.

The visuals and sounds are wonderful. Schafer has created a distinct world with unique characters, reflected in their abstract designs and voices. Each character has its own voice, and they all have long strings of dialogue—most of them humorous—with the player. The music goes along perfectly with the feel of each level, as do the graphics.

The game doesn’t have much in the ways of replay. Like most platformers, collecting objects is fine—at least until you’ve beaten the main game. It should take 10 to 15 hours to complete, tacking on a few extra if you go for all the bonuses. All in all, "Psychonauts" is an original experience that is unfortunately overlooked, and I suggest you to go out and play it for yourself.

posted by kaust on 09/12/05 at 10:54 AM