Psychonauts

This game features a unique world with a very quirky sense of humor. I just replayed it after so long, expecting it to not hold up anymore, but apart from a few control niggles and some slightly hard to read level design, this game still plays quite well. I was surprised to realise how little had actually changed for the sequel. BE WARNED THOUGH: You need a controller to play this on a modern system. I remember finishing it on Mouse+Keyboard last time around, but with Windows 10 it seems there is noticeable mouse lag, to the point of rendering the game unplayable. So if you have a controller, and want to dive into an older 3D platformer with a ton of personality, this is a great gem to try out.

The first time I tried playing this game, I simply gave up on it within an hour. The controls seemed awkward for some reason, the world was very unusual and everything seemed absurd. After a few months, I watched an interesting review about it and I decided to give it another go. This time I was patient was ready and willing to accept unfamiliar ideas. This game is a masterpiece, once you get to understand it. The game is bizarre and that is the real charm of this game. There are a only a few games which have reached such peculiar strangeness in world and characters. It is grotesque and lavishly beautiful. Characters, dialogs and plot are very memorable. And, I really loved the dousing rod.

This is an above average title, it's about on par with Super Mario 64 and Rayman 2 in terms of quality 3D Platformers The Pros +The characters and story are truly top notch due to Tim Schafer's experience with Point and Click Adventure titles + Very creative worlds that are mostly a joy going through + Great Platforming for a 3D title + Good music +/- Too many collectibles for my taste personally The Cons - Some of the levels can be a chore to get through (looking at Waterloo World in particular) -The bosses overall are kind of lame if you ask me, I'd prefer they don't exist personally - Gameplay isn't the best Overall I would still recommend this title especially if on a sale because it's definitely worth playing despite some of the issues that do drag the title down a little bit

The game is great, beautiful voice acting, funny lovable characters and basically agree with all the other positive ratings. However, there seem to be some graphics bugs in the macos port of the game (or it might be due to me playing it on Apple Silicon): Constant music dropouts and graphics glitches (stuff from the background getting drawn infront of objects infront of you for example). It is playable and the humor and feel is still there but it is a little deminished by these bugs and some parts of the game can get a little challanging and confusing but are still managable.

Psychonauts is a sort of a cult game, one of those that makes something so well it gets fondly remembered even if there is a bunch of other not so great things on it. For Psychonauts, we talk level design, with one particular level receiving rave reviews back then for very good reason. On Psychonauts we play as Razputin, a kid that sneaks into a camp for kids with psychic abilities because he wants to become a psychic soldier, and fortunately for him he has the potential for it. He has to do it way faster than other kids because his father disapproves however. In 2 game days he does a full run, saves everyone, even gets a gf. As psychics we get to transport ourselves into the minds of others so design wise anything goes, but the variety of the worlds is spectacular. A lot of care went into it, nothing is recycled, and the elements it plays with are most of the time really charming (emotional baggages, mental cobwebs, memory vaults), the so acclaimed level is one where we get into the mind of a conspiracy theorist, it still leaves its mark. Other things the game does well is offer a good range of powers or skills, create a charming environment in the camp (it's worth it wasting time talking with the other kids) and not going crazy with the difficulty, although this wasn't the case in the original release. So why 3 stars? A big problem is the story. As amusing and cool as the levels were, the whole thing requires to "sneeze your brain" a bit to stay immersed, and the ending feels super rushed. Despite the effort creating the characters and environment they hardly matter, One "real world" level breaks the entire illusion of psychic world because it goes too crazy, and the end has a healthy dose of good old deus ex machina. The other problem was technical issues: Poor camera mechanics, a weird save/load system and a "looping" glitch that to me sadly became more noticeable as the game advanced. Without the issues it would have been 4 stars, still recommended.