Psychonauts Review (May)
One of the best 3D platformers ever made.
I'm a massive fan of platformers, both 2D and 3D. It was the main genre that made me interested in video games to begin with. Over the years, I've played a lot of them. From the simple pleasure of Mario, to the fast paced and inconsistent rollarcoaster of Sonic, to the smashing and bashing of Crash Bandicoot, I've seen all of the biggest stars of this genre. Psychonauts, meanwhile, is a game that easily deserves to stand among them.
In fact, I'd go so far to say that this game alone is better than most of them.
Firstly, the story and writing is fantastic. The care and effort put into it is obvious at all times. If you're somehow unaware of the plot, I won't spoil it. It's a rather simple story honestly, but the characters are what make it great. The core premise of the game revolves around a young psychic kid named Razputin who has to use his powers to enter the minds of other characters. As such, every level is themed around that character's mind. Themed around their past. Themed around their trauma. Psychonauts is not a game to shy away from dark subject matter. Many of the minds you enter in this game belong to deeply troubled individuals suffering from mental illness, and your goal is to help them work through their trauma and help them forge better lives for themselves. It's all handled with such care and attention to detail. Every collectable you find has meaning beyond it's gameplay value. From figments of ideas that compliment their surroundings, to literal emotional baggage, to mental cobwebs formed by an individual neglecting part of their psyche, and to living vaults that contain the individuals brightest (and darkest) memories. Everything in this game is working to tell the story and flesh out it's characters.
However, despite it's very serious subject matter, Psychonauts is a delightfully funny game. The game is constantly hitting you with jokes, and not in an overbearing way either. Psychonauts knows exactly when to be funny and exactly when to be serious. It's not mocking it's subject matter. The humor serves to constantly lighten the mood and never allow the game to become overly dark. As for the type of humor in Psychonauts, it's usually dark humor, but portrayed in a very cartoony over-the-top way. It's pretty similar to something like Invader Zim or The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, which seems appropriate considering the game's voice talent. It's very 2000s feeling, but in the best possible way. Thankfully, the writing actually aged pretty damn well in my opinion, which I unfortunately can't say for a lot of other 2000s comedy media.
But enough about story, what about the gameplay? Well, it's fantastic too. Some people call the game a collectathon which it kinda is but also kinda isn't. Every non-inventory item serves to boost your Psi-Cadet Rank. Collect enough of the right things, and you rank up. The maximum rank is 101, and that's essentially 100% completion. You only need to hit rank 30 (which is not at all hard to do) to beat the game. After you hit 30, you simply get helpful but unneeded upgrades. I got 101% which was (mostly) a pretty fun task. Most of the collectables are a blast to get, although figments can be pretty annoying. However it's still not accurate to call it an actual collectathon. Rather, Psychonauts is a level by level platformer with combat and old-school adventure game elements. Some levels lean hard on platforming, some lean hard on combat, and some lean hard on adventure-style puzzle solving. So let's break all three down one by one.
Platforming:
Razputin was born in the circus, so he's a very skilled acrobat. The game is filled with various circus-themed obstacles, alongside usual platforming obstacles. The controls are pretty smooth and it's pretty fun to just jump and fling yourself around. Raz is also a psychic, so he learns various psychic powers throughout the plot. Most of them don't have platforming use, aside from one notable exception: Levitation. Raz can summon a rolling ball and bounce high in the air then glide freely to the ground. It's kinda broken but it's super fun. There's not much more to say about platforming. It's pretty fun and it does it's job.
Combat:
The combat is alright. Raz has a three hit combo as well as various psychic moves you can pull out. It's pretty easy to exploit, especially if you have a pretty high rank, but again it's fun enough to keep the gameplay interesting. Enemies were pretty repetitive but it's not a big deal. Combat isn't really a big deal.
Adventure:
The game involves a lot of talking to characters, figuring out what they want you to do, and often what item you need to find to do it. The puzzles never get that complicated but it keeps the levels interesting. The game naturally also has lots and lots of exploration, especially if you want to go for 101%.
While none of these three styles are super deep, the game is greater than the sum of it's parts. It all adds together into a really great gameplay loop, and when you add that with the constant deliberate story it all combines to a very complete feeling experience. The game is firing on all fronts, and even if it didn't hit the mark perfectly on all of them, it hit close enough that it doesn't really matter to me. Psychonauts is a cult classic for a reason, and I think everyone owes it to themselves to play it at least once. For the cheap price this game is constantly at, recommending this is a no-brainer.... TV?