Delayed Reaction – Psychonauts

Posted By: Dave "Boris" Orosz

Recently I discovered something about about myself: I hate reviewers. Somehow they think they can grant a score for a game that can accurately reflects its quality. I can’t really complain though because up until now I was the type of dolt who looked a reviewer’s score and thought that it would actually provide me with some indication of what I should be playing. Then something like Psychonauts comes along and it becomes all to clear: reviewers have failed me all along.   Despite receiving solid scores by the game-review-douche-bag committee, none of them made any effort to inform me that, despite scoring less than something like Metroid Prime 2 (a great game of its own predictable right), this was a title worth playing upon it’s initial release. Instead, I waited a good four years to pick it up. And I know I am not the only victim to this. Simply put, Psychonauts is creative brilliance at its finest. If you haven’t played this game, you really need to remedy that…and fast!

For those of you who don’t know the story, a psychic kid named Raz runs away from the circus to join up with a summer camp for psychic soldiers. Shortly after his arrival, an evil dentist begins harvesting the students’ brains for an evil psychic plot. Raz must travel into the subconscious minds of everyone around him to unravel the twisted mystery. Having been birthed from the wickedly funny mind of developer Tim Schaffer, you won’t be surprised by this next statement.

Within the first five minutes, I was laughing out loud. This game is genuinely funny in a way rather that avoid the ‘script-had-a-pass-through-the-template-funny-department’, which too many games seem to find ‘good enough’. It places the cast in situations that are relatable and interesting, no matter how large or small their part may be. Each level is designed to symbolize the fears and desires of the individual characters’ subconscious minds respectively. This metaphorical interpretation affects not only the physical look of the world and the back-story of the character, but the raw gameplay mechanics as well, which are almost never the same between any two levels. Even though the levels are so varied, the cohesive story prevents it from feeling like disjointed games taped together and instead makes it feel like a trippy exploration of the rabbit hole. Think Tim Burton at his psychotic finest and you’ll have an idea of what some of these levels are like.

For Example, I was walking through the insane asylum, giddy by the prospect of being able to go into the minds of all the crazy people there. One character’s mind was being conquered using settlers of Catan style board game. Another’s was what should have been a typical suburban street, only it was twisted and looping around upside down. Furthermore, it was populated entirely by secret agents who were trying to convince me that they were road workers or gardeners because they held a prop related to their cover ID and rambled on superficially about their “job”. Imagine Humphrey Bogart in a fedora and trench coat holding a rolling pin and posing as a housewife calling you a ‘husband-stealing tramp’. This is the kind of genuine humor that allows me to not only completely forget the 2 points short of a perfect 10 this game would be rated and instead, lift it to the top of my must play list.

The reason this game is rated at around an eight, even by my standards, and might have missed your holiday list is because it does have a lot of gameplay issues. The camera is less than intuitive, frequently placing itself behind walls and trees. The platforming is inconsistent. The lock on button requires that you to mash it repeatedly in the hope that the character will actually lock on to anything. The player will grab onto ledges or ropes only if he feels like it. Despite these issues, Psychonauts is still a must play game.

It provides an entertainment and enjoyability quotient that is rarely seen in games. What numerical scores seem to rate on its own standard is the developer’s success at putting together a clean game rather than the scoring it based on the end user’s enjoyment. This would earn much closer to a 10 if it were scored on its enjoyment and connection with the user. If you buy an orange peeler that’s only an eight out of ten, try to remember why you bought it in the first place; your love of oranges.

If you’re still reading this, then you really should play Psychonauts. It may not be everyone’s absolute favorite, but it has all the elements of a great experience that will really resonate with your funny bone, gameplay issues and frustrating difficulty curve aside. If you’re interested in playing a game that really challenges your concept of what a game can or should be, and you like quirky, humorous stories then this may very well become your favorite game of all time. You can take your ‘eight’ and shove it.

David ‘Boris’ Orosz

Pros:
Awesome story
Hilarious quirk
Deep, rich characters
Incredible variety in gameplay and level design
Unique style
Pros that far outweigh any possible Cons

Cons:
The Camera can get too easily placed behind objects
Platforming can be inconsistently difficult
The lock on is cumbersome
Awkward difficulty curve
No replayability other than starting a new game

Play Time: 10 – 12 hours

If you like:
Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Tim Burton, Pixar Shorts, Alice in Wonderland, Full Throttle, Monkey Island series