Introduction


Just when you think platformers will never mature and evolve outside the gameplay (Mario, Sonic, Crash, Spyro...) Tim Schafer appears with his Psychonauts. Probably the wackiest, innovative, and most brilliant man in video game industry, man behind games such as Grim Fandango, The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, man who's games never got attention they deserve..., unfortunately Psychonauts ended up being one of those games despite having critics on it's side.

Story & Characters


The story follows Raz, a boy who ran away from his home to join summer camp where they train kids with psychics powers. His ultimate goal is to become Psychonaut, secret agent with psychics powers. He soon finds out there's something strange going on not just in the camp but his mind as well.

Psychonauts won several awards for it's brilliant story and humor. It's truly rare for this genre, thus refreshing to see a well written story among the best this genre had to offer up to this point, "go save the princess".

Characters are equally great. Unique, rather weird, though interesting character design makes them memorable as much as their personality. Characters with depth, again, rare thing in this genre.

Gameplay


Psychonauts is all, but your usual platformer. There are a lot of RPG elements, at one point even RTS. Your character levels up and learns new skills by solving tasks and collecting mind figments and psi cards. Fairly huge variety of skills, each necessary at one point in the game, will come in handy as you progress further. You can also buy various items that will come in handy on your journey such as Dowsing Rod which will help you locate hidden arrowheads (this games currency).

This game has the best level design I ever saw which affects gameplay greatly and makes it that much more enjoyable. Levels are projections of ones mind, you'll see some truly funny, bizarre, weird levels, all depending on characters mind you entered. My personal favorite is the one where Raz is pretty much a Godzilla or perhaps the one where you play war game against Napoleon. While you're in characters mind, aside opponents you're bound to encounter you can collect their emotional baggage, memories they neglected which will result in obtaining extra content like game art and videos.

Music

Not necessarily the best soundtrack I heard, though it fits the game rather well. Peter McConnell, the man behind Psychonauts score, has already worked with Tim Schafer and has impressive lineup of video games he composed for.

Presentation


Psychonauts looks great even by today's standards, part where this game truly shines though is it's level and character design. Visually unique, beautiful and creative, there wont be a single moment where you'll find this game to be repetitive on the eyes.

Replay Value


This game offers up to 15 hours of fun, perhaps even more depending how much you explore the world of Psychonauts, and there are quite a few things to find and unlock. Considering how brilliant story and characters are this game has a lot to offer, perhaps not "right away second run" for some, though players are bound to come back to this game sooner or later.

Final Verdict

10/10