Most of America is psychotic for not buying this most majestic of platformers.
Psychonauts, the latest adventure from the bizarre brain of Tim Schafer (Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango), is the story of a young boy with phenomenal psychic powers. Unlike many platformer games, the story is quite integral and very entertaining.
The young hero goes by the name of Razputin, Raz for short, and escapes his family of circus folk to attend Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. This camp, as the name suggests, is no ordinary camp; it's a bizarre cross between a super-secret NSA operation and the Boy Scouts. All campers are required to have psychic powers, and all – whether they like it or not – are in training to become psychonauts, the 007s of the psychic world.
The camp is run by three psychonauts with a help from a crotchety ranger who just might be more than he appears. When Raz crashes the opening ceremony, the responsible agents immediately decide to contact Raz's parents as he must have permission to attend the camp. Of course, Raz's father wants Raz to have nothing to do with psychics or gypsies, believing them to have cursed the entire family to die in water. To Raz, his mission is clear: become a psychonaut before his father arrives. Unfortunately, his father will arrive the next day, so Raz has his work cut out for him.
The plot thickens though as it soon becomes apparent that something is happening to the campers. They become automatons bent only on doing one thing: watching TV. Clearly, someone is stealing their brains. But who? And why?
The story may not have any real twists and turns, but its presentation is top-notch. Graphics and characters are highly stylized in a Tim Burtonesqe manner that renders them both unique and memorable. Many of the campers have ongoing subplots, and their distinctiveness adds to the rich tapestry that is Whispering Rocks. The outside world is filled with nooks and crannies, hidden caves and secret tunnels just waiting to be explored. Designers took their time in creating and polishing this world, and it is full of rich humor to be examined by Raz. Ultimately, the level detail is shown by the sheer variety of throw-away one-liners that abound when Raz is exploring and/or doing something stupid.
Adding to characterization is the perfection that is voice acting. Psychonauts does not feature voice acting of the normal video game caliber nor even of Saturday morning cartoon caliber; the acting and the direction would easily be suited to a big budget animated film. The soundtrack and accompanying effects are also excellent and provide the ideal finishing touches to an already flamboyant atmosphere.
Article comments
1 - Matt Paprocki
Raz has the normal jumping and punching of a platform hero,
You could have ended the review right there. That's my problem with this one. You're dead-on about the characters, the world, and the voice acting.
Sadly, they're stuck inside a platformer no more advanced than Donkey Kong Country. The collect-a-thon is way too much of the game, the camera is, as usual, off most of the time, and there's nothing to seperate this from a gameplay perspective.
If you want to know why people passed on it, it's because it offers nothing new in the gameplay department. The pyschic powers are not worth the price. It's not special when compared to the Jak, Ratchet, or Sly series.
2 - Tyler Willis
The platforming aspects weren't particularly good, nor were they particularly bad. Nah, it wasn't innovative in gameplay, and I wouldn't argue that it was. It was average, and it sufficied.
However, the fact is that I am rarely drawn to platformers - most of them tend to be far far too boring for me to spend even the 10 hours required to finish. I was drawn in by the atmosphere, the presentation - and I stayed for the ending cause the game kept throwing fresh presentation material of a first rate quality at me.
I'm willing to sit through average gameplay in order to see a spectacular world/story; I mean, jeez, I played through all of The Bard's Tale (recent) horrible battles just because the story/writing was first rate.
And you are right, the collect-a-thon was too much of the game's emphasis, and I would have preferred to see a diversity in that regard. But the game didn't force you to collect in order to be competitive, hitting 100% (which I did not) only netted bonuses, not crucialities.
3 - Faith Levac
I passed the game on the 23rd of march in 2006.
Its a pretty hard game.
It took me a few weeks.
I didnt cheat on it
and didnt use the cheating book too.
I did the game on my own without cheating.