I believe it is more than fair to consider Psychonauts is now a definite cult classic.
Lucasfilm Games comedic veteran Tim Schafer launched his own company Double Fine back in 2000 and this game was immediately in the production pipeline, originally under the back of Microsoft out of all publishers, alas that would abruptly change amidst development.
Psychonauts is an outrageously creative platforming game that takes few inspirational cues from Rayman 2: The Great Escape, all while still being entirely it's own mindblasting specimen. You take the role of Razputin (Raz for short) who is a child circus acrobat with telekinetic powers that escapes his life on the road to be tutored further on his psychic powers in a designated summer camp for prodigious children like him, and is managed by special international secret agents. If that was not already weird enough, you are trained in the ways of the "Psychonaut", a specialist that can access the surreal and abstract mental worlds of other people to unlock their deepest secrets and reasoning for their erratic behavior.
The platforming controls are pretty solid and over time it unlocks more tools to make your journeys from point A to point B faster and more fun, and be it keyboard or controller it is a good ride to jump into.
Psychonauts may be a 3D platformer at most, but it still carries plenty of the DNA from Lucasfilm/LucasArts point-n-click adventures, the game has a lot of dialog on each character and they can give you different answers depending on the kinds of questions you make and even the actions you perform around or onto them. All this and considering the writing is nothing short of phenomenal.
Psychonauts always deserved far better attention and sales from its launch in 2005, and if anything I believe it has solidified its reputation these days especially with the starry sequel it finally got just 2 years ago.
You definitely must play this one.
Lucasfilm Games comedic veteran Tim Schafer launched his own company Double Fine back in 2000 and this game was immediately in the production pipeline, originally under the back of Microsoft out of all publishers, alas that would abruptly change amidst development.
Psychonauts is an outrageously creative platforming game that takes few inspirational cues from Rayman 2: The Great Escape, all while still being entirely it's own mindblasting specimen. You take the role of Razputin (Raz for short) who is a child circus acrobat with telekinetic powers that escapes his life on the road to be tutored further on his psychic powers in a designated summer camp for prodigious children like him, and is managed by special international secret agents. If that was not already weird enough, you are trained in the ways of the "Psychonaut", a specialist that can access the surreal and abstract mental worlds of other people to unlock their deepest secrets and reasoning for their erratic behavior.
The platforming controls are pretty solid and over time it unlocks more tools to make your journeys from point A to point B faster and more fun, and be it keyboard or controller it is a good ride to jump into.
Psychonauts may be a 3D platformer at most, but it still carries plenty of the DNA from Lucasfilm/LucasArts point-n-click adventures, the game has a lot of dialog on each character and they can give you different answers depending on the kinds of questions you make and even the actions you perform around or onto them. All this and considering the writing is nothing short of phenomenal.
Psychonauts always deserved far better attention and sales from its launch in 2005, and if anything I believe it has solidified its reputation these days especially with the starry sequel it finally got just 2 years ago.
You definitely must play this one.