Review: Psychonauts (XBX)

How do you begin a review of Psychonauts? Do you try to emphasise that, while it is a platformer, it's in many ways unlike any other platformer that has come before? Or perhaps start a lament that it has taken almost a year for it to appear on our shores due to its American publisher, Majesco, posting significant financial losses, and then asking if it was worth the wait? Actually, that's not a bad idea, let's go with that one. So, after a spending a year in publisher limbo, with Psychonauts finally being brought to us by THQ, was it worth the wait? Yes, yes it was.

The second paragraph in a standard Psychonauts review will probably talk about the very basics of the story, which is a real shame, as the story and script are two of the best parts of the game. Yet if Gamestyle was to say everything it wanted to say about it, it could ruin certain aspects that should be discovered by the player, and not spoiled in advance. The basic idea is that a young psychic cadet named Raz is at a summer camp, training to become a 'Psychonaut' - a soldier in the fight against tyranny, oppression, and (especially) insanity. Things start out fairly normally, with Raz exploring the campsite and conversing with his fellow cadets, who all exchange hilarious bits of dialogue with him. Fairly soon, however, Raz embarks upon his first real platforming action when he enters the mind of his trainer. Psychonauts is comprised of 13 levels, and for ten of these you shall be inside the brains of some of the hilarious characters you meet. Sure, it sounds a little nutty, but nutty is what this game is all about.

The somewhat unusual premise has allowed developer, Double Fine, to really stretch the rules of the platforming genre. What you might expect from Psychonauts (unless a review, like this one, tells you otherwise) is a standard assortment of platform game levels where you run from A to B, attacking identikit enemies with your various psychic powers; what you get, on the other hand, is quite different. In one level/mind you'll be a playing piece in a giant game of Risk, helping an insane asylum orderly defeat his ancestor Napoleon; while in another you'll be a 50ft-tall monster stomping around a city that is inside the mind of a giant mutated lungfish, and as such is populated by many tiny lungfish, one of which has an Irish accent. Why an Irish accent? Because it's funny.

"Because it's funny" certainly describes Psychonauts' design process; if the designers thought it was funny, it was put into the game. Every character you meet will have a humourous conversation with Raz (complimented by excellent voice acting) on a variety of subjects, be it their paranoid delusions that the squirrels are talking to them, or their failed attempted suicides. It's very rare that a game that has tried to make Gamestyle laugh has actually succeeded, yet Psychonauts has. Even the graphics convey the sense of humour well, with characters being very cartoon-like, with exaggerated expressions and body designs. The level design also takes this cartoon theme to heart, with a particular favourite being "The Milkman Conspiracy", which takes place in a normal suburban street - normal, aside from the fact the road itself twists like a demented rollercoaster track, spiralling off in all sorts of directions, completely ignoring the laws of physics (but not the laws of psychics).

There are still standard platforming devices in effect, however, and these can prove detrimental to the game's appeal: with a multitude of items to be collected, it soon becomes a chore. To gain access to all of Raz's psychic powers (and later upgrade these), Gamestyle had to collect arrowheads (the game's currency), deep arrow heads, mental cobwebs, psi-cards, psi challenge markers, brains, figments of people's imaginations, and so on. At one point, we were forced to exit a level in order to scavenge an area for more arrowheads for the sole purpose of purchasing an item to progress further. This caused the flow of the game and the enjoyment of the level to halt, and Gamestyle became extremely bored - which is something you don't want to happen in a game.

One further annoyance is the fact that, despite the game proving quite easy, sometimes the precise objective is unclear. Fair enough, the game will help you at any time by allowing you to summon your commander with a piece of bacon (something that will never be said in a review again, sadly), and while these are helpful for 90% of the time, sometimes they're incredibly vague, forcing you to run around the level trying to figure out what to do next. It's a rare occurrence, admittedly, but a notable one.

The remaining pitfalls include a platforming section near the climax of the game that is just frustrating and almost ruins the brilliant design concept behind the level; and the minuscule amount of replay value once the game is completed (made worse when you consider this can be done in a weekend). To be honest, these minor gripes only show up because Psychonauts is otherwise absolutely brilliant and worth every penny (while it lasts). Despite its faults, it's incredibly likable... and if you don't like it, you're probably insane.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Garry Webber