Psychonauts

[GameMaNiAC]

[sub]Great game. I bet the people who don't like it or think it's overrated probably like piles of junk like[/sub] Mass Effect[sub] or Crysis.[/sub]

Piles of junk? Okay.

I guess that's what kids call emotionally engaging games with a wonderful story and characters these days.

OT: I found Psychonauts to be an awesome game. It has its flaws, such as the combat and the sometimes frustrating platforming but it does get better later on. It's fun, and I think you should play it through to the end.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Great game. I bet the people who don't like it or think it's overrated probably like piles of junk like Mass Effect or Crysis.

At least one of these punks was praising the gameplay in Alpha Protocol to the heavens just yesterday.

Gameplay in Psychonauts was inventive and fun.

 

[sethisjimmy]

Yeah, it is one of the more overrated games of all time. It's story is cute and good, but when it boils down to it, the gameplay is meh. It's a decent to mediocre platformer at best.
Definitely worth a playthrough just for the story though, it's praise for that is at least well deserved.

 

[Vegosiux]

So yeah I also got it in that bundle. And went for an immediate 100% sweep of course. It has its flaws, but otherwise it's an enjoyable game. Overrated? Uh, no, not really, considering it flew under the radar, how can that be overrated?

Meat Circus? Annoying place, very much so, specially due to clunkiness of PC controls.

Milkman on the other hand? Let's just say that when you start turning around abruptly to check that there aren't any mailboxes sneaking up on you, you need to take a short break, awesome level, that one. Paranoia fuel without any actual horror.

The Waterloo level was rather fun too.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I have to say that you should at least get through Lungfishopolis and The Milkman Conspiracy before you judge the game, as those are perhaps the two funniest levels in any game, ever.

Off topic, but does anybody know if the Humble Bundle version of the game has cheat codes or not? Because I know the steam version doesn't, and I really want to use confusion grenades on the agents in the Milkman Conspiracy, as it is apparently supposed to be hilarious.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I would say that it does get better later. Right now you're in the stage where every level is a tutorial of some kind. Once those are done it really kicks into high gear.

 

[Eomega123]

Did I enjoy Psychonauts?

<---
<---
<---

Yes I did. The beggining of the game is rather slow going, as they're still getting you used to all your powers, but things pick up drastically once you get to Lungfishopolis. You've been in sane brains, the insane brains are the fun ones. Just get that stupid hunt for the arrowheads over with early and buy the cobweb duster. The scavenger hunt, while not the greatest side quest in history, isn't overly difficult and earns you a couple of levels. Unless you're a completionist, don't bother with the figments, and if you are there's no shame in using a guide. Give it another chance, it might suck you in.

 

[Zaik]

Functionally, it's not really different from the platforming collectable hunts that were as common as CoD and WoW clones are now back when the PS1 was srs bznz and the internet was still some sort of miracle rather than an ocean of piss.

Seems to me if you don't have a raging nostalgia hardon it's probably not going to be that interesting. Just my opinion though.

 

[Don Savik]

Overrated? I was aware it sold terribly and became popular due to cult classic-isms.

Whatever makes you feel better about yourself I guess *shrug*

 

[retrochimp]

I think this game is fucking ingenious. Admittedly, the first time I played it I was on a fair amount of acid, but subsequent sober play-throughs have proven it still excellent. It's much less about the gameplay (which is... lackluster) nor is it about the humor (which I like most of, but can admittedly get a bit grating when you die a lot and have to hear the same jokes over and over) but rather it is about the conception of the levels. Even the tutorial levels, while not being amazing, are still well conceptualized, but once you get to the asylum the "mind games" kick into high-gear.

Trying to conceive of the multi-layered thought-process of just one of the levels boggles the mind, and to have so many well-implemented different kinds is beyond genius. I can't even describe how brilliant they are because laying them out in the linear fashion of the written word diminishes their impact. Jung, had he lived to see it, would probably have given up writing and just pointed to Psychonauts and said "That." It is less a game and more an interactive artistic portrayal of the inner workings of the human mind that happens to include combat and collectibles.

So, obviously, if you're into gaming for shooting stuff and high scores, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. But if you are willing to accept this thing on your console as a new means of storytelling, you owe it to yourself to play Psychonauts all the way through. And, if that is your paradigm, you should probably play Chibi-Robo, Stubbs The Zombie, and Killer 7 as well.

 

[everythingbeeps]

I didn't read all the posts so it's probably already been said, but the great thing about Psychonauts wasn't the gameplay, it was the world, the characters, the story, the humor.

The gameplay itself ranged from tolerable to plain bad. There were parts of it that were beyond tedious, particularly near the end. Yes, there were some really clever mechanics, but few of these were implemented in a way that didn't make them a chore to use.