Do you like to play minds games? Do you like to get inside people's heads? Then this is the platform game for you.
I enjoyed the variety of gameplay and level design in Psychonauts. It is 3D platformer that stars Razputin who is going to a summer camp for kids with psychic powers. The kids at the camp are all unique with their own little storylines. The adults in the camp include Coach Oleander, Ford Cruller, Sasha (man), and Milla. They help you along the way and teach you new psychic powers.
The psychic powers include pyrokinesis (start fires), telekinesis (move objects), invisibility, marksmanship, levitation (floating), shield, clairvoyance (look through someone else's eyes), and confusion. Each psychic power is used to advance through different parts of the level or beat the bosses at the end of the level. My favorite psychic power was levitation because you can either float from one place to another or use it as a bouncy ball and either roll really fast or bounce really high.
You progress through the game by getting trained on the different psychic powers, moving from one area to the next, and fixing problems in people's minds using your psychic powers. The mind levels is where the game gets interesting, creative, and sometimes just plain crazy. Some of the levels that were thought up of are just crazy like the Milkman Conspiracy which has you exploring a town that is laid out with varying playing levels and angles. You need to find various objects like a play gun to get past agents with guns who think you are one of them. My favorite level was Lungfishopolis when you become Goggalor. It was like playing Godzilla since you are a huge character (size of building) and you move around the city to get to your destination.
While inside the mind levels you can open up emotional baggage after you find the right luggage tag. It was strange to me to give a suitcase tag to free the jumping and smiling suitcase. You can open up vaults which give you a picture slideshow on why the person whose mind your end became what they are. You collect figments of imagination which are translucent objects like birds, meat, etc. The one item that you collect that actually helps you along are the PSI cards which will increase your ranking and make your psychic powers either stronger or last longer.
The games graphics are well done with crisp looking environments and smooth flowing characters. Due to the advanced graphics the load wait times between the different parts of the camp and the different parts of the mind levels are long. The long load times got annoying real fast even with the animation sequences that happened on the screen during the loading. The game controls were responsive and easy to figure out. You assign the L2, R1, and R2 buttons to different psychic powers. The sound effects were good and the music did not get old. The game really shines with the character voices and dialog. There is definitely a lot of dialog in this game as you progress through the crazy and outrageous story.
There were times when I really wanted to stop playing this game because I was either frustrated on what to do next or I was failing the platforming portions of the game too much. The mind levels are crazy and I think the designers were definitely on something when they created them. Overall, the game had a very original feel to it and was compelling enough for me to finish it. I definitely don't plan on playing through this game again, but I would have to recommend it to anyone that likes platform games. Just realize what you are getting yourself into.