Doublefine's Psychonauts

As mentioned in my Brutal Legend post, Psychonauts was Tim Schafer's first game released independently under his Doublefine Studios brand. Prior to Brutal Legend's release you may not have even known about this game due to lack of proper marketing. Call it noob syndrome, call it laziness, call it "just not knowing what to do", Tim Schafer just didn't promote the game enough to get people hyped up about it. So on release day sales weren't what you'd expect, but thanks to word-of-mouth Psychonauts' popularity picked up after release because people were writing good things about it. Lots of good things.

I picked up this game not too long after it was released and it remains one of my top favourites. I had seen enough stills and read enough reviews to know that it was for me. The pictures of the"Black Velvetopia" level alone intrigued because it reminded me of Oogie Boogie's lair from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Once I popped that disc in, it was love at first play. Even the main menu was endearing, with the mini-Raz running around a rotating brain and the figments floating around you.

Psychonauts takes place at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. As you could guess, it's for children with psychic powers who either wish to hone their skills better, or for those who are too unstable to be anywhere else. It starts off with a dramatic campfire speech from short-stack Coach Oleander, an ex-military camp counselor who is about one taco short of a combo meal at times, and whose own psychic abilities aren't as great as the three other counselors, Milla, Agent Sasha Nein (male), and Ford Cruller.

Our main character, Rasputin, literally crashes the party stating he wants to learn to become a Psychonaut. Unfortunately for him he doesn't have his parent's permission to attend so he is only allowed to stay for however long it takes for them to pick him up. You spend most of the first half of the game exploring the camp grounds, listening in on the other campers' conversation (which surprisingly goes on for a long time before it loops), and learning and discovering new powers. You can also dig up arrowheads from the ground which can be used to buy items from the store, and you'll spend a lot of time collecting these in order to get all the fancy gadgets.

The game features some excellent voice acting, including Richard Steven Horvitz who is most known for the voice of Zim from Jhonen Vasquez's short-lived Invader Zim cartoon on Nickelodeon. Horvitz' delivery of sarcasm and childlike wonder did well for Raz and really helped bring him to life. The rest of the cast succeeded in giving each character their own distinct personality and never did you feel like the characters were too stiff or too goofy.

I think what helped the voice actors deliver well was mostly in the writing. The dialogue can be so laugh-out-loud funny at times, and other times you really feel yourself sympathizing with some OCD named Edgar who struggles with a broken heart and a bad temper.

What you would normally call levels in a game is referred to as someone's mind or subconscious in this one. One of the unique elements of Psychonauts is that you get to enter the minds of certain characters who seem... confused or not quite right. Raz's aim is to figure out why these people are the way they are, then fix it so they can become functional human beings again (so to speak, sometimes you can't always make someone 'right' again, as is the case with the Milkman/Boyd and Gloria Von Gouton).

It's really fun to see what someone's mind is like, even if it is a video game character, it still makes you wonder when you look at people in real life. I know that after playing this game I would continuously contemplate what my subconscious was like and how it would appear to a Psychonaut should they enter. My favourite subconscious of the game is probably the Milkman Conspiracy after Black Velvetopia.

This Conspiracy level shows the mind of someone who is unhinged, someone who is consumed by paranoia and distrust. The road does not always go forward and there are agents pretending to be regular people, albeit unconvincingly. Some of the best lines of Psychonauts come from this level, as the "G-men" will try to blend in by holding an object and stating monotone facts about what that object portrays. Or even just random things that make no sense. A few of my favourites:

• Look at that woman's breasts, they are large. (Road Crew)
• Plants need to have water poured on them because they have no hands to move glasses of water (Watering Can)
• I am on the road crew. This is my stop sign. (Road Crew)
• Though I often smell of excrement I deserve your respect because I provide a valuable service (Sewer Worker)
• Hello, sewer worker. I think I met you at the union meeting.
• Some day the popularity of mobile phones will make my job obsolete. (Phone Crew)
• The people are underground. And I have brought flowers… because I am sad. (Grieving Widow)
• Why God... Why. (Griever, remember, said in a flat, monotone voice.)

More can be found on the deviantART page of NoName47, here's the link to the first which has links to the others in the description. If you've played the game, they will make you chuckle and smile. If not, then you might be a little perturbed, which only means you must play this game.

There is no higher praise I can give to this game, it's highly enjoyable and has plenty of replay value just for the dialogue alone. Plus Doublefine made sure to give you challenge by hiding collectibles and 'easter-eggs' about the game for you to enjoy.

A Psycho-pedia was created within the past year to collect all things Psychonauts, including character bios, details about the different worlds, and fan art. There are also a couple videos that are worth checking out that give a little look inside to the last production days of Psychonauts and also some short video-art pieces that aired on MTV. Check them out if you aren't doing that now.