The first Psychonauts is a true Tim Schafer game: unconventional and a bit absurd, but funny and entertaining nonetheless. And make no mistake, this game is old, as is obvious by the graphics and certain game designs. And while the art style is unique, is grotesqueness is also not for everybody, sure. But I first played it a few years ago and so can say: even without nostalgia googles, it is a fun collectathon in today’s age, if you can forgive some old school jank.
You play as Raz, a kid with psychic abilities that sneaks into a training camp for psychic secret agents, the titular Psychonauts. He wants to be one as well, but his family of circus artists forbid it. Psychonauts can enter the minds of other people and can access memories or help with psychical problems in this way. And the mind levels of all the different characters are the highlight of the game. Every single mindscape is unique for each character with different objectives and mechanics. You have one mind stuck in a 70s disco party, where you mostly have to use a bouncing ball to float around. One from a small guy with Napoleon complex, where everything is set up like a wargame or another from a failed actress where you have to literally set the stage and tell her life story and thereby help her come to term with it.
If you like unconventional designs, collectathons and can forgive some old school control and game design issues & somehow haven’t played this game yet, I highly recommend it! The creativity in its characters and their mind levels is pretty unique. The sequel Psychonauts 2 is also a great game and modernise the formula without losing it’s charm. Between those two games is also a plot relevant VR game “Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin”. It is a fun little VR game, but if you can’t play it, just watch a let’s play or read a story summary, it’s not a long game and only the setup for the beginning of the second main game.
It’s available on GoG & Steam.
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This was one of those old critics’ darlings that I never got around to playing. Should probably add it to my backlog list.
Just finish the second and it was a blast
Psychonauts has the most creative level concepts of any platformer. Forget about forest-ice-fire levels, I want more of this.
only played the second! due a playthrough of the first
My kid played it in 3rd or 4th grade and didn’t know the game had a “continue” after you lost all your lives. They would restart the whole thing every time. They were like three quarters through the game on one run when I realized and told them.
Every house has a legendary game. This one is ours.
Everyone loves Psychonauts 1 (including me so much) until they get to the Meat Circus level. That one level can shit and fall back in it, IMO.
Easily one of my favourite games. The first one is just so damn creative and filled with fun details.
Like you can go to every one of your fellow campers and they will comment on the current events of the story.
That is what I’ve missed upon my first play-through.
I wanted to do 100% right after the final boss but quickly realized that in order to do this, you’ll need not only to cleanup everything before you reach top of The Thorny Tower, but also talk to children during different parts of the game. So, naturally I had to go though game once again and let me tell you what:
Tim Schafer is a fucking genius. Not only he made one of the most memorable Adventure games of all time, he has managed to enter 3D platforming and making it not only stylistically stand out of all the copy-paste industry stencil games, but also mix it with Adventure style dialogue that rocks your socks off. I liked the game, the story, levels, design and gameplay. But, man, dialogue is what really seals the deal to me. It is hilarious, smart, fits the world to a tee, and is important part of the game.
When I have played Psychonauts 2, I made sure to check in with all of the characters after each level of the game and explore on new dialogue options. 5x 100% playthrough, and it delivers every single time.
