Psychonauts Review

From the very moment you start up the game you can tell Psychonauts is something special. The graphics are phenomenal, the music and dialogue are awesome, and the gameplay is intuitive, interesting, and fun. Top that off with twisted humor and a neat artistic style and you have greatness on your hands. Psychonauts is a must-play title for Xbox owners.

Story

Psychonauts focuses on the adventures of a psychic prodigy known as Razputin (or Raz for short) who sneaks his way into a summer camp for psychically gifted children. The camp is actually a secret training ground for a group of psychic special agents known as Psychonauts and Raz is desperate to join them. At first he is turned away, but it doesn’t take long before strange things start happening at camp and Raz is the only one who can save the day. The story is surprisingly well put together and is strengthened even more so by the great cast of characters. Raz has a great personality and is easy to love and he has a great voice that instantly attaches you to him. Well, you’ll be attached to him if you were an Invader Zim or Angry Beavers fan. The game is filled with hilarious dialogue and funny moments that tie the story and the whole experience together very well.

Just What Is A Psychonaut?

The role of the Psychonauts is to enter peoples’ minds and clear out their mental cobwebs and straighten out their memories. At first you’ll just explore the campground but eventually you’ll enter the minds of the counselors, strangers you meet along the way, and even a giant hulking lungfish. As you can imagine, the mind of one person is very different from everyone else so you’ll enter a lot of strange and twisted environments over the course of the game. These levels include a town where you are a huge Godzilla like creature, a war zone, a gigantic dance party, a simplistic modern art inspired cube, and tunnels filled with tons of meat among many, many others. The huge variety of levels means that Psychonauts is always interesting and fun. You are always free to explore and talk to people and do whatever you want in these worlds and it is surprising what you’ll find in the nooks and crannies of the minds of what you assume to be normal people.

Gameplay

As far as gameplay goes, Psychonauts is a well put together 3D platformer/adventure game. Each mind you enter presents you with slightly different gameplay, but at its core it is a platformer and that is what Psychonauts does best. Moving your character around is easy and the controls are very sharp, so it is an enjoyable experience overall. What makes the gameplay really stand out are the psychic powers that you have to use in order to solve the many puzzles the game throws at you. You’ll learn how to shoot things with mind bullets (that’s telekinesis, Kyle …), levitate, go invisible, start things on fire, create a shield, and use clairvoyance (the ability to see through other peoples’ eyes). You can only have three skills equipped at one time, so you have to constantly switch back and forth and pay close attention to your surroundings in order to use the right skill at the right time in order to solve puzzles and move forward. You will also face off against a number of boss characters and the battles always make interesting use of your powers.

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