Review

If movies are to be believed (and why would Hollywood lie?) going to Summer Camp is an important part of every American child’s formative years. Aside from Academic themed camps, Fat camps and musical camps I’m pretty sure that I’ve never heard of a Psychic Camp before. This is where the “special” kids of Psychonauts are spending the summer, and you get to take on the role of Razputin (Raz for short) and especially gifted boy with a mysterious agenda.

Raz is driven to become a Psychonaut – a kind of psychic secret agent – but even the camp’s Commandants are weary of his motives, especially as his arrival wasn’t through normal means. Using your psychic abilities you must undergo training and learn such abilities as pyrokenisis (set enemies on fire), levitation, telekenisis and the all-important psi-blast. All of which will come in very handy indeed!

This all comes from the mind of Tim Schafer, the genius behind Grim Fandango and Day Of The Tentacle, two of the PC’s finest ever adventure games. His experience on these classics has spilled over into Psychonauts as well as the humour is genuinely funny at times.

The incredible art design weirdness that is what makes it stand out, the characters look seems to have been heavily inspired by Tim Burton and the levels themselves, thanks to their location, are occasionally genius but always brilliant. All of them are played out inside the minds of the various key characters, which Raz enters through doors that appear on their forehead, and this leaves them free to deviate from the conventional.

Fortunately it’s also great fun to play, even if the bits where you wander around the camp occasionally seem like a chore. There are tons of secrets to be found by wandering around and chatting to the other kids but it’s the last thing you want to be doing when you want to progress the story! Thankfully, the controls are as simple as you’d expect them to be and tackling even the larger enemies is never cumbersome.

As far as platformers go, finding a good one on the Xbox is a pretty tough call, so Psychonauts is definitely the best you’ll find for that system. Also, any game where the options on the menu screen are entered through doorways on a giant floating brain has got to be worth a look!

About the Review

Platform

Microsoft Xbox

Developer

Double Fine

Publisher

Majesco Entertainment

Released

10th February 2006