Psychonauts

Truly a masterpiece of its own, Psychonauts is a third person platform/puzzle that challenges the player with a sublime gameplay and surprisingly deep story. On top of all that, the game focuses on mind powers and the deep exploration of the mind : the developers truly aced it with unique quests and deep characterization of each individual and depiction of how the human mind works, all this through brilliant comedy that manages to unify both tragic events and light jokes into a perfect mix. Gameplay wise, its both cunning and give the player enough freedom to resolve certain situations. As a timeless masterpiece , it can be played even today without suffering too much for its little dated graphics, that still are something pleasing to look at. So, prepare your bacons and and salt, it's time to go mental!

It's wonderfully designed and scripted, for that alone it's worth it. Beautiful artwork, funny dialogues, good pacing. So, yeah, it is a very good game and I fully recommend it. However, it is a 3d platform game, which means that it is very often super annoying. Even though the makers have mostly succeeded in making the camera following Raz functionally adequate, one often cannot see where Raz is supposed to go leading to frequent jumping to his death. What I also did not like in most boss fights is that it is not very clear what the boss's weakness is, so luck or googling is required. Other than that the game is rather easy and pleasant.

La première surprise fut le menu principale : on contrôle le personnage qui va vers les options : original, plutôt sympa et j'ai bien aimé le fait qu'il se couche sur différents lits lors de la création du profil. Je ne m'attarderai pas sur les graphismes (super designs), ni la VF (d’excellente qualité) ou de la bande son générale (très bien). Psychonauts a réussi à me feinter ! Le début était pas super prometteur : ça avait l'air assez niai avec certes de l'humour, je m'imaginait une histoire stupide... Quelle erreur ! L'histoire parle de la psyché humaine (même si les personnages ont pas vraiment l'air humain) et Raz explore donc l'esprit de plusieurs personnes et en fouillant un peu : je ne m'attendais pas à ce que ça soit aussi sombre ! L'exemple de Milla est le plus parlant, sans rentrer dans les détails, on pourrait carrément faire un Silent Hill avec elle comme protagoniste ! Il est assez fascinant de voir qu'au final toutes les personnes que vous croisez sont pas très bien dans leur tête et ont tous une vie pitoyable. Vous verrez du symbolisme mais pas autant que Silent Hill 2. Dommage cependant qu'il n'y aucun dialogue avec les intéressés sur ce qu'on a vu dans leur subconscient, cela aurait été intéressant Le jeu fourmille de bonnes idées et de phases originales : il faut saluer la tentative de diversifier les situations et même le gameplay (Phase avec le Boss où la caméra est son regard). La difficulté est bien dosée mais devient crispante vers la fin avec les sauts qui hasardeux et le double-saut qui veut pas se déclencher par moment. Je suis plus souvent mort à cause des chutes dans le vide que des ennemis même si certains sont vraiment pénibles (les rats... Mon Dieu). Si vous aimez les collectibles alors vous serez heureux de constater qu'il y en a partout : monnaie, carte, sphères, etc... Je conseille ce jeu, il est plein de bonnes idées et d'intentions, que demandez de plus ?

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.