"One of the few games to fully grasp the concept of humor"
For those who don’t know any of Schafer’s works (and if you don’t you shouldn’t call your self a gamer) then this will be a new experience. He is famous for such games as Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, and co-designer of Day of the Tentacle, all of which are cool and funny at the same time. In Psychonuats this is no exception, the game is funny, and not just cheesy funny, but actually funny. From the bizarre dialogue to the weird and wacky characters there is just no stopping.
The game itself follows the story of Raz, a boy who ran away from home to a camp where they train Psychonuats. The story picks up as Raz is trying to sneak into the camp and is caught by Agent Nine, one of the most Elite of the Psychonuats. He escorts you to your cabin were he tells you that you are not to leave the room at all until your father come to pick you up. Naturally Raz sneaks out in the morning to go to what is called Basic Braining from there the story continues on a long but somewhat short path.
The first thing that sticks out about the game is the presentation, which looks almost too normal. In the real world of the game everything is generic and kind of boring. The game really shows its stuff in the Minds of the different people you meet. From a Conspiracy theorist to a man afraid of bull fighting, the games insane and sane (who are very few and far between) both have very deep characteristics and there own inner demons.
One of the coolest ideas in the game is the idea of the mental world; in here you will find the classic shrink terms, figments of your imagination, emotional baggage, and deep secrets. To help the people out along the way you must remove these things to help them become better Psychics, or just become sane. You also will rank up in your Psy level, the more you rank up, the more psychic abilities you can obtain for your use in the game.
One of the best things about Psychonuats is the Sound, which is fantastic, from the voice work to the sound effects everything fits perfectly and is not at all out of place. The voices sound crisp and clean and the lip synchronization is near perfection. But towards the end of the game there are some issues with the cutscenes, which seem to slow down and a time be completely out of sync with the rest of the animations. But overall the voice work is great and the sounds are fantastic. Psychonuats is a world without limits and boundaries and it is one of the first games in a long time to make me laugh. I look forward to more projects by Tim and his company and hope they do better in sales then the first game. If you see it in a nearby store pick it up and try it some time. You love every moment of it.