Psychonauts reviewed

Psychonauts is a game that's well-known for two reasons: how awesome it is and how badly it failed in its initial launch. Now it's a cult classic with its stature and sales, through other avenues other than a hard copy of the game in disc form, growing each day. After playing it through this game twice I found it's a good game that is flawed but very fun so let's break this down.

The plot is just your basic "I will take over the world and only one person can stop me...but he's a nobody so the world is mine! HA HA HA HA!". However there's little stories in it that are awesome. The other campers have their own little arcs that are cute, funny and somewhat real. Then there's the stories from Vernon, a character that so monotone he's funny, telling such boring stories like how he and his dog walked, got lost, got attacked by bees and how Vernon had to pop his arm back in his socket. That little guy's a trip.

Unfortunately, the graphics are Psychonauts greatest failing. The characters look so plastic that it's hard to look past that. Even in the more polished FMV's the characters still have that plastic look. The levels, however, do look good and there's many little things here and there that makes them fun. Then there's the memories you get when you go into people's minds. It's drawn like a comic book and this does work in the context of the game. So the graphics aren't too good but you won't notice them at first when you're laughing with the game.

Now the levels are where the game shines, each level is a somebody's psyche and each psyche is different. There's a psyche where it's military-based, a psyche where it's theater-based and there's even a psyche where it's basically Godzilla or Gogglelor! Then...there's the Milkman Conspiracy. This is where the game peaks in ways I didn't think it was possible for the game to peak, I can't even describe it it's so awesome. But there is some weak levels, Black Velvetopolis is pretty frustrating and Milla's Dance Party is boring. Then there's the theater-based psyche where I think the level is broken. The first time I played the music and voices stopped, only the sound effects remained. The second time I played it, it froze on me. You can't win them all but you will have fun with the levels.

The controls are you standard platforming fare. You can punch...with your mind! You can jump and double jump...with your mind! Then you get your psyhic powers like telekinesis, pyrokinesis, levitation and many more. That's where it gets fun when you use your powers on your fellow campers and see their reactions. It's pretty cool.

So anyways this game does have it's fair share of the good(The Milkman Conspiracy), the bad(Black Velvetopolis) and the ugly(that theatre-based psyche) but it does have many secrets that require multiple playthroughs to find. It's a good game but perhaps a tad undeserving of its cult classic status.

7/10