Please buy this game. Please. Pretty, pretty, pretty please.
User Rating: 9 | Psychonauts PS2
I’m begging you, fellow members of the GameSpot community. Please, if you haven’t already, go out and buy a copy of this game. I’ll explain… Here’s the thing – oh, hold on a second…I have to get my soapbox out for a moment. Okay, there it is. Now then. Where was I? Oh yes – Alright. Listen up! Here’s the thing…we all talk about how there are no original concepts being turned into videogames nowadays. We whine about all the sequels and how nothing stands out above the crowd any more; how everything is just a rehash of last year’s holiday blitz of mega-hit titles. And then, a game like Psychonauts comes along, which succeeds at not only being different, but doing it with exceptional wit and style. And then…no one buys it. Hello? People? What’s the problem here? Critical acclaim can only go so far. The videogame business is not unlike any other business – success is viewed through financial profit. Period. Regardless of how unique a game is or how exceptionally well crafted it might turn out to be, no one who is in the position of green-lighting another unique idea will give two hoots if the ones before it don’t at least turn a modicum of profit. And though I’m no Alan Greenspan, I do believe in order for this to happen, well…people have to BUY THE GAME!!! I like Tim Schafer. I don’t personally know the man, but he’s clearly got a lot of talent in terms of writing fresh and hilarious dialogue, as well as creating a visually interesting world to explore. This is the first game I’ve played of his and I’m an instant convert. I would love nothing more than to play more of his games. But the fact is, there’s no telling what his future will hold if his games don’t sell (this game in particular). You see, if you want to have the privilege of complaining about the level of mediocrity in games today, then you have to go outside your comfort zone and perhaps opt for a game like Psychonauts over, say another cosmetically altered version of the same friggin’ Madden game you’ve been playing for the last ten years. Or, better yet – buy both. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we acknowledge quality when it comes out through our wallets and less through our words. If I haven’t already made this point clearly…that means you have to BUY THE GAME!! Okay. Soapbox removed. Thank you for allowing me to rant. But do you get my point? Innovation that is not purchased is doomed to hinder future attempts at innovation. It’s a nasty cycle. And if all we do is purchase the same-old-same-old every stinkin’ time, nothing new will ever have the chance to be created. There are only so many publishers who are willing to invest their money in niche titles and while games like this might not evaporate altogether, it will likely be a while until we see another like it for quite some time. Now then, so far I’ve lambasted those of you who haven’t bought the game, yet I haven’t given you any compelling reason to do so. Here, then begins my review… Strangely, I’ll start off by telling you what’s wrong with the game. It’s not perfect. The animations of characters are jerky at times. The graphics aren’t incredibly smooth. The camera can get a bit wonky at points, making it difficult to see where you need to go from time to time. The gameplay control isn’t exceptionally tight and there are a couple of battles that seem simply thrown together and provide no real sense of satisfaction in terms achievement. And worst of all (on the PS2 anyway) the loading times are too long and too frequent. To be utterly frank, when this game is at its worst, it tends to come across as amateurish in design. There. That’s the worst of it in a nutshell. And while all of these criticisms might seem harsh on paper, I need to mention that they never add up to much in the end. These are minor complaints when viewing the game holistically. In other words, none of the problems the game has cause it to be broken. Though the controls aren’t the tightest out there (you won’t think you’re playing God of War or anything) they are still good (in fact, very good at times). And while the animations can appear jerky or the camera might fix itself behind a tree, it will never get so bad that you’ll want to throw your controller against the wall out of frustration. At worst the problems are manageable and at best they’re barely noticeable. However, if I’m going to review the game with as much objectivity as I can, I have to point them out because they do exist. And one note about controls – there is a school of thought that states that the most important aspect of a videogame is its controls. And while I respect this opinion, I don’t necessarily agree with it. Of course, if a game’s controls are so bad that it is rendered unplayable then any other strength it might have is instantly overlooked. That goes without saying. However, if a game has functional controls that range from so-so to good and has many other strengths going for it, then I, at least, am willing to forgive it for not being perfect. Let’s face it. Times have changed. There was a point not too long ago when the control of a game mattered far more than it does today. When you were side-scrolling Mario along a 2D plane while jumping on turtles’ shells, of course the control had to be precise because there was nothing more to go on other than colorful backgrounds and trippy aesthetics. In this day and age, through technology, games have advanced to the point where many other factors come into play – sharper and more detailed graphics, actual music from actual musicians rather than boops and beeps of a midi loop, actual voice actors (ranging from an obscure name you’ve never heard of all the way up to Marlon Friggin’ Brando), realistic physics and larger worlds to explore and on and on. To judge a game in this day and age on controls alone is simply ridiculous. Since there’s so much more that can go into a game today, you'd miss out on some seriously great stuff if you remained so myopic about the whole thing. Which finally leads me to why this game is so damn great… Dialogue. Without hesitation I will say this – Psychonauts is simply the absolute funniest game I have ever played in my life. I found myself chuckling at times to outright slap-kneed belly aching at others. The humor in the game is so consistently well written (and spoken - ALL the actors are top-notch) that if this weren’t a game, but rather an animated TV show like the Simpsons, it would still be hysterical (the milkman being my personally favorite bit). An example (and I’m going to have to paraphrase a bit here since I don’t remember the exact quotes): After you defeat one of the bosses, he laments that though you may have won the fight, the war isn’t over because he still has the brain of a little girl (that he stole) which you are trying to retrieve. As this goes along, the protagonist, Raz starts to chuckle, to which the bad guy then replies, “What’s so funny?” Raz laughs some more and says, “You said you have the brain of a little girl.” Which makes the bad guy angrier and yadda, yadda, you get the idea. It’s this type of irreverent humor that helps make the game so exceptionally fun to play. And speaking of the dialogue, there have to be hundreds upon hundreds of spoken lines in the game. But the best part is that you’re not forced to listen to it. You’ll have your requisite cutscenes, but once they are over you have the option to linger a bit and talk some more or simply stand around and listen to other people converse. If you choose to do so, you’ll be rewarded with some of the funniest moments in the game (again, the milkman bit...I can't get enough of the friggin' milkman!!!). In this aspect it’s a bit like an adventure game, though it’s not gold or treasure you’re trying to find but rather hidden nuggets of humor. Graphics. While this isn’t the greatest (technically) looking game, it has a unique artistic style that sets it apart from most other games out there. You’ve probably already heard it before, but there a Tim Burton-ness to it that is very pleasing on the eyes. It’s cartoony to a degree, but not in a Mickey Mouse sort of way. It’s…well, not to be redundant, but…it’s unique. Variety. As you probably already know, much of the game is played out within the minds of other people. And with each new person’s personality you’ll have completely new worlds to explore and types of gameplay to utilize. And the difference in variety in this game transcends most games’ obligatory ice-levels and desert-levels. Imagine going from a sprawling suburbia as seen through the eyes of a paranoid conspiracy theorist to a world made entirely of velvet artwork…and much, much more. It’s a very pleasurable experience. In addition to the variety of environments you’ll explore, there are also a variety of unique psychic abilities that you’ll acquire, each being at least fun to play with while most actually enhancing the game’s mechanics. Using levitation will not only get you to areas that are higher up, you’ll also be able to float downward and roll around at faster speeds. Exploration. There’s a lot to explore in this game from finding buried arrowheads (money) to health items and psychic “ammunition”, to collectables that will reward you with a higher rank if you find them all. All in all, the game is pretty large and there’s a lot to see – from the campground, to the lake, to the other “real world” locations and all the many minds you’re able to explore, not only is there not a lot of backtracking, there is a lot of ground to cover . The bottom line is this – when judging this game on its weaknesses, it still gets by more than enough and yet while taking into account its strengths, it succeeds astoundingly. There truly isn’t another game like it on the market today (or at least none that I’ve come across) and in the end it proves to be one of the most enjoyable games I’ve had the pleasure to play in a truly fun sort of way. So, go a buy it please. And think of it this way, you’ll be accomplishing two things if you do. One, you’ll be sending the message to publishers out there that though you’re still willing to purchase all of their cosmetically enhanced sequel upon sequel that are more the imaginings of focus groups and demographic spread sheets than a distinctive visionary (hell, I’m guilty of it myself), but you are also willing and demand to purchase more unique games that are truly high in quality regardless of well established brand names. And two, you’ll at the very least have the privilege of owning and playing one of the most enjoyable games to come out this year. Either way you win. 
