Welcome to the mental world of Psychonauts where you take control of boy hero called Rasputin or Raz, who dreams of becoming a Psychonaut. Raz is a natural psychic but has escaped his father who suppressed his abilities. Raz’s journey begins as he heads off to a camp for psychic children called Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. At Whispering Rock, young psychics are trained to become Psychonauts who in turn are secret agents in charge of cleaning up the world's mental problems. On his arrival to camp Raz is told that his parent will be called to take him home in a few days and so has little time to learn the skills and techniques required to become a Psychonaut. However during his stay at camp Raz discovers that something sinister is a foot, as campers turn up missing their brains. It's up to Raz with a little help from some friends to find the missing brains and restore mental peace and order to Whispering Rock.

Gameplay

Psychonauts is a third person adventure game with some platform elements thrown in for good measure. You control Raz as he begins his quest by learning different abilities which in turn bring him one step closer to becoming a Psychonaut. The abilities learnt offer some thing different to use in the field such as Levitation, telekinesis, clairvoyance, invisibility and proves most useful the further you progress in the game. There are two sections to the game with one being the real world and the other being the mental world which is usually when Raz enters a persons mind. The real world sections allow Raz to speak with other campers and the psychonaut agents. It is also here where Raz can search for items which in turn allow him to buy goods from the store. The goods are expensive but will help Raz level up and ultimately become more powerful.

The mental world sections are where things really start to get weird and wonderful because in the human mind, anything goes. There are weird places to navigate using the abilities Raz has acquired and there are also some strange creatures Raz will have to face and defeat. The mental world also lays host to a number of the game’s platform/puzzle elements which require some lateral thinking if you are to progress and include things like floating in air drafts, walking along wires, climbing poles and doing all sorts of crazy jumping.

Whilst in the mental world Raz can collect figments of imagination which are presented as hand drawn outlines of all manner of things. Collecting these figments also levels up Raz to grant him more power. There are other items to search for including bag tags for emotional baggage! The mental environments are certainly very different from each other and it provides for an awe inspiring experience at times. There is definitely plenty of humor in the game and is great to see that Raz can interact with most of the non player characters in the game (npcs).

Graphics

The art style used for Psychonauts fits perfectly with the subject matter and whilst most characters look super deformed (in a cute way) Raz and the people he interacts with are all convincing. There are some excellent facial expressions when Raz is talking and he and those around him are animated very well. The real world locations seem typical of a game of this type but once Raz enters the mental world, you are treated to some really strange locations that are designed very well, so Kudo’s to the creators there. If I was to gripe then that would have to be with the camera which I wish was lockable at times.

Sound

The in game music is pretty standard for this type of game and chugs along nicely to whatever Raz is up to. The sound effects are all pretty cool especially when hearing ambient sounds during the mental world areas. The best part of the sound is the voice acting with the main character doing a very convincing job of bring Raz to life. The other voice acting although filled with tongue in cheek humor is equally as impressive especially when combined with the cartoon like presentation.

Longevity

Psychonauts is a reasonable length single player game that has plenty of sections for you to explore and find things. Completed Areas can be revisited at any time for further exploration to find missing items and such like. Sadly there is no multiplayer element although games such as this rarely do include multiplayer as well anyway.

Overall

I have enjoyed playing Psychonauts as it makes a welcome change from all of that shooting and blowing up stuff that you do in other games. The puzzle element is intriguing the way it has been implemented into the game and the general all out wackiness of the characters and story surely sets it apart from its peers. There really isn’t much to fault for such a well put together and enjoyable adventure game. Great looking graphics and equally engaging game play makes Psychonauts a must have title for those who are looking for a different game play experience. Sadly for anyone wishing to play the game on an Xbox 360 are going to be out of luck as the game isn’t backwards compatible, so I suggest dusting off the Xbox and having a blast.

Pros:

• Great game play.
  
• Wacky worlds.
  
• Lots of humor.
  

  Cons:
  

  • Some puzzles require brain power.