If you've lurked around here long enough, you should have noticed that several people have mentioned the game "Psychonauts" with great big glittery starts in their eyes, while a stream of drool flows from their mouth anime style. Why does this game cause such "WUV WOO" effects in our members? You may have heard that it was a major flop, or just a cult hit, but the game has been a slow burner, due to the fact that it suffers a minor version of Deus Ex effect: It's so good that every time someone mentions it, someone else reinstalls it.
So without further ado, I give to you:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hrHPKYiSwyc/TCuP9pNKoqI/AAAAAAAAAno/ZxkZpAS1CeA/s1600/psychonauts.jpg
Even the cover makes my head hurt a bit.
So, where to start? Well, it's important that you understand this: THIS GAME WILL SCREW WITH YOUR MIIIIIIIND.
Now that we understand that, on to the plot.
PLOT:
The plot is an inversion of "Kid runs off to join the circus", as it's "Kid runs away from circus to join a "summer camp for the psychically gifted", a semi-military effort to turn children into mind rapists". Essentially, the main character, Razputin, feels he is being downtrodden by his father because he is psychic. So he defies his father and runs off to a military training camp to learn how to enter people's heads, due to his impossible dream... to be...
...a Psychonaut.
A Psychonaut is basically a specialized espionage agent, who can enter people's heads effortlessly and muck around with the switches. Think "Inception", but less complicated and with much, much, much, MUCH more LSD.
Anyways, as expected, everything goes belly-up and you are the ONLY ONE who can STOP THEM from STEALING BRAINS... with SNEEZING POWDER. Trust me, you shall never, EVER sneeze the same way again. The ensuing story takes you to varied and unique locations (most of them in the folds of someone's cerebellum), including the bottom of a lake to a gravity-shattering insane asylum, an astral cube to a giant board game, a secret lab to a Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
I shall repeat that: A Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
The plot is a little cliche and unnecessary, but it does a fine job of stringing the encounters together, taking "there's something in the water" to about four new levels and throwing just enough WHODUNNIT moments to keep you interested in progressing.
Not that the plot needs to keep you going, when you have the...
PRESENTATION:
To understand what I mean by "much more LSD", go look at the cover above and try to comprehend the purpose of everything on it.
After that, tell me any circumstance in which the pictures below can be used:
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/4938/835463-meatcircus_tentcity_004_large.jpg
Steak?
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/4938/834982-lungfish_med_large.jpg
Fish?
http://www.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2006/09/psychonauts_03.jpg
WHAT THE HELL?!
This game doesn't hesitate to grab your mind and repeatedly throttle it. The graphics are a bit cartoony, but hold up very well today. They do a wonderful job of conveying just how different everyone's head is, from the gravity and sanity shattering happy facade of the Conspiracy Theorist, the stark yet stylish astral cube of the Perfectionist Genius, the bright and gleeful/horrifying and dark palette of the Bipolar, to the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
Allow me to repeat that, the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
GAH. It's the only level design in HISTORY that's made me physically sick (in a good way).
Anyways, the brains and real world are colorful and engaging to look at, even if you're just barreling through. Explorers, however, are going to find all kinds of disturbing back stories and awesome goodies lying around. Minor spoiler: Finding the Deep Dark Secret of Agent Vodello made me shriek and launch out of my chair, it's presented THAT WELL. I will never enter a powder room until I'm reassured multiple times that it doesn't exist in an astral projection of BURNING HELL.
Oh, and I have to mention the night clouds.
http://www.mobygames.com/images/i/31/18/218718.jpeg
Sweeeeet dreeeeams.
GAMEPLAY:
Sadly, this is the least awesome part of the game. Doesn't mean that it's bad though! It's just a bit... lackluster. Navigation is totally normal, jump twice to double jump, platforming, slightly finicky tightropes and ladders offset by a very forgiving edge grab mechanic, so on, so forth...
The area where the game is unique is in its use of up to three psychic powers. They include the ability to look at stuff and set it on FIRE, invisibility, a unique take on levitation (you can use your own thought bubbles to roll around on and boost your jumping), the ability to take your aggression and turn it into overpowered MIND BULLETS, and the ability to take your confuzzlement (yes, that's a word) and turn them into very confusing grenades. You can use any three at once, and can swap them out as you wish.
And trust me, invisibility is VERY handy when four very large school bully censors come around to stamp you out of the paint (there's no other place to use this sentence).
My only true gripe is that telekinesis is VERY hard to control properly and quickly (or maybe I just suck).
There aren't any truly "timed" sequences in the game that I can think of... except for a really sucky one in the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
Allow me to repeat that: the only timed sequence I can think of is in the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
Oh dear.
FUN:
So is it fun? YES. YES IT IS. It's very rewarding, it has an insane imagination, and it has a Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
I repeat, a Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
DOES THIS NOT SOUND INCREDIBLY AWESOME!?
It's fairly cheap on Steam right now, SO GO PLAY IT.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_f39sPZS74U/0.jpg
Or it will hunt you down.
FINAL GRADE: A
So without further ado, I give to you:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_hrHPKYiSwyc/TCuP9pNKoqI/AAAAAAAAAno/ZxkZpAS1CeA/s1600/psychonauts.jpg
Even the cover makes my head hurt a bit.
So, where to start? Well, it's important that you understand this: THIS GAME WILL SCREW WITH YOUR MIIIIIIIND.
Now that we understand that, on to the plot.
PLOT:
The plot is an inversion of "Kid runs off to join the circus", as it's "Kid runs away from circus to join a "summer camp for the psychically gifted", a semi-military effort to turn children into mind rapists". Essentially, the main character, Razputin, feels he is being downtrodden by his father because he is psychic. So he defies his father and runs off to a military training camp to learn how to enter people's heads, due to his impossible dream... to be...
...a Psychonaut.
A Psychonaut is basically a specialized espionage agent, who can enter people's heads effortlessly and muck around with the switches. Think "Inception", but less complicated and with much, much, much, MUCH more LSD.
Anyways, as expected, everything goes belly-up and you are the ONLY ONE who can STOP THEM from STEALING BRAINS... with SNEEZING POWDER. Trust me, you shall never, EVER sneeze the same way again. The ensuing story takes you to varied and unique locations (most of them in the folds of someone's cerebellum), including the bottom of a lake to a gravity-shattering insane asylum, an astral cube to a giant board game, a secret lab to a Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
I shall repeat that: A Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
The plot is a little cliche and unnecessary, but it does a fine job of stringing the encounters together, taking "there's something in the water" to about four new levels and throwing just enough WHODUNNIT moments to keep you interested in progressing.
Not that the plot needs to keep you going, when you have the...
PRESENTATION:
To understand what I mean by "much more LSD", go look at the cover above and try to comprehend the purpose of everything on it.
After that, tell me any circumstance in which the pictures below can be used:
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/4938/835463-meatcircus_tentcity_004_large.jpg
Steak?
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/4938/834982-lungfish_med_large.jpg
Fish?
http://www.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2006/09/psychonauts_03.jpg
WHAT THE HELL?!
This game doesn't hesitate to grab your mind and repeatedly throttle it. The graphics are a bit cartoony, but hold up very well today. They do a wonderful job of conveying just how different everyone's head is, from the gravity and sanity shattering happy facade of the Conspiracy Theorist, the stark yet stylish astral cube of the Perfectionist Genius, the bright and gleeful/horrifying and dark palette of the Bipolar, to the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
Allow me to repeat that, the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat.
GAH. It's the only level design in HISTORY that's made me physically sick (in a good way).
Anyways, the brains and real world are colorful and engaging to look at, even if you're just barreling through. Explorers, however, are going to find all kinds of disturbing back stories and awesome goodies lying around. Minor spoiler: Finding the Deep Dark Secret of Agent Vodello made me shriek and launch out of my chair, it's presented THAT WELL. I will never enter a powder room until I'm reassured multiple times that it doesn't exist in an astral projection of BURNING HELL.
Oh, and I have to mention the night clouds.
http://www.mobygames.com/images/i/31/18/218718.jpeg
Sweeeeet dreeeeams.
GAMEPLAY:
Sadly, this is the least awesome part of the game. Doesn't mean that it's bad though! It's just a bit... lackluster. Navigation is totally normal, jump twice to double jump, platforming, slightly finicky tightropes and ladders offset by a very forgiving edge grab mechanic, so on, so forth...
The area where the game is unique is in its use of up to three psychic powers. They include the ability to look at stuff and set it on FIRE, invisibility, a unique take on levitation (you can use your own thought bubbles to roll around on and boost your jumping), the ability to take your aggression and turn it into overpowered MIND BULLETS, and the ability to take your confuzzlement (yes, that's a word) and turn them into very confusing grenades. You can use any three at once, and can swap them out as you wish.
And trust me, invisibility is VERY handy when four very large school bully censors come around to stamp you out of the paint (there's no other place to use this sentence).
My only true gripe is that telekinesis is VERY hard to control properly and quickly (or maybe I just suck).
There aren't any truly "timed" sequences in the game that I can think of... except for a really sucky one in the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
Allow me to repeat that: the only timed sequence I can think of is in the Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
Oh dear.
FUN:
So is it fun? YES. YES IT IS. It's very rewarding, it has an insane imagination, and it has a Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
I repeat, a Massive Floating Circus Made Entirely Out Of Butcher Cut Meat While A Young Boy Screams In Agony About His Face As You Ascend Steaks.
DOES THIS NOT SOUND INCREDIBLY AWESOME!?
It's fairly cheap on Steam right now, SO GO PLAY IT.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_f39sPZS74U/0.jpg
Or it will hunt you down.
FINAL GRADE: A
