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Psychonauts
PlayStation 2
I first played Psychonauts back in 2005 or 2006, shortly after the game first came out. I remember being somewhat unimpressed with the game. I expected to enjoy it in the same manner I had enjoyed other 3D platforming games, like Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. I found this game to be a lot more tedious, however. Don't get me wrong - I liked the game. I also liked the creative stage design and some of the ideas the game brought forward. But I would be lying to myself if I said I had a blast playing it. The controls weren't very good and I always found myself getting stuck and not knowing what to do next.
After I beat the game, I ended up trading in my copy at a used video game store. Nearly 20 years have passed and I still hadn't revisited Psychonauts... until now! In the last few years I've been hearing more and more about how this game is a cult classic, and how it is an underappreciated gem. People nowadays don't hesitate to mention this game in the same breath as Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64. That runs contrary to my memories of the game, so I decided to take the plunge and revisit Psychonauts for the first time in a long time.
What would win out in the end - my memories of the game's mediocrity or the accolades people bestow upon the game? Only one way to find out.
Story:
I think one of the reasons the game didn't connect with me when I was younger was because of its wacky storyline. It is like something you'd see on Adult Swim. Everyone looks like a mutated freak, and they talk to each other in one-liners or non-sequitur statements. Some people like this "absurdist" style of comedy, but it has never been my thing.
The game follows Raz, a young boy who sneaks into a summer camp for people with psychic abilities. Despite the fact that he showed up uninvited, he quickly proves his worth - and begins his psychic training. He learns things like telekinesis, levitation, pyrotechnics, etc. He is put to the test when someone starts stealing the brains of all the kids in the summer camp. He uses his newfound abilities to enter the minds of the camp's (and the nearby asylum's) residents. At the end his own dad turns out to be the villain.
The overall story isn't really what is interesting - it's the little side jaunts into peoples' minds that makes this game unique. Many people are aware of the "Milkman" stage where you enter a mind that is like a warped and twisted 1950s America. I actually enjoyed some other stages more - like the Day of the Dead themed stage with the bull, or the board game themed stage, or the "Godzilla" inspired stage where you are a giant, and you are smashing your way through buildings in a big city.
Gameplay:
As I mentioned before, this game doesn't have the best controls in the world. Jumping is a bit floaty. It's hard to line up your jumps. It's hard to land exactly where it is you want to land. Hit detection is a bit weird as well. I swear enemies like to hang out JUST at the edge of your melee attack. Overall, the game just feels a little "jank" compared to some other major platformers out there.
The game begins in camp, which operates as the game's hub world. You can go to different sections of camp, picking up collectibles, meeting your fellow campmates, and learning more about the world of the game. You aren't forced to immediately dive into the main storyline if that's not the direction you want to go.
The beginning of the game is a bit slow. I'm not gonna lie, I really struggled to get into it my second time through the game. I started thinking what I was going to say when I reviewed the game and gave it a bad score. "Sorry, Psychonauts lovers - this game isn't nearly as good as you are propping it up to be."
It wasn't until AFTER the beloved Milkman stage that I really started to appreciate Psychonauts. The application of your powers, how to use secret items, all that stuff just clicked the right way in my mind. I went from having a bad time to actually enjoying myself quite a bit. Psychonauts rose from a C range title to a B range one overnight.
What makes this game special is that no two stages are alike. One stage has a giant version of your character rampaging through a seaside town, knocking down buildings as tanks and planes attack you. Another stage has you solving puzzles in a dystopian 1950s setting, picking up items to impersonate people as you penetrate deeper into the subject's mind. Another stage has you directing actors in a play, as you try to find the right stage and script to ride a balloon to the top of the theater. Another stage puts you right in the middle of a Day of the Dead inspired Mexican stage, where you collect cards and fight against outrageous wrestling characters while trying to stop a rampaging bull. One stage I found to be really genius was the board game inspired stage. You shrink down to the size of a game piece to run around on the game map and complete tasks. Then you have to grow back to your normal size to move pieces on the board again. Then shrink back down and complete more tasks, etc - until you win the game.
The stage variety really began to win me over after a while. It was like night and day. First part of the game: boring. Second part: good. It'll be interesting to see how I grade this one at the end.
Oh, the boss fights! I almost moved on without mentioning them. To me, they are a highlight of the game. They require pattern recognition and fast reflexes. Some of them are quite difficult. I always enjoyed finding the boss's weaknesses and exploiting them, though. It's always something very easy to do in concept, but difficult to pull off in reality. I suppose the jank controls don't help. And that brings me back to my biggest complaint about the game. The controls make it not fun at times. Too many times.
The last stage is a nightmare. You have to engage in many, many precision jumps. You fall, you die. Some of them have a time limit too, which is terrible. I got stuck for the longest time on the part where the enemy is blasting fireballs at you, and you have to latch onto this rotating cage/fence thing and jump from cage to cage in mid-air. You mistime your jump or hit a fireball, and you fall and have to do the whole thing over again. It really is a pain in the ass. I remembered very little from my 05/06 playthrough of the game - but that part stuck out in my mind, it was so bad. I didn't like it then and I definitely don't like it now.
Before we move on - some random Dan trivia for you. I mentioned that I first played this back in the mid 2000s. While I was playing this game, my girlfriend Jessica and I stayed overnight at her parents' house one night. We brought this game and our PS2 with us. We ended up smoking pot with Jessica's mom, which was a surreal experience on its own. Then we fired up this game and played through the "Lungfishopolis" section of the game. At the end, the sea creature's name is revealed to be Linda - which is also Jessica's mom's name. We all had a good, stoned guffaw about this for several minutes. We thought it was so damn funny. When I think back on this game, that's one of the first memories to come to mind.
Graphics:
I don't think I've ever encountered a game that is such a mixed bag, graphically. The characters do not look good. Like seriously, WTF? Why are these little kids so mutated? They look like something Tim Burton came up with while on LSD, and I don't mean that in a good way. The camp setting itself is fairly ugly. The woods and trees don't look good. The area is populated by ugly characters. This game definitely shows its age in many ways.
But on the flip side, some of the game's stages look sensational. The 1950s Milkman stage is trippy (in a good way) with its nightmarish environment and its twisting, turning streets and walkways. I found the Day of the Dead stage to be one of the most impressive things visually I've ever experienced from a PS2 game. Seriously, it looks fantastic. The colors, the animation, the overall vibe of the level. I walked away from that stage very impressed.
The game is at its best when you are diving into people's minds and experiencing their trippy, mind-bending delusions with them. When the game is in the real world, the visuals falter. When it is in the spiritual world, they soar.
Sound:
The game sounds good. The voice acting is solid, and the stage music always feels appropriate to what's going on onscreen. I like the sound effects too, especially the noise it makes when you collect a Figment.
That's all I got. I wish I had more to add here, but nothing really stood out to me, in a good or a bad way.
Overall:
This is where things get interesting. While the game did win me over in the end, it took a while to get there. The first half of the game is a real slog, to the point where I internally debated if I even wanted to keep playing or not. My memories of the game didn't do it any favors either. But once things clicked and I started to really understand the ebb and flow of the game, I was hooked.
I won't say that this game reaches the heights of some of my all-time favorite 3D platformers. It doesn't. If only the gameplay was just a little bit better. But I do appreciate the trippy stage design, and all the unusual concepts this game introduces. It's worth checking out if only for this reason alone.
All in all, I can safely say that I'm a fan of Psychonauts. I'm not a BIG fan, but I am a fan. That's an improvement on my original "overrated" stance, I suppose. I mean, I still think the game is a little bit overrated - and I probably won't ever play through it again. But I enjoyed my time with it, and I'll for sure be checking out the sequel.
THE GRADE:
B-
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