Number 46: Psychonauts, Doublefine 2005 PC
Intro:
Majesco gets a special splash from the appreciative animators at Double Fine, with main character Raz doing some psychic trick to make the logo appear. When there's no save file, the game dives right into the intro movie. Which is hilarious, establishes characters and setting, and presents the stresses that drive many of the characters. Otherwise, the game begins with a menu which is actually on the surface of the logo brain, forcing the player to navigate Raz to the desired door.
Getting Going:
When the player gets going, they first have to follow other kids up to their first class, "Basic Braining," which is a sort of tutorial course where Coach Oleander will either tell you what to do or pop-up messages will explain which buttons do what. For the first two-thirds of the level, the only thing that can kill you is a few fire sources, which can be easily avoided, making the first level very player-friendly. The next two stages (Sash Nein and Mia Vodello) are like advanced tutorial training levels, where the player practices with more complex abilities, so the "tutorial" seems to encompass the first third or so of the game.
Fun:
Each level is unique and fascinating, presenting not only creative puzzle solving opportunities but interesting implications about the human mind. The gameplay is on the simple adventure-platformer side, though the levels have been crafted so wonderfully as to emphasize the adventure over the platforms. The different abilites are well managed, so that each is necessary and fun to use. Playing from different perspectives, such as the Hulking Lungfish battle and the Girlscout Den Mother fight, is a great touch as well, making otherwise mundane battles exciting. The music, style, script, and voice acting are also a joy to listen to, driving me to seek out every single character and see what they have to say at every free moment.
Visuals:
The cartoony style is very well executed, but the real star of Psychonauts is the radically imaginative level design. Each level is not only unique in its shape, but no two share the same style not only in texture and color, but in the architecture most noticably. Whereas games like Ratchet and Clank are a lot of the same through supposedly different surroundings, this game goes so far at to make each psyche a completely different experience right down the ground the player stands on. And Black Velvetopia was freakin' sweet, too.
Intelligence:
Regular enemies are pretty simple convergers, and bosses are simple pattern-driven adventure nemises. Each had a very particular behavior, though, so if they were all made to look the same I would be able do differenctiate them all by their behavior alone. Also, enemies didn't run into walls mindlessly, or fall off of platforms in their pursuit. Cheers to enemies who aren't dumb!
Immersion:
Between the music, the incredible detail that went into each environment (with NO SLACKING in the creativity evident at any point), the fantastic writing, and engrossing gameplay, hours were easily lost unraveling this incredible game. Load times were just a touch too long, it seemed, but those screens gave the player somethng to look at and the areas that were loaded were big enough to justify it.
Cameras:
The camera was only alright: it followed a little, but I had to use the mouse to keep the camera under control most of the time, which would get very frustrating for console controls. Interruptions were dealt with by bring the camera closer to Raz, which worked just fine. If only I could've seen more of the world at a time with a wider angle, and the auto follow paid attention to where enemies were outside of just boss fights.
Controls:
The controls were clearly intended for a console joypad, and the translation to the PC wasn't exactly a match made in heaven. The game was so great, though, I was able to dedicate myself to get over the weird controls. It was that or get a PC gamepad, but there weren't any good ones around and I'm a cheap bastard. I can't think of a way to improve the PC controls: they used what they had and did a great job with it.
Ideas:
Psychic powers are nothing new, but the presentation of each one was imaginative and fun, making every power a lot of fun. Entering characters minds and collecting baggage, figments, locked away memories, brains, and mental cobwebs was a great way to justify adventure chachka collection, each being imaginatively executed. Leveling up was fun, too, as I unlocked new abilities and powered up old ones.
Memory:
The imagination that went into the worlds, again, was brilliant and had me dedicated to the game from start to finish. I'm still bowled over by the consistent quality and the wide variety of level designs the game represented, so that even as I neared the end of the game each mind was a fresh experience. The writing and character design was wild, and the story was a real winner without pulling out schlocky plot twists.
Majesco gets a special splash from the appreciative animators at Double Fine, with main character Raz doing some psychic trick to make the logo appear. When there's no save file, the game dives right into the intro movie. Which is hilarious, establishes characters and setting, and presents the stresses that drive many of the characters. Otherwise, the game begins with a menu which is actually on the surface of the logo brain, forcing the player to navigate Raz to the desired door.
Getting Going:
When the player gets going, they first have to follow other kids up to their first class, "Basic Braining," which is a sort of tutorial course where Coach Oleander will either tell you what to do or pop-up messages will explain which buttons do what. For the first two-thirds of the level, the only thing that can kill you is a few fire sources, which can be easily avoided, making the first level very player-friendly. The next two stages (Sash Nein and Mia Vodello) are like advanced tutorial training levels, where the player practices with more complex abilities, so the "tutorial" seems to encompass the first third or so of the game.
Fun:
Each level is unique and fascinating, presenting not only creative puzzle solving opportunities but interesting implications about the human mind. The gameplay is on the simple adventure-platformer side, though the levels have been crafted so wonderfully as to emphasize the adventure over the platforms. The different abilites are well managed, so that each is necessary and fun to use. Playing from different perspectives, such as the Hulking Lungfish battle and the Girlscout Den Mother fight, is a great touch as well, making otherwise mundane battles exciting. The music, style, script, and voice acting are also a joy to listen to, driving me to seek out every single character and see what they have to say at every free moment.
Visuals:
The cartoony style is very well executed, but the real star of Psychonauts is the radically imaginative level design. Each level is not only unique in its shape, but no two share the same style not only in texture and color, but in the architecture most noticably. Whereas games like Ratchet and Clank are a lot of the same through supposedly different surroundings, this game goes so far at to make each psyche a completely different experience right down the ground the player stands on. And Black Velvetopia was freakin' sweet, too.
Intelligence:
Regular enemies are pretty simple convergers, and bosses are simple pattern-driven adventure nemises. Each had a very particular behavior, though, so if they were all made to look the same I would be able do differenctiate them all by their behavior alone. Also, enemies didn't run into walls mindlessly, or fall off of platforms in their pursuit. Cheers to enemies who aren't dumb!
Immersion:
Between the music, the incredible detail that went into each environment (with NO SLACKING in the creativity evident at any point), the fantastic writing, and engrossing gameplay, hours were easily lost unraveling this incredible game. Load times were just a touch too long, it seemed, but those screens gave the player somethng to look at and the areas that were loaded were big enough to justify it.
Cameras:
The camera was only alright: it followed a little, but I had to use the mouse to keep the camera under control most of the time, which would get very frustrating for console controls. Interruptions were dealt with by bring the camera closer to Raz, which worked just fine. If only I could've seen more of the world at a time with a wider angle, and the auto follow paid attention to where enemies were outside of just boss fights.
Controls:
The controls were clearly intended for a console joypad, and the translation to the PC wasn't exactly a match made in heaven. The game was so great, though, I was able to dedicate myself to get over the weird controls. It was that or get a PC gamepad, but there weren't any good ones around and I'm a cheap bastard. I can't think of a way to improve the PC controls: they used what they had and did a great job with it.
Ideas:
Psychic powers are nothing new, but the presentation of each one was imaginative and fun, making every power a lot of fun. Entering characters minds and collecting baggage, figments, locked away memories, brains, and mental cobwebs was a great way to justify adventure chachka collection, each being imaginatively executed. Leveling up was fun, too, as I unlocked new abilities and powered up old ones.
Memory:
The imagination that went into the worlds, again, was brilliant and had me dedicated to the game from start to finish. I'm still bowled over by the consistent quality and the wide variety of level designs the game represented, so that even as I neared the end of the game each mind was a fresh experience. The writing and character design was wild, and the story was a real winner without pulling out schlocky plot twists.