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Apr 24th, 2009 at 16:41:36 - Psychonauts (XBX) |
Psychonauts is a third-person platform game from the mind of acclaimed game designer Tim Schafer. It was
developed by Double Fine Games and published by Majesco Entertainment for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and PC in
2005.
The game takes place at summer camp for psychic kids - kids who dream of becoming Psychonauts. You play as
Raz, one of the campers, who grew up and ran away from a circus as a child. At the camp, strange events began
to occur, culminating in the theft of all of the campers' brains, except yours. Throughout the game, Raz
enters and explores various characters' brains in hopes of confronting whatever dark force is behind the
brain thievery.
The third-person gameplay found within is traditional platforming affair; you run, jump, solve puzzles, and
attack things using various abilities. The gameplay revolves around various Psi Powers that you obtain
over the course of the game, whose use is necessary to defeat the various enemies and puzzles you encounter. The Psi Powers are generally enjoyable to use, though it is annoying having to pause the game and bring up the menu in order to swap powers between your three button assignments.
The real meat of the game is found in the various characters' minds you invade, while the campgrounds serve as the "hub" in-between levels, giving you access to various characters and items necessary to enter the next person's mind. The minds you enter are spectacularly designed. Each of them stands out in its own way, and it is one of the few games where it is hard to imagine any elements of one level being transported to another level without looking completely out of place. There were many times in the game where I was dumbfounded at the sheer cleverness and creativity on display.
Sometimes the game focuses a bit too much on item collection for my liking, a problem that plagues games in the genre. In the various minds you enter, you find what are called "figments." These are used to rank up and gain psychic powers in addition to the ones obtained through the progression of the story. There are hundreds of these scattered throughout the game, similar to coins in the Super Mario series. The coins in Mario games are secondary; they are there to collect, but they are only used to gain lives and don't really have much of a purpose otherwise. In Psychonauts, the collection of figments allows you to rank up and gain new Psi Powers, and at least a portion of them are necessary to proceed past certain points in the game. Unfortunately, these figments sometimes distracted me from whatever obstacle I was faced with at the time causing me to wander to remote parts of the levels to pick up yet another figment.
Psychonauts stands out from similar games thanks to its setting, story and characters. The game is filled to the brim with personality, which is evident from the get-go. One level takes place in the logical, organized mind of a scientist, another in the mind of a paranoid and delusional postman, and yet another in a city inside of a giant fish who is unwillingly possessed. The game's dialogue shines and is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, while the voice acting of the various characters you encounter is spot on, each character possessing a unique and identifiable voice.
Ultimately, Psychonauts is a very unique and well-designed game. The game's personality and charm hooks you from the onset and does not let go until the end. It is a shame that it did not sell very well because a Psychonauts 2 could have been awesome.
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Mar 6th, 2009 at 20:43:43 - Uggggh (PC) |
I also agree with my classmate's review that the high score doesn't make much sense if the only way to get on the list is by beating the game. Imagine if Donkey Kong worked like that.
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Mar 6th, 2009 at 20:36:21 - Uggggh (PC) |
The melee attack animation takes too long to perform. Logically you would think that you should approach a skeleton and press attack to kill him. In practice, however, you have to wait and press the attack key a bit before the skeleton gets to you in order to compensate for the animation delay.
Plus, you get hit by the skeleton regardless unless it happens to be at the end of its patrol path and turns around. Having the skeletons get knocked backwards in response to the sword's impact would have made the melee attack much more useful.
It's futile to try killing the Shrek-skinned archer dudes because the clouds they stand on are really small and your ranged attack doesn't travel through the clouds.
I noticed the game has a timer, but it doesn't matter because I always die way before it hits zero.
Regardless of the game's immense difficulty, I could see someone eventually beating the game through sheer trial and error. I tend to give up and move on to other things really easily though, so that someone isn't me. (I've never gotten past the third level of Ikaruga on easy with as many lives and continues as possible.)
Overall, using the X-Play scoring system, I give this game a 3... out of 5.
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Mar 6th, 2009 at 20:12:37 - Uggggh (PC) |
Your character has two attacks: a melee attack and a ranged attack. This is cool, but I found the melee attack useless since if you're hitting a skeleton you're probably close enough to get hurt by it too. The only way I could get anywhere in the game is by standing in one place away from the constant volley of arrows and spamming the ranged attack.
The music is great. It's short and loops over and over, so of course its intrinsically repetitive, but it manages to avoid becoming irritating - especially important when your game is this difficult.
The graphics are decent and get the job done. The game looks like a 16-bit era title. No complaints.
The game reminds me a lot of Ghouls and Ghosts, partly due to its knight clad in shiny armor and abundance of skeleton warriors but mostly because of its extreme difficulty.
Also, it has a boss. I know this because I watched the demo of it in class. I wouldn't know it otherwise.
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