Summer camp experiences can invoke either feelings of excitement or trepidation; it may be exhilarating to be away from home and learn new skills, yet it can also be scary to adapt to a new environment without parental support.

Razputin, or “Raz,” was understandably excited over the opportunity to attend a psychic summer camp. As an aspiring psychic, he viewed the time as a chance to sharpen his special talents and meet others like him. However, his adventures, chronicled in Psychonauts for the PlayStation 2, take a turn for the worse, as strange events occur and camp members vanish without a trace. Raz has to figure out the cause of these occurrences, and in doing so will witness the immense power of the human mind. You, on the other hand, will witness an unusual adventure that keeps you guessing from the initial scenes to the inevitable conclusion.

Playing as Raz, your adventures begin with your fellow campers treating you as a novice and the staff perceiving you as an inconvenience. As you acclimate to your new surroundings, you earn the respect of the staff and the admiration of the students. This time spent means increasing your psychic ranks, accomplished by collecting various items dispersed throughout the campgrounds and in the various challenge levels that you encounter. You'll find arrowheads, which function as currency for purchases, psi cards that attach to create psi cores and figments of imagination. You'll also encounter emotional baggage and occasionally locate miscellaneous articles such as Psychonauts comic books. You're free to explore the campgrounds at will; however, certain areas are sealed off until you acquire the means to do so.

Increasing your psychic ranks allow you to access new abilities, such as increased accuracy, pyrokinesis, and levitation; these skills prove useful for your survival in the challenge levels that you encounter, which are really manifestations of the thoughts held by the camp’s staff members. Each area requires you to rely on your wits and talents to make it in one piece.

Article Author: Jason Townsend-Rogers

I am a master's student at the University of Florida pursuing a degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in Journalism. I enjoy writing about anything that has to do with technology, entertainment and politics.

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