Retrospective Review #1: Psychonauts

Tim Schafer is a slightly eccentric guy. Okay, that might be a little bit of an understatement, let's try that again. Tim Schafer is the kind of guy who tells his interviewer at LucasArts that he pirated their game, then goes on to write up a fake text adventure to use as his cover letter, and still manages to get the job. After being lead designer on a few projects for LucasArts, he left with a few of his fellow employees to start Double Fine Productions. Given Schafer's unconventional history, it is unsurprising that his games all swell with creativity.

Psychonauts is Schafer's first effort without oversight. The premise sounds familiar at first, something about a boy running away, summer camps, and circuses, but Schafer flips the old story on its head, as Psychonauts' protagonist, Raz, escapes from the circus to attend summer camp. But this isn't where the oddity ends, and this is no ordinary summer camp. Raz's latent psychic abilities drove him to find Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a place where the councilors are all members of a psychic superhero team, the Psychonauts. Raz wants nothing more then to discard his old life and join them, but his plans go awry when tragedy strikes: Most of the campers and Raz's friends have their brains stolen. Thus begins Raz's quest to save his friends while simultaneously proving his worth to the Psychonauts.

The gameplay in Psychonauts is that of a fairly straight forward 3d platformer, but what makes it so compelling is in the context and the story presentation. All of the levels take place within the confines of various individuals' minds, creating some interesting scenarios, some of the most notable of which include a Godzilla-esk Rampage level where you terrorize a city of talking fish; a Phantom of the Opera story in which you save a former singer from crippling depression; and the most spectacular of all, the Milkman Conspiracy, which includes 2nd person platforming, puzzles, and some of the best written lines in gaming history.

Making the jump to action adventure from old-school adventure poses a large number of difficulties in level design and pacing, two areas that Psychonauts excels in. Each mindscape takes just long enough for you to fully explore the hypothetical situations posed by the story context and is able to have you moving on to the next section before it wears its welcome. The difficulty curve, with a few exceptions, tends to stay on the easier side, but given the looseness on the controls, forgiving design can be thanked when a level starts to take too long.

The biggest complaints against Psychonauts always take the form of anthologies of nitpicks, and while most of them are warranted, they fail to ruin the game's undeniable charm and wit. It may have been overlooked in its time, but the memories of Psychonauts have aged extremely well. While the gameplay is lackluster and the core ideas of the story are nothing new, Schafer's creativity and knack for interesting and exciting design transforms this otherwise average PS2 era platformer into a classic that is commonly cited as proof that games can be an artform. Even if you didn't get a chance to play Psychonauts when it first released, it is well worth a look, and if you did get that chance, it is an acid trip down memory lane well worth the time.

-THIEF

P.S. Please leave comments, send me an e-mail, or tweet me! Feedback of any nature is greatly appreciated.

Tags: Psychonauts, Double Fine Productions, Tim Schafer

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Chris Hoadley

February 01, 2012

Welcome to Bitmob! This is a nice review, though I don't know what you meant by "2nd person platforming" (Did you mean first-person?) If you're interested in improving your articles, be sure to read our Bitmob Writing Tips articles. http://bitmob.com/tag/bitmob-writing-tips

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Josh Melnick

Thanks for the greeting! I hope to become pretty involved around here.

In responce to "2nd person platforming", I actually meant exactly what I said. The perspective during these "2nd person" sections is actually through the eyes of the "baddies". 3rd person comes from a camera in which you see your character, 1st person comes from a camera in which you see through the eyes of the character, 2nd is when you are looking through the perspective of your baddies, looking at you.

It is like the Siren games, it is a unique and interesting way to approach gameplay, and you need to experience it to really know what it means.

Oh, OK. I didn't play Psychronauts, and that didn't immediately come to mind when you said "Second Person" since in writing second person is when someone is telling "you" what to do. That might be an area where you want to explain it more, even if it feels like you're taking away some of the surprise.

I hear you. Sometimes, at least a little explanation is needed.

Also, thank you for even this brief comment. I really want to be a professional games journalist at some point and I think the main thing that I need to do in order to make that happen is to become a better writer.

I am reading all of the articles related to the one above, so more constructive comments like yours will always be appreciated.

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Chase Koeneke

Psychonauts is my favorite game of all time, and for good reason (many of which you've laid out here.) I try to go back and play it every year (I sadly slacked off last year, a mistake I will not make twice.)

I think for anyone who's ever played through The Milkman Conspiracy, the phrase "2nd-person platforming" makes total sense and is the best way to put it, but Chris does make a good point that without experiencing it for yourself, it can be a little difficult to wrap you brain around.

It's great to see new blood writing on Bitmob and even better to see them discuss excellent, deserving games like Psychonauts. Hopefully someday soon, we'll be writing articles about it sequel (my fingers have been crossed for seven years now.)

First, Psychonauts is probably in my top 3 favorites of all time, but The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening still proudly holds that post. I play Link's Awakening at least yearly, sometimes more.

The whole thing about the 2nd person perspective definitly does look like a typo and it could have done with some more explanation, but I am glad that it makes sense to those familiar with the idea.

I am absolutely delighted to join this community! I discovered Bitmob recently when I pulled out some old EGMs that I got when I was 8 and found the Shoe discussions at the ends hilarious. I immediatly looked up where he is now and found this.

Tim Schafer has said that Double Fine is actually made up of 4 or 5 sub-groups that work on entirely unrelated projects, all of which are overseen by Schafer. He has mentioned that, as of right now, he is not heading up any of those teams, but he wants to soon. I am going to pray for Psychonauts 2, but Schafer has never sequeled his own games before, so I am not expectant, just optimistic.