Developed by Double Fine Productions, Psychonauts is a platforming action-adventure game where players take on the role of Razputin, a boy with psychic abilities out to thwart an evil plot to subvert the minds of other powerful psychics.
Overview
Psychonauts is the brain child of acclaimed developer and adventure game guru Tim Schafer. Released in 2005, Psychonauts combined the humor and witty dialogue of Shafer's previous point-and-click adventure titles with a full 3D platforming experience. Originally released on the Xbox and PC, Psychonauts was later ported to the PlayStation 2 and made available for download on the Xbox 360, as an Xbox Original on Xbox Live Marketplace, or on the PC through Valve's Steam service in Fall of 2006.Plot
Players take on the role of Raz, an impetuous boy with psychic abilities who runs to the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a sort of training academy for young, to realise his dreaming of becoming a psychonaut. Raz has everything to prove in his quest to join up with his idols: the camp's supervisors and elite group of mental maestros known as The Psychonauts. Once inside Whispering Rock, Raz discovers that unknown forces are stealing the campers' brains and using them to power an army of psychic death tanks. By entering an individual's mind and delving deep into his or her psyche, Raz must battle through worlds of psychological trauma, ranging from the delusional to the downright delightful. These areas comprise the main stages of the game and with each successful mental realignment, Raz gets one step closer to uncovering the camp's dark secret.
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of traditional platforming elements combined with puzzles and obstacles that must be thwarted using Raz's ever-increasing arsenal of psychic powers. During the course of his adventures Raz will learn new powers including telekinesis, invisibility, and pyrokenesis. While proper use of these new abilities is necessary for completing the game's main story, Psychonauts allows for more creative uses of Raz's powers on friends and foes alike, usually resulting in some entertaining interactions.Graphics
The graphics and art design are wildly different from any other platformer. The characters all look like they are from one Tim Burton's many movies, all having a claymation-like feel to them. Once you enter the minds of the various people that you encounter throughout the game, you realize that nothing looks like it is recycled from the last level. Each mind is a level of its own, and is tailored to the characters own personality or problems. For instance, in the Mutated Lungfish Level, the Lung Fish is really afraid of Raz, and so when Raz enters the mind of said Lung Fish, he is a giant in the level, and destroys anything, or anyone that he walks into.Critical Acclaim
Psychonauts' melding of strong storytelling, and creative level design won it praise among critics but failed to move copies off store shelves. Tim Shafer estimated that the game had sold 400,000 units across all 4 platforms. The units sold refer only to physical (disc based) copies of the game, and not counting any digital distribution service or the store at the Double Fine website. This retail failure, combined with the failure of another big budget title published by Majesco, Advent Rising, resulted in the near-bankruptcy of Majesco, who published Psychonauts. Psychonauts is currently available to play for free through GameTap.com, and is also available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace in the Originals category, where it will cost you 1200 Microsoft Points for the 4GB download.Soundtrack
Original Soundtrack
Album name: Psychonauts Soundtrack
Music by: Peter McConnell
- Meat Circus
- Whispering Rock
- Stay Out of the Moonlight
- Hagatha's Home
- Happy Flowers
- The Lungfish Lair
- The Milkman Conspiracy
- Dr. Loboto's Lab
- Duel With the Critic
- The Catwalk Phantom
- March of the Inmates
- Sasha's Immaculate Mind
- The Censors Unleashed
- Black Velvetopia
- The Wild Bull Run / El Odio
- The Matador
- Gloria's Secret Garden
- Bonita's Tragic Muse
- Bunk Time
- Title and End Credits
Original Cinematic Score
Album name: Psychonauts Soundtrack: The Original Cinematic Score
Music by: Peter McConnell
- Coach's Welcome - (2:30)
- Bobby Zilch & Sasha - (2:04)
- The World Is A Better Place - (1:01)
- March of the Psychonauts - (2:43)
- Lili Kidnapped - (2:02)
- Was That A Dream? - (2:36)
- Top O' The Lungfish - (2:03)
- Call Me Linda - (0:54)
- Dr. Loboto's Evil Plans - ((2:11)
- Ah, The Theater! - (2:09)
- Rise Up, Milkman - (2:33)
- My Patron - (1:27)
- Beauty And The Bull - (0:57)
- Love Found And Lost - (1:54)
- End of the Asylum - (3:19)
- The Fathers - (2:47)
- Summer's End - (4:45)
- Psychonauts Theme Medley (Remixed and Remastered) - (4:28)
| Game Name | Psychonauts |
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| Original US Release |
April 19, 2005
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| Original US Release |
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Trivia
In the Milkman Conspiracy level what are the shady men referred to?
- Shady Men
- Gman
- Undercover Operative
- They
User Reviews
| Platform | User Reviews | Avg. Score |
|---|---|---|
| All Reviews | 18 reviews |
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| PlayStation 2 | 5 reviews |
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| Xbox | 6 reviews |
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| Xbox Live Marketplace | 3 reviews |
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| PC | 4 reviews |
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| Add your own user review | ||
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