VideoGame The Game Jesus Would Design If He Was Alive And Not A Pussy
If my time as the budget Yahtzee has taught me anything it's that nothing bad can possibly come from saying what I want to say about a game when he's already said much better. Or worse. Or something. It's also shied me away from ever buying hats. Seriously, the guy has the same birthday as me. It's creepy.
I'd love to have some insight into what, exactly, led to a gaming universe that produced Halo and Barbie's Horse Adventures (which to me sounds like an illegal porno title) to produce Psychonauts, but really, I don't. It's a funny, creative game with a lot of small ideas that are held together with a consistant, overarcing plot and a style that I wouldn't have believed if someone had pitched it to me in an elevator. Ten year old boy delves into the psychosese of madhouse patients implicated in world-conquering Government conspiracy? Where the hell does that come from?
Because of the unique design of the game - a sequence of basically, psychotic visions that represent the psyches of other people you meet - you get to go through a lot of different types of gaming environment, varying in how it chooses to express itself. No idea gets to be developed too hard, but then, that's good because it means no idea outstays its welcome (and some of them can't really sustain themselves for as long as one might like to think).
With a few counterintuitive puzzles, a frustrating collect-em-up aspect and late-game rewards that serve no useful purpose, I love this game to pieces. You can buy it on Steam or Good Old Games, and you should. For the puppies.
When purchasing Psychonauts, be sure not to be caught by shady government types.
VideoGame Just...OK
I went into this game with fairly high expectations. Pretty much every review I’ve read paints it as one of gaming’s most undeserved flops; a hidden gem loved by all who happen to stumble over it. Another factor in my interest in Psychonauts was my love of 3D platformers, a genre that is unfortunately woefully underpopulated, especially in recent years. What I got left me underwhelmed.
The game starts off great. Despite some technical qualms (which I’ll get into later) I found myself really getting into it. The voice acting's great, there’s plenty of Funny Moments, and the characters that were introduced early-on were really interesting. I particularly liked how Sasha and Milla’s backstories actually explored some of the implications that growing up with psychic powers would have. You get several power-ups in this part, most of which make the game more fun and remain useful throughout the rest of the game. Unfortunately, the game takes a massive dive in quality after its midpoint. The levels become much less fun, and the characters become a lot more cliched and uninteresting. The power-ups also become a lot more situational and gimmicky, and lack utility outside of a few contrived situations. All of this culminates in a final level that’s frustrating for all the wrong reasons, and a final boss that fails to provide any kind of challenge whatsoever.
I also found some severe technical shortcomings in the game. I didn’t really have an issue with the art direction; however, I felt like this game’s engine really couldn’t do it justice, despite other games from around the same time looking much better. Despite these lackluster graphics, I also couldn’t get a decent framerate out of this game, and some friends with higher end systems have confirmed that these problems persist even for them. Sometimes, after playing for a while, the game would also lag even more than usual, forcing me to restart the game to make it playable again. Poor optimization and a memory leak are probably to blame.
The combination of a promising first half, a tedious second half, and poor optimization average out to a game that I find to be So Okay, It's Average. Psychonauts has taught me that, sometimes, there’s a reason certain works become Cult Classics rather than, you know, plain old classics. Psychonauts may appeal to some that can stay hooked into its story all the way through, and don’t mind the rather mediocre 3D platforming, but I simply didn’t find the story and characters interesting to the end and felt that the gameplay simply didn’t measure up to some of the greats of 3D platforming, such as Mario Galaxy and Banjo-Kazooie. Perhaps I’m being too hard on the gameplay, and unfairly to comparing to games way out of its league, but solid gameplay, as well a low Story-to-Gameplay Ratio, is just something I expect more from platformers than I do other genres, such as RPGs and Adventure Games.
VideoGame It Good
You know what, I feel like doing this. Here's a review of an almost 20-year old game. Because I can.
Psychonauts is probably one of my favorite games of all time, and is very deserving of its Cult Classic status. It may not be The Best Game Ever, Of All Time but it is very good. Maybe the sequel outdoes it on some parts. I'll get back to that later.
Quick summary: You play as a psychic kid named Raz. You break into a psychic summer camp. A bad man's trying to take over the world, whaaat? Now you gotta stop him. The main draw of Psychonauts is that every level takes place inside a person's Mental World. Within the wacky and weird levels are minds containing lots of bizarre symbolism.
Pros: Incredibly creative visuals, loveable characters, Amazing levels, solid voice work, weird, diverse and memorable character designs, good soundtrack, great sense of humor, lots of fascinating Developers' Foresight
Cons: Some jokes haven't aged very well, platforming can be very floaty, figment collecting can frequently become a hassle (the worst levels in regards to this were Milla and Edgar's levels), the portrayal of mentally ill characters can possibly come across as uninformed to a modern viewer, boring combat
Oh, and I guess every review has to mention the Meat Circus. Personally, I think the level's infamous reputation came from a lot of people exaggerating and overblowing its difficulty, and that being spread by word-of-mouth via people who never played the game. The only thing I found remotely difficult was the Rise to the Challenge section. It's hard, yes, but not impossibly so.
Psychonauts definitely isn't a perfect game. But it's got a lot of heart buried underneath its 2005-era edgy surface. And if there's anything I'd like to say after the fact... Go play Psychonauts 2! It fixed quite a few of the problems I mentioned in my review and is an amazing sequel.