Psychonauts Review

Design Perfection

Psychonauts isn’t a very difficult game, but it never ever feels boring or repetitive. Because each level is completely unique and different you never have to see or do the same things twice. Challenges are exclusive to each level so in one mind you might play a bizarre board game and the next you’ll be climbing skyscrapers and destroying buildings. The best part is that even though there is an incredible amount of variety, each and every part of the game is polished to perfection. You never get the feeling that something was tacked on at the last minute. Psychonauts will take you about 12-15 hours to play through if you follow the story fairly closely, but you can spend a lot of time just exploring and goofing off and finding hidden items and your playtime will easily double. You can also go around and talk to all of the characters and get extra bits of the story as well as hear some hilarious dialogue. This is a big, well put together, funny, fun game that is absolutely worth playing through. Definitely good times.

Graphics and Sound

As far as visuals go, Psychonauts is one of the best looking games on the Xbox. The whole game looks like a cross between Dr. Seuss, Tim Burton, and a Pixar movie so you’ll see a lot of deformed looking characters and twisted environments. It isn’t dark and scary, but rather delightfully offbeat and “not quite right”. What is surprising about the visuals is how seamless everything is. Everything flows together so brilliantly and nothing ever looks out of place.

The sound is also really incredible. The dialogue is very well-written and all of the voice actors did a great job bringing the whole thing to life. Psychonauts is also a very funny game and is filled from top to bottom with jokes and references that will have you giggling the entire time you play it. I also absolutely love the music in this game. There are a ton of really memorable themes that will stick in your head for weeks.

Overall, this is a great looking and sounding game.

Bottom Line

Psychonauts is a must play title for Xbox owners. The gameplay is flawless, the graphics and sound are amazing, and the twisted art style and even more twisted sense of humor used throughout the game will hook you and not let you go. Every single aspect of this game has a coat of polish that you rarely see in games these days and I really commend the developer, Double Fine Productions, on making a great game. There is a ton of stuff to do in Psychonauts and it is fun enough that you’ll likely play through it more than once, so I highly recommend it for a purchase.