Psychonauts review

Psychonauts, then. It’s been a long time coming and UK gamers have waited with bated breath. What is this game the critics revere and speak of so highly? Surely it can’t be that good? When the hell is it getting released in this country? Why is there no GameCube version?

I can’t answer the last question. But Psychonauts has finally hit our shores and it’s every bit as good as you’ve heard it is. It’s smart, it’s witty, it’s incredibly funny, original and surprisingly adult. It also proves Tim Schafer is a genius.

Unfortunately the game’s sales in America haven’t been too great, and it’ll be a shame if that’s emulated here. So for the love of all that is good and mighty, buy a copy. Buy two. But whatever you do, DO NOT let this become another ICO. It deserves nothing but success.

“The human mind! The ultimate battlefield and the ultimate weapon!”

To understand and appreciate Psychonauts one must understand and appreciate how barmy and outlandish it is. It’s one of the most diverse games to appear in years, but what’s interesting is that even the minutest idiosyncrasy is justified. Schafer didn’t think of the craziest things he could put in a game and quickly built a story around them, he created a story and the craziest things he could think of were born from it.

In Psychonauts you play Raz, a vivacious youth who sneaks into the Psychonauts cadet training camp. This is a world where secret agents infiltrate the minds of their enemies to steal information and combat psycho-terrorism, and Raz thinks he has what it takes to join the elite squad.

It consists of drill instructor-like Coach Oleander, the sexy and funky Milla Vodella and the stoic and collected Sasha Nein.

Shortly after your arrival strange things are set afoot, and quickly the other cadet’s are having their brains sneezed out of their heads and stolen for an enigmatic villain’s nefarious plans. The journey takes you through some of the most memorable and original minds – or levels – you’ll ever encounter, in a bid to restore your friends’ brains and get to the bottom of the psychic conspiracy.

Psycho…not!

Psychonauts is a platform game in every sense of the word. You jump, punch and use your psychic abilities to combat a number of wildly different enemies, all the while obtaining hundreds of collectibles like arrow heads, psychic projections and freeing emotional baggage (seriously, who ever thought a suitcase could be so bloody cute?). The fact the game is a platformer might scare some of the more serious gamers away, and if that’s the case… stop being an idiot.

There are problems though and they are very much genre-specific. The camera is controlled most times by the right analogue stick, but can find itself in a number of odd positions every now and then (and those times it adjusts to a fixed perspective are sometimes more of a hindrance than help). Also, the lock-on targeting system is temperamental at best, causing a number of frustrating situations when fighting the harder bosses in the game. The swinging bar sections are a gross misjudgement, too.

But to shrug off playing Psychonauts because it’s a platformer negates the whole idea of videogames full stop: to immerse, entertain and take us to worlds hitherto imagined only in dreams. Furthermore, being a platformer does not make Psychonauts a kids’ game. On the contrary it’s a game very squarely aimed at adults – it just isn’t as obvious about it as something like Conkers Bad Fur Day.

Psychonauts by contrast is much more subtle and features a number of serious, heartbreaking moments. They’re so serious and jarring in fact that the first time I encountered Milla’s secret I had to stop playing for several minutes as it sunk in (and at this point I asked myself whether Schafer was a genius or not). Conker never had a serious bone in its body save for its outstanding ending. But in this game, Schafer hides a number of dramatic moments – such as the terrible tragedy that befell Milla when she was younger – and he doesn’t advertise them.

He hides them much like the characters minds actually would, in secret rooms. Or as Raz gains more abilities, he puts them in places you cannot visit until later in the game. It’s genius because it reminds you that while the main order of the day is humour, there’s always a side dish of drama added in to develop these characters.

A Lungfish Called Linda

Speaking of which, special mention must go to the level design in these characters’ minds. I’ve been rather brief on specific details about the game through fear of spoiling some of the best moments, but if I have to describe one of the minds you visit it must by Boyd, the lunatic at the mental institute. A whole conspiracy is underfoot in Boyd’s mind – aptly called The Milkman Conspiracy.

Here, badly dressed secret agents – in long coats and fedoras – masquerade disastrously as road workers, mourners at a funeral, telephone pole repairmen and couple’s watering planets. Nervous eyes peaks through blinds in the various houses. Flamingo garden props taken snapshots of you when you turn your back. Polaroid cameras emerge from bushes to capture your actions and mailboxes follow you when you aren’t looking.

It’s incredibly over the top but it completely suits the game. And while the entire level is essentially Raz collecting a number of keys to progress, it’s kept alive by the whole conspiracy theory aspect, the off-hand comments from the agents (“Hello fellow road crew worker, welcome to the road crew” and my favourite, “Look at that woman’s breasts. They are large”).

“Who is The Milkman?”

You’ll visit a number of minds in Psychonauts, even Raz’s, and every one of them is amazing to look at and original. Now that the next generation of consoles has hit it’s hard for current game games to truly stand up graphically. Psychonauts absolutely stands up to any next gen game because it’s one of the most colourful, original-looking games I’ve ever seen. It’s going to age beautifully.

I asked myself while playing this if Tim Schafer was a genius. Too right he is. This is the highest calibre of gaming right here in Psychonauts. There are problems, and unfortunately ones that stem from it being a platform game (also, for how original the levels actually are the outlandish design can obscure some things from you). But when everything else is so good it’s easy to overlook them.

I asked you at the start of this review to buy a copy of this game - buy two - and not to let it become another ICO. If it does, it’s YOUR fault, dear reader. Now abscond to your local games emporium and see to it that doesn’t happen. You’ll have a hand in saving one of the best current-gen games and paving the way for more to come. You have your orders, cadet.