Brilliant humour
The star of Psychonauts, and the character you control, is Raz, (short for Rasputin), a psychic pre-teen with an attitude who breaks into a supposed summer camp for psychic children that is actually a training ground for Psychonauts, mental warriors. Through what has to be one of the lengthiest cutscenes in gaming history you learn that the kids sent to the summer camp are being trained up for real world missions daring do… which feature real world dangers too… and so that game begins.
You start off running around a limited area of the summer camp which is essentially to let you get to grips with the game controls and find out how to manoeuvre Raz about. Once you fell ready, you head on up to the first lesson, where you enter Coach Oleanders’ mind and try to complete his mental obstacle course. This is where the game’s humour first shows itself as you encounter such things as emotional baggage and figments of the imagination, as you negotiate the Coach’s battle riddled mindscape.
Once you’ve passed this initial test, you’re free to wander around the camp a bit more and thus unfolds the story that drives the game. It seems that someone or something is stealing the minds of folk, leaving them as empty shells of their former selves. So this is where you step in, totally unprepared (as all good heroes are) and with a decently sized supporting cast of fellow campers and various other players… including the spooky janitor type who seems to be everywhere at once.
One of the hallmarks of those previously mentioned adventure games that Tim Schafer worked on was their superbly brilliant humour and dialogue which has made a welcome comeback here in Psychonauts. As you run around the camp you’ll encounter other characters going about whatever it is they do and as such they might have something say. Sometimes the game might jump to a cutscene for a key piece of dialogue but mostly you can just stand nearby and listen in… A lot of what’s said has bugger all to do with the story but it’s still great fun nonetheless.
