Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Instant classic"

Psychonauts. There's something about the odd style and bizarre humor of this game that simply makes it a ton of fun to play. This game hasn't sold well, probably due to the game's odd story and cartoon-like graphics. Psychonauts is a game that's rather hard to describe without people thinking that it sounds terrible, although it really isn't a bad game in any way.

The plot of this game gives you control over a kid named Raz (short for Razputin) that runs away from home in order to go to a summer camp for psychic children to train in being a psychic soldier, also known as a Psychonaut (hence the title). You'll be exploring the minds of all sorts of strange people, each giving you a completely different level design. You can explore the mind of your coach, the mind of a ego-obssessed actress, the mind of a troubled painter, and many more.

Psychonauts also uses a ranking system, in which advancing ranks can earn you new psychic powers for Raz to use in and out of people's minds. These include things like telekenesis, pyrokenesis, and levitation. You advance ranks by getting things called PSI Challenge Markers, by finding scavenger hunt items across the campsite, and by collecting "figments" inside people's minds. The rank levels go all the way up to 100, so it's a long way to being a true psychic master!

The graphics in this game look like a full 3D cartoon style, which sounds like a bad thing, but it definitely fits in with the theme of this game. It would actually be more of a bad thing if this game's graphics were more realistic! But the cartoon style works out well, and it actually looks better than people might say it does.

The sound in this game is great. The music gets more suspenseful when it needs to, and gets more peaceful when it needs to. It works just the way it should. And the voice work in this game is FANTASTIC. The characters voices are very well done, and are full of emotion and realism.

Breakdown by category:
Plot: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Replay value: 8/10

Overall, Psychonauts is a fantastic gaming experience and you should not hesitate to pick this game up if you see on the shelf at the game store.