Psychonauts

blend of fairly average platformer and fantastic story/setting, and absolutely worth playing just for the amazing cast of characters and the bonkers world they inhabit.

Pros: This game is a LOT of fun. The voices and general wacky world is hilarious and there are a lot of hidden meanings in the "mental" portions of the game. You are generally free to explore and it's fun to try to figure out how to get to different places in the game. Cons: This is an obvious console port and the clunky controls on a PC detract from the experience CAMERA ANGLES, CAMERA ANGLES, CAMERA ANGLES - The brutal camera angles and control of the camera are the one truly frustrating part of this game. You often will not see where you are going or need to go because of the silly camera implementation. Overall this is a game I recommend.

Alors on commence par ce qui fâche : Le jeu à prit un sacré coup de vieux. Outre le fait que les graphismes ont vieilli, c'est la maniabilité ainsi que la caméra qui est le plus à déplorer dans ce jeu de plate-forme. Lourd et rendu hasardeux par une caméra qui ne permet pas toujours d'apprécier les distances, le gameplay pourrait en crisper plus d'un, notamment sur les derniers niveaux qui demande une attention et un doigté sans faille. Mais passé ces défaults qui dénotent d'une époque révolue, Psychonaute est un vrai bijou en terme d'univers. Les habitués de Schafer et de sa clique d'outsider du jeu vidéo seront ravis de retrouver cette patte si peu commune aux autres productions du genre. Un monde complètement barré qui, malgré ses airs loufoques, nous transporte de part son imaginaire débordant de fantaisie et d'humour bien fou. De plus l'oeuvre nous amène à nous poser des questions sur nous-même et notre esprit, un petit peu comme Vice-Versa la fait en 2015. Le scénario reste classique (un peu dommage), mais vu le travail effectué sur le background on ne se sent pas délaissé en émotion et en twist narratif. La musique de Peter McConnell fonctionne parfaitement avec le jeu et aide à nous ambiancer dans ce monde de fou que Schafer nous a pondu. En somme, un bon jeu représentatif de son époque, qui pourra ravir par son univers et ses idées, mais rebuter par sa technologie un peu ancienne. Ps : Le deuxième épisode de cette franchise est en chantier et devrait être disponible fin 2018, donc ne tarder pas trop à vous procurer ce bijou.^^

Tim Schafer's first work with his development studio Double Fine, Psychonauts is excellent for the most part, but is let down by a few design choices and somewhat poor platforming controls. The overall concept is quirky, unusual, and brilliant-you play as Razputin, a runaway from the circus who attempts to unravel the mysteries surrounding Whispering Rock Summer Camp, a training ground for young psychics before his parents arrive to take him home. Along the way, Raz meets a full cast of interesting and entertaining characters, including a pair of psychic secret agents (the titular Psychonauts), the rest of the erratic and outrageous campers, and a host of other miscellaneous lunatics that all add an unbelievable amount of character to the game. The game takes place in two environments: the summer camp and locations around it, which function as a sort of hub world and lovingly designed platformer-style worlds, each of which takes place within the minds of one member of the cast. To avoid spoilers I won't get into details about each of the levels, but it's obvious that an amazing amount of love and care went into each one, further adding to the game's fantastic atmosphere. Unfortunately, while solid enough overall, Psychonauts can be somewhat lacking in the gameplay department. The game is a platformer for the most part, which makes the occasionally sticky controls and difficult-to-control camera more of an issue than they would be otherwise. Of special note here is the last level of the game, which is controller-smashingly frustrating at times. Moreover, two late-game collect-a-thons (Collecting the last of Raz' powers and gathering enough "money" to purchase some items necessary to finish the game) break up the game's flow and feel like they were added to artificially lengthen gameplay time. Lastly, the game was obviously developed with consoles as the lead platform-the default PC control scheme is unintuitive and cumbersome. I strongly suggest playing the game with a controller for that reason. Overall, Psychonauts is a breath of fresh air and a fantastic departure from modern mainstream gaming. Its control and gameplay design issues don't prevent the game from being absolutely worth the price and a solid addition to any gamer's library. If you haven't played through the game before, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy.

Out of all the games I've played, this one might be the hardest to categorize, just because of how many genres it manages to seamlessly combine. It's part comedy, part platformer, part action-adventure, and part puzzle game, and yet surprisingly, all of them are well-executed and make for a very fun experience. Probably the strongest portion IS it's humor. Combined with great characters and the quirky setting of a psychic summer camp and conspiracies of world domination, its story will have you grinning the whole way through. For the most part, the rest of the gameplay is very good as well. The puzzles are creative and get you thinking, but aren't vague or obtuse, so you won't have to shut off the game every five minutes to check out a walkthrough like some point-and-click games. The platforming is also fun, and is at its best when you explore the different levels by combining Raz's psychic abilities with his acrobatic ones. The game isn't flawless though. During these platforming sections the camera can occasionally get in your way, something that ranges from mildly annoying to hair-tearingly frustrating (including one VERY aggravating portion towards the end that you will fail time and time again at just fighting the camera). But the main problem for me is that the game is extremely cut-scene heavy, many of which are unskipable. I get that the game is story-driven , but I still feel like most of these cut scenes could have been presented as scripted events, and it gets annoying (on one stage in particular) when the control is yanked from you every five minutes or less for yet another cut scene. Also, most of the boss fights are disappointingly easy, but now I'm just nitpicking. Overall, regardless of these flaws, I still highly recommend this to any gamer looking for a good platformer or comedy game. On a side note, I would have given it 4.5 stars if I could, but the problems are significant enough to prevent me from giving it the full 5.