I know what you?re thinking (pun?), ?Psychonauts, isn?t that one of the old ZPs? Oh shit, a fanboy!? But I must insist that on rare occasion I have in fact disagreed with Yahtzee (I enjoyed SSBB).
Recently, as I?m sure many of you are aware; during a Midweek madness sale the aforementioned game became attainable for the incredulous fee of one British pound. Such games often don?t appeal to me because they?re mostly utter tripe for such a sum of money. However one is rarely disposed to think ?God, I can?t believe I wasted all that money buying those crisps!? Unless of course you accidentally spent your bus fare on it and have to walk 5 miles home from school. But due to the marvels of peer pressure from both my best bud and Yahtzee (ok, not really a peer, more like spiritual guidance), I purchased it forthwith.
I wasn?t expecting much as, being a big fan of graphicy goodness, old games make me wince and although this was only PS2 generation game I still have very unreasonable standards and often console ports are, frankly, shite. However I found something I couldn?t believe, something deserving the title ?timeless classic?.
So yeah, I decided to review it and this is the resulting mess. ENJOY!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well how?s that for an intro, eh? What do you mean it?s too long-winded? Fuck you! I said in the fucking title it?d be fucking verbose and stuff! Besides, Steven Fry?s a fucking national treasure due to that shit, right? I?m just giving the people what they want!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACTUAL REVIEW.
The reason Psychonauts succeeds on so many levels is quite clearly due to the story. Not only is it engaging with a great voice acting cast (take notes Bethesda, you DO NOT blow all your money on Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart and then leave the rest up to about 8 people you find round the office) but it also facilitates some excellent gameplay.
You are Razputin, or ?Raz?, a boy with psychic powers who has run away from his life at the circus where his father is forcing him to become an acrobat. He breaks into Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp and is given a few days before his dad will come to collect him. In his time there he has to fulfil his goal to become a Psychonaut, a secret agent with psychic powers and capabilities to project themselves into peoples? minds. Not only is he faced with this mammoth task but he also has to investigate some strange goings on at the camp and develop a relationship with Lili, a fellow Psycadet who has the hots for him. Along the way he will fight many demons, the most challenging of those being his own (I shit you not, that boss is tough).
I?d love to tell you more but I?m aiming for spoilerlessness and also this story is so perfect it?s hard to believe, it even has a plot twist I didn?t see coming, but maybe I?m just thick.
The nature of the story allows the real world to be merely one of the battlefields but in most cases you are battling within someone?s mind to help free people from their inner torment, a truly noble fight. These mind battles can vary as much as any imagination can, this leaves designers almost free reign with level design. I?d also mention at this point that game is much more adult than you?d expect and with its cutesy image it can be quite unnerving, some of the levels can be quite disturbing but each one is almost completely unique. The freedom of ideas also gives rise to some excellent puzzles. This brings me onto the gameplay aspects.
You have 9 basic Psychic Powers which will be unlocked throughout the game, however these are mapped to three buttons so you can only use three in real-time though you can pause the game at any time to remap these buttons with different powers. As you progress you?ll find you stop using your old powers as much as the newly unlocked powers will be used in the new puzzles and defeating the games many, MANY bosses. Other than that the gameplay is almost identical to any other 3D platformer, making the basic controls quite easy to master. It is also another brilliant aspect of the story, his previous acrobatics training, that neatly explains how you can so deftly pull off all these stunts.
The puzzles vary from surrounding altering puzzles a la Zelda series to object based puzzles like those from many classic point-and-click adventure games. While they are challenging there?s nothing too frustrating and it occasionally helps you out with tips if you are totally failing. Though this garners criticism from many self-acclaimed ?hardcore? gamers, it does make the game more accessible and well paced. There is also plenty of good ol? fashioned platforming with a particularly challenging time oriented section at the end.
The aforementioned aspects are usually enough to make a good game but this one follows suit with many more of my favourite games like Timesplitters: Future Perfect, Monkey Island and Conkers Bad Fur Day in that it is funny. I mean not only is the voice acting spot on with timing but the dialogue is just so well written that it rivals many animated films for hilarity. It leaves you with many memorable soundbites and images so don?t be surprised if after playing you have an obsession with talking tortoises, Goggleor and the infamous milkman. To me this mirrors much pop culture based humour except crucially without the pop culture references, don?t ask me how, it?s more a hunch than anything. Maybe I?m wrong about that bit.
Anyway, rounding off now because this is getting more and more ?tl;dr?ish by the second, this is undoubtedly a great game. Surprisingly it is relatively unknown outside gaming circles, perhaps because it was too ingenius, innovative and imaginative. Or maybe because you don?t shoot innocent people in an airport, who knows... All I?ll say is I guarantee you will not be very disappoint.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for reading, I was going to save this for my 2K post but I got bored. Also this is one of the few games I've enjoyed enough to literally write down something about it.
Recently, as I?m sure many of you are aware; during a Midweek madness sale the aforementioned game became attainable for the incredulous fee of one British pound. Such games often don?t appeal to me because they?re mostly utter tripe for such a sum of money. However one is rarely disposed to think ?God, I can?t believe I wasted all that money buying those crisps!? Unless of course you accidentally spent your bus fare on it and have to walk 5 miles home from school. But due to the marvels of peer pressure from both my best bud and Yahtzee (ok, not really a peer, more like spiritual guidance), I purchased it forthwith.
I wasn?t expecting much as, being a big fan of graphicy goodness, old games make me wince and although this was only PS2 generation game I still have very unreasonable standards and often console ports are, frankly, shite. However I found something I couldn?t believe, something deserving the title ?timeless classic?.
So yeah, I decided to review it and this is the resulting mess. ENJOY!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well how?s that for an intro, eh? What do you mean it?s too long-winded? Fuck you! I said in the fucking title it?d be fucking verbose and stuff! Besides, Steven Fry?s a fucking national treasure due to that shit, right? I?m just giving the people what they want!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACTUAL REVIEW.
The reason Psychonauts succeeds on so many levels is quite clearly due to the story. Not only is it engaging with a great voice acting cast (take notes Bethesda, you DO NOT blow all your money on Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart and then leave the rest up to about 8 people you find round the office) but it also facilitates some excellent gameplay.
You are Razputin, or ?Raz?, a boy with psychic powers who has run away from his life at the circus where his father is forcing him to become an acrobat. He breaks into Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp and is given a few days before his dad will come to collect him. In his time there he has to fulfil his goal to become a Psychonaut, a secret agent with psychic powers and capabilities to project themselves into peoples? minds. Not only is he faced with this mammoth task but he also has to investigate some strange goings on at the camp and develop a relationship with Lili, a fellow Psycadet who has the hots for him. Along the way he will fight many demons, the most challenging of those being his own (I shit you not, that boss is tough).
I?d love to tell you more but I?m aiming for spoilerlessness and also this story is so perfect it?s hard to believe, it even has a plot twist I didn?t see coming, but maybe I?m just thick.
The nature of the story allows the real world to be merely one of the battlefields but in most cases you are battling within someone?s mind to help free people from their inner torment, a truly noble fight. These mind battles can vary as much as any imagination can, this leaves designers almost free reign with level design. I?d also mention at this point that game is much more adult than you?d expect and with its cutesy image it can be quite unnerving, some of the levels can be quite disturbing but each one is almost completely unique. The freedom of ideas also gives rise to some excellent puzzles. This brings me onto the gameplay aspects.
You have 9 basic Psychic Powers which will be unlocked throughout the game, however these are mapped to three buttons so you can only use three in real-time though you can pause the game at any time to remap these buttons with different powers. As you progress you?ll find you stop using your old powers as much as the newly unlocked powers will be used in the new puzzles and defeating the games many, MANY bosses. Other than that the gameplay is almost identical to any other 3D platformer, making the basic controls quite easy to master. It is also another brilliant aspect of the story, his previous acrobatics training, that neatly explains how you can so deftly pull off all these stunts.
The puzzles vary from surrounding altering puzzles a la Zelda series to object based puzzles like those from many classic point-and-click adventure games. While they are challenging there?s nothing too frustrating and it occasionally helps you out with tips if you are totally failing. Though this garners criticism from many self-acclaimed ?hardcore? gamers, it does make the game more accessible and well paced. There is also plenty of good ol? fashioned platforming with a particularly challenging time oriented section at the end.
The aforementioned aspects are usually enough to make a good game but this one follows suit with many more of my favourite games like Timesplitters: Future Perfect, Monkey Island and Conkers Bad Fur Day in that it is funny. I mean not only is the voice acting spot on with timing but the dialogue is just so well written that it rivals many animated films for hilarity. It leaves you with many memorable soundbites and images so don?t be surprised if after playing you have an obsession with talking tortoises, Goggleor and the infamous milkman. To me this mirrors much pop culture based humour except crucially without the pop culture references, don?t ask me how, it?s more a hunch than anything. Maybe I?m wrong about that bit.
Anyway, rounding off now because this is getting more and more ?tl;dr?ish by the second, this is undoubtedly a great game. Surprisingly it is relatively unknown outside gaming circles, perhaps because it was too ingenius, innovative and imaginative. Or maybe because you don?t shoot innocent people in an airport, who knows... All I?ll say is I guarantee you will not be very disappoint.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for reading, I was going to save this for my 2K post but I got bored. Also this is one of the few games I've enjoyed enough to literally write down something about it.
