Posted on: February 23, 2025
aerierb
Владелец игрыИгр: 347 Отзывов: 19
Uneven despite elite level design
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.
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