A Ryan's Review: Psychonauts

[Nayrman]

Finally done messing around in this game, so I figured I should just go ahead and review it and stop being lazy. Oh, my gaming reviews will be reformatted from the old IGN way of doing it. It will now be in the following way:
Story/Premise
Gameplay
Graphics
Music/sound
Entertainment
"Summary in One Sentence"

That format seems to work generally well for my anime reviews so I'd figure I'd bring it over into my gaming as well, since the IGN reviews tend to be kinda vague anyway. So...here goes!

Psychonauts: A.K.A. the most criminally underappreciated game ever


Story/Premise: The story/premise of this game is actuall deceptively simple in terms of what it wants to do. Razputin, an up and coming Psychonaut (A psychic policeman of sorts), runs away from the circus to a psychic summer camp, to learn the ways of a psychic and become a psychonaut. During the game you encounter a lot of strange characters and villains to stop.

In terms of story, it's rather well done, since it's always interesting. It's also interesting that all the levels in the game consist of going into other people's minds, and everyone is different. For example, your gun-ho military teacher's mind is a battlefield, while the lake monster is a town of walking talking fish *FREEDOM! FREEDOM!*. It's rather amusing that this worked so well, and it always keeps things fun because you never know what exactly is going to happen next. This is one of the most fun gaming stories I've ever played, and anyone should be able to enjoy the story of the game. If you don't then you're the equivalent of Ben Stein on anti-depressants.
Story/Premise: 10/10

- Raz

Gameplay: As far as gameplay goes, it's a platformer oddly enough. It's not exactly Mario platforming, but close enough to be in the same category. Also, during the game you get a plethora of psychic powers like "shooting", "invisibilty", etc., etc. The nice thing is that all these powers (save one god awful one) are used constantly throughout the game so you never just throw out powers. It's nice to see this in games, unlike many an RPG with 1000+ items with one (UND PRESISELY VON!) use. The best thing I can say about this game is that it doesn't try to do to much. It knows it's an action game, and doesn't mush things together for no reason. All levels are "beat the level by doing X" levels, and it doesn't really stray too far from that. Also, the psychic powers don't take too long to figure out, so there isn't a needlessly complicated setup to it. Finally, some of the puzzles are simply BRILLIANT (a game of war against Napolean? AWESOME!)

However, that's not to say it's all perfect. The jumping/platforming is far from Mario's status, and you'll constantly find a bunch of areas you'll just miss for no apparent reason other than just not jumping the way you want too. It's something you'll get over after a few tries though, so it's not a big deal...if you can put up with some annoyingly difficult sections now and again (and escort mission in a platformer, really?). The only other major problem in the gameplay department I can come up with is directions. The game is great at telling you what to do, but not on HOW to do it. There is an in game hint system, but it rarely helps. Trust me when I say at the end of the game you'll be visiting Gamefaq's quite a bit unless you have the craziness equal to Monty Python to correlate such things. My final gripe about the gameplay is that the combat isn't that fun. Sure, enemies are amusing to no end (desk clerks, girl scouts, and the navy OH MY!), but fighting them isn't. Other than punching, few powers are really adept to fighting and frankly other than punch and shoot, there is nothing to really use. Also not a huge deal, but it gets repititive about halfway through.
Gameplay: 8/10

Graphics: Well, it is a PS2/Xbox game, so by today's standards, it isn't terribly good. However, that's not to say it's bad either. The look has a nice charm to it, similar to Tim Burton's "A Nightmare Before Christmas". Actually, this is like the gaming equivalent to that movie in terms of style. Everything has that "wierd" look to it, but nothing looks out of place and everything fits nicely in a package. Mouth movemenets and animation is really nice and smooth, which is good since it's on the last gen of systems. Like most games from those days though, there are some bad textures, "bleh" plasters on walls, and has a real problem in the dark and closed areas. None of those are big surprises, but since everything else looked nice, I had my hopes up. Just be sure to move the camera around, A LOT.
Graphics: 8.5/10

Music/Sound: Another "not bad but not great either" categories like the graphics. The music is rather forgettable; in fact you usually don't notice it at all except during cutscenes when something is supposed to happen. The voices are very well done however, which is suprising since platformers usually tend to either have little/no voice, or mess it up horribly. I'm glad they got it right though, since it was of the upmost importance for this game with so many strange and interesting characters in it. Without the good voicework, the game would be no where near as fun and interesting. I just wish they spent all that time on the music, since it's so dull you're almost better off turning something else on. It's a shame, but I suppose every game can't be perfect.
Music/Sound: 7/10 (voices GREAT, music HORRIBLE)

- "This won't hurt a bit...until you BRAINS COME FLYING OUT!"


Entertainment: Despite some gameplay flaws, this is one of the MOST AMUSING games I've ever played. The entire game is just fun to play because the story/game is so well presented it's astounding. After the first generic tutorial levels, every level is imaginative and funny beyond belief. I mean seriously, when was the last time you played a game with: a 1950s town of talking fish, an evil dentist with a brain fettish, a neon color mexico, Napoleon, and a meat circus? I'll tell ya when...NEVER! You want to get to the next level to see what other silliness this game can throw at you. This also stems from the wondrfully well done characters in this game that are all fun to talk to. "I am the Milkman, my milk is delicous!", "Mmmm...bacon!", "You may be clinicly insane, we'll test for that later" are all quotes you're going to hear, and is just a small fraction of the funny stuff you'll get to listen to while playing this game, and it never gets old. I want to know who the writers are so I can thank them personally for such well done dialouge. Overall, if you can forgive a few minor gameplay flaws, you'll find a criminally underplayed game from last gen.
Entertainment: 11/10
Overall: 9/10

In one sentence: "Super Mario + The Nightmare Before Christmass + Invader Zim (DOOM!) = Psychonauts"