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I believe you will agree with me that psychic powers are cool. I bet many of you would enjoy the ability to explode things with nothing more than the thought of it. Would it not be interesting to enter people’s minds and listen to their thoughts or how about running through an obstacle course set within the mind of a war veteran? Well you can have all that psychic fun with Double Fine Production’s Psychonauts. For such an unorthodox action-adventure platform game, I decided to take the unorthodox route of reviewing both the PlayStation 2 and PC version. So read on, and I will tell you why weird is fun.
Meet our psychic
hero, Razputin! Psychic Technology It is obvious what the system requirements are for Psychonauts, but for the PC that is another story. Below you will see how much computational power you will need to embark on this psychic adventure for your PC. Minimum System Requirements Windows 98 SE/2000/XP (only) Recommended System Requirements Windows 2000/XP It is true that the game pad is optional. The game is playable with the standard keyboard and mouse setup, however I strongly urge that the game be played with a game pad. The game does not need a lot of buttons, but for the sake of quick access, a lot of the menu options such as the “Journal” are mapped to a key. The PS2 version effectively uses the button layout, so I recommend acquiring a PS2 controller (or a clone) for the PC and attempt to mimic the layout. The rig I used to test Psychonauts with was: Intel Pentium 4 3.0E @ 3.2 GHz With all the options such as Full Screen Anti-Aliasing turned on at the resolution of 1280x960 @ 75 Hz, my video card was able to churn out a near 30+ FPS. Unfortunately, the frame rate would sometimes dip below the magic 30 FPS mark, which I could tolerate, but definitely not prefer. Playing at 1024x768 @ 75 Hz provided a better experience as far as frame rate was concerned. These sporadic frame rate changes usually happened in the “real world” campgrounds when numerous objects are suddenly drawn into the screen. It is somewhat peculiar to see a game like this requiring so much graphical power. You may have noticed that I was running the game at only allows 75 Hz. For some peculiar reason, but using refresh override was set to 85 Hz in my Catalyst Control Center). The load times for the PC version of this game were very quick. I hardly get to watch the birdies flutter around on the screen while I was waiting to enter a new region or level. On the PS2 console, the game’s frame rate was for the most part, smooth. There were the occasional instances when the frame rate was noticeably higher, but then suddenly drops towards the 30s and caused a slight “sluggish” sensation. Again, this usually happened in the “real world” campgrounds when numerous objects are suddenly drawn into the screen. Understandably, the PS2 version of this game has significantly longer loading times compared to its PC version. Psychonauts for the PC is also a “The Way It’s Meant To Be Played” game thus it should work best with an NVIDIA based video card. For the most part, the game works well with my ATI Radeon 9800 PRO. I do question the performance of the game on my card though, but the slightly disappointing performance could be attributed to a poor port from its original console counterpart. The most unfortunate aspect of Psychonauts lies in its PC distribution method, which comes in the shape of a whopping 5 CDs. Installing a game with 5 CDs is a chore, whereas simply plopping in the PS2 DVD is a much better alternative. A Stylishly Freaky Look
Psychonauts bizarre art style compliments the game’s already bizarre storyline very well. The art style is reminiscent of the ones used in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” or the movie “Antz”. It does not really matter where the art style came from, but needless to say it is used very well. The character and level designs are all individually unique and colorful. The effort is definitely put in to creating a unique look for each of the different levels. In one level you could be running through a battlefield and then on the next level you could be running through a beautifully decorated mansion. Diversity works extremely well for Psychonauts. The special effects in Psychonauts are subtle, but most definitely pleasing to the eyes. The ripple effects in the air that we have recently seen in games such as Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. have made their presence known in Psychonauts. Other effects, I have noticed only on the PS2 version of the game, are the dust clouds, which appeared to be created in the style reminiscent of cell shaded games such as Viewtiful Joe. On the PC version, the dust clouds did not stand out as much or were not there at all. I believe it may be just a compatibility issue. The pre-rendered cut scenes in Psychonauts have been all well made and do not differ greatly from the in-game graphics. In my opinion, they could have used the in-game engine for all the cut scenes and I would have been perfectly content. It would certainly omit the micro-pauses caused by loading when the PS2 version of the game plays the movie.
Wonderful use of colours! About Those Voices In Your Head First and foremost, the voice acting in Psychonauts is “AAA” quality. Character voice variety is almost as diverse as their level design selection. Each voice suits each individual character’s look and role extremely well. You will be pleased to know that Raz’s voice is not annoying, since you will be hearing a lot of it. Although, there are an abundance of cheesy one-liners, the voice acting in combination with art style makes it forgivable. The sound effects and music in Psychonauts were also well implemented. The music adds another layer of difference between the levels of game. Unique atmospheres were generated well with the range of music from war-like anthems to the light-hearted tune of the camping grounds. Just like the voice acting, the music compliments, not intrude. This entire audio splendor is enhanced with the help of EAX support and hardware acceleration for the PC version.
This old man is everywhere, but he has one the most amusing voices ever!
At its core, Psychonauts is just like any other 3-D platform action-adventure game. You have your double-jumps, you have your rope climbing, hand bar swinging, wall scaling, wall smashing and last, but not least: item collecting. There are several items to collect in Psychonauts. The first item comes in the form of purple arrowheads which is the monetary currency used at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. These arrowheads can be used to purchase other items to improve your psychic abilities or equipment used to extract objects such as mental cobwebs. Another important item to collect are the figments. These figments when collected can increase your rank, which in turn enables Raz to learn new Psychic abilities. These figments are not like the coins of Super Mario or the rings of Sonic the Hedgehog; they too like the rest of Psychonauts and vary in shape, size and color.
Raz’s psychic abilities range from combustion, shooting bolts of psychic energy and even rolling around on a ball of psychic energy which can be used as miniature parachute for gliding purposes. It is quite interesting how they reveal these powers to you and the game play uses they have. Fun to use and also great to look at! I do not need to tell you the amusement of igniting a few enemies on fire or the bird like freedom you feel when Raz rides his psychic ball of energy. The levels in Psychonauts work in an interesting fashion. While in the real world, Raz can roam around the campgrounds talking to the various characters in the game. Raz can also visit the camp store to purchase items, visit the mysterious Ford Cruller’s underground headquarters for skill enhancements or other key places to advance the game. Psychonaut’s actual levels reside in the minds of the different characters in Psychonauts. Since each mind is different, the levels in Psychonauts differ greatly from one another. The enemies in Psychonauts come in all shapes and sizes. They include man-eating plants, bears with psychic powers and self-exploding midgets with pumpkin like heads. The enemies are dependent on what kind of mind you are in. The common “villains” in every mind are the censors. These fellows are similar to the white blood cells found in your body; they attempt to get rid of foreign objects within the mind. The characters in Psychonauts explain every aspect of the game very well, so if you take the time to listen to the dialog, you will discover the purpose of most items and/or enemies you encounter in the game.
While the controls in Psychonauts are sound, the camera angle is quite annoying. Instead of locking on a back view, camera appears to do whatever it feels like. I often have to readjust it to the back view; just so I can see the platform I need to jump to. The lock on target feature in Psychonauts could also have been improved. Instead of locking on a single target and then press a button to cycle the targets, the developers made the locked on target be the one you are facing. If Raz were confronted with multiple enemies, he would have to switch targets by moving the right analog or mouse to target; I found it difficult to lock on to the target I wanted when I was first introduced with the feature. Other quirks with Psychonauts, which work against it include the map feature. It is nice to see the developers include the map feature. However, I would have appreciated if they added an arrow in game pointing me towards my target. The campgrounds look very similar and without the help of a compass or mini-map, the sense of direction is not there. The game begins with slow pace, Raz arrives at the camp and you get to mingle with all the different characters before you report to “Basic Braining”. I will admit that the “Basic Braining” level is an interesting way to teach you the game. Afterwards, you will begin diving into people’s minds, but you will then be pulled out of them due to Raz’s lack of psychic abilities. It is somewhat of a disappointment when you realize you made progress, but then are forced out into the real world to learn new psychic abilities. Fortunately, this does not happen too often. The Future of Psychonauts Psychonauts would take the average gamer 15-20 hours to complete if you were not aiming for 100% completion rating. Being a single player oriented game; the replay value would vary from person to person. Psychonauts has the potential of extending itself for a sequel, perhaps continuing life with Raz as a Psychonaut? Double Fine Productions have created a wonderful universe full of charming characters and fantastical story! To not expand on the Psychonauts universe would be a shame.
Lots of fun behind these doors. Conclusion Successful platform games all have one
aspect in common, they do not rehash. They remix. Double
Fine Productions successfully applied new flavour and
creativity to the age old platform genre with their game,
Psychonauts. On the other hand, it is plagued by several
annoying design and technical issues and in the end it
is still a platform game with a limit on the amount of
lasting fun one can enjoy. If you do enjoy platform action-adventure
genre and can look beyond its flaws, Psychonauts will
definitely give plenty of entertainment.
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