Psychonauts is one of those games that I bought over and over with the intention of playing it but never got around to. I think I bought my first copy for the original Xbox after it dropped in price at my local game store. At that point I was much more focused on PC games so I never actually played the thing, but I did want to. My second copy was bought on Xbox 360 digitally via that console’s backwards compatibility. At that point I wasn’t an achievement hunter per se but I definitely liked games that had achievements attached and of course 360 games had those sweet HD graphics that made older games look dated by comparison. I never got around to it. I acquired the game on Steam at some point the way that one does (deep sale? Humble bundle? Something else? I don’t recall) and I don’t remember if I bought the PS3 digital copy but I definitely got the PS4 version. Finally I picked up an Xbox One digital copy because why stop with just a half dozen ways to play a game over 15 or so years?
I bring all this up not just to confess about my horrible game buying habits (to be fair I probably spent well under the original retail price buying all those cheap copies at various points) but to show that this is a game I always intended to play but never found the right moment for. After the sequel was announced I resolved to play it before Psychonauts 2 was released this year and that…didn’t happen. But it’s better late than never, and 2021 is definitely a late time to be playing the original Psychonauts.
So what is Psychonauts? It’s a 3D platformer. You control Razputin, a young boy who ran away from the circus (a funny reversal of the old trope) to attend a summer camp for psychic children where they are trained by government agents to become elite Psychonauts; essentially psychic superheroes. The camp itself serves as a hub world, with multiple areas to explore and collectables to find, as well as people to talk to. Razputin can also enter the minds of counselors and campers, which are represented as linear 3D platformer levels with their own collectables and challenges, as well as some boss fights. When the game starts Raz can only really double jump and strike enemies at close range, but through a combination of story unlocks and a leveling system he gains additional powers like levitation and pyrokinesis that he can use to collect items or reach areas he couldn’t before. It’s all pretty standard but where Psychonauts stands out is in its storytelling and its surreal visuals. The nature of exploring people’s minds means that levels can be radically different, from a surreal battlefield to a floating cube of black and white abstract art. There’s also a ton of dialog in the game, all voiced, and Raz can talk to various characters in the hub world with lines that change as the game’s plot unfolds. This is a game that’s very much about its story and aesthetics rather than the sometimes clunky gameplay.
The first thing I noticed when I booted Psychonauts up was how crisp and clear it looks. The Xbox One X enhancements (which carry forward to the Series X) really do make old Xbox games pop visually. The game has some seamlessly inserted video cinematics and the downgrade in resolution when it switches to those is jarring. It obviously never looks like a modern game, but the resolution improvements keep it from feeling overly dated. The rest of the presentation is also pretty great. Character designs are extremely cartoony, with Raz’s buddy Dogan looking like a head set atop two stubby legs and skin tones of every imaginable hue. This instantly sets expectations for the game’s irreverent tone and wacky surreal story and environments. Voice acting holds up very well, which definitely isn’t always true for games from 2005, and though the script does feel a little dated the storytelling is still compelling and many of the jokes still land. The game’s environments are blocky and low poly by today’s standards but the design still comes through, with the “figment” collectables that look like neon chalk art standing out as a particular highlight. The sheer variety in the visual themes is a real treat. 16 years later Psychonauts is still a great looking game with a very fun story that stands head and shoulders above most of its contemporaries and even many modern games.
What doesn’t hold up quite as well is the game play. It’s not bad, and the platforming is much better than something like American McGee’s Alice, but it all feels a little clunky and loose. You can run, jump, double jump, do a melee strike, automatically grab ledges and climbing surfaces, and use a variety of gadgets and psychic powers that include a basic ranged attack or the ability to telekinetically pick up and hurl objects. The controls just feel a little bit off, with the enemy lock on having a relatively short range and what feels like a slight input delay for certain actions. It doesn’t help that the button prompts in this version are designed for the OG Xbox controller, with its black and white buttons instead of bumpers, but that’s something you get used to. There’s just a lack of smoothness to everything that makes it feel rough around the edges in a way that modern games generally aren’t. It doesn’t help that the camera can be kind of annoying and needs constant adjustment. None of this is game ruining, but it means that the actual playing of Psychonauts is just okay, while the game’s real pleasures come from exploring its levels and experiencing the story.
There’s a lot to do in Psychonauts but many of the side activities feel unimportant. In the hub world you can hunt down arrowheads to buy stuff at the camp store (a few gadgets or a food item that automatically restores your health if you lose all your life in combat) and some of them are buried underground, requiring you to play a metal-detector like minigame smashing on the Y button to raise a meter as you track them down and then eventually pull them up and collect them. There are platforming challenges that result in you getting psi-cards that you use to level up. In the game’s main levels you collect figments to help level you, and you can go after collectable slide shows that reveal some of that character’s past or find and bring the luggage tags to the right mental baggage in order to unlock concept art. This all kind of feels like busywork with fairly minimal rewards (though you do need the gadgets so you have to find a certain number of arrowheads, and certain powers and areas are level gated so you do want to raise your level) but it’s not unpleasant and most of the challenges are short and not frustrating. On the plus side it does inspire you to check the nooks and crannies of the various levels where you can find some fun visual jokes or characters to have enjoyable short interactions with. Again it’s about the experience and story rather than engaging gameplay.
The main levels themselves, of which there are 10, are a mixed bag. All of them look fantastic but they vary wildly in quality. The first couple levels are pretty straightforward linear 3D platforming levels, and they’re fine for what they are but aren’t particularly exciting. Some later levels introduce interesting twists using the game’s mechanics. There’s a wonderful kaiju themed level where a giant Raz smashes up a city and fights tiny tanks and helicopters. A couple of the levels play out like adventure games, where you collect items and talk to people to unlock new areas and progress. The Milkman Conspiracy is perhaps the game’s most famous level and while it doesn’t have fantastic platforming the adventure game style gameplay meshes very well with the absolutely A+ aesthetics and humor to create a really memorable time. Another level is set in a theater and has you putting on a play, and while it’s a bit tedious because of repeated dialog it has some cool puzzles and is a nice change of pace. Then there is Meat Circus, the game’s most hated area and easily its worst. It’s the last level and I may make a separate post about it because I think it’s a prime example of how developers accentuate the flaws in their games when they make a level very hard in a game with imprecise controls or a problematic camera. Meat Circus plays to all of Psychonauts worst elements and despite having a very cool look is an absolute chore to get through, with tasks that require precise timing and controls and a camera that are not at all up to the task. I believe that Meat Circus was fixed for the Steam re-release, but on Xbox you get the original version and it’s a terrible way to end what is otherwise a pretty darn good game. At least the story has a satisfying ending (coupled with a cliffhanger that wouldn’t pay off until over a decade later…whoops.) The level design in Psychonauts is overall very uneven. Levels range from okay, to pretty fun, to so irritating that if I played this in 2005 I would have stopped before seeing the ending because Meat Circus is horrible (I’m more patient these days and I did finish the game.)
There’s also the matter of the bosses. Psychonauts only has a few common enemies you encounter during most of the levels (mostly little guys with rubber stamps called Censors who shoot at and swarm you and these weird exploding dog like creatures) but it does have boss fights. They are cool looking but mostly pretty frustrating since the game doesn’t tend to tell you how to hurt the boss and even after you figure it out it never feels smooth or enjoyable with the clunky controls. It’s not that the boss encounters are particularly hard, they’re just frustrating and long. You’ll spend a lot of time regrouping and recovering your ammo and health, and often the boss has moves that feel unavoidable and unfair. None of the bosses take more than a few tries to defeat, but none of them are particularly satisfying or enjoyable either. This is another area where Psychonauts consistently nails the aesthetic, humor, and story, but provides gameplay that’s acceptable at best and downright annoying at worst.
And in many ways that sums up my feelings on Psychonauts. It’s a game whose aesthetics still hold up well and it has a fun story that was enjoyable to make my way through, but the game part has aged poorly. I still play a lot of older games and a couple years ago I played through the Ratchet & Clank games from the PS2 era via the PS3 remasters and really enjoyed them. They were still a lot of fun to play. With the exception of a couple bright spots, Psychonauts isn’t a game to go back to for the gameplay. It’s not the worst 3D platformer I’ve ever played, and the story, characters, and trippy visuals are enough to make me say I still really liked it, but I was disappointed that for everything I enjoyed about it I mostly didn’t have fun with the actual playing the game part. This is not a game to be played for the gamey portions.
Despite those issues it’s still a game worth playing in 2021. There are games that linger on my backlog and then disappoint me when I get to them. I just missed the window when I would have appreciated them and they’ve either aged too much to be enjoyed or they were never for me in the first place. Psychonauts is not a game like that. I was right to have wanted to play it for all these years and I’m glad I’ve done so now. It lives up to the hype as one of the best games from the OG Xbox library, and one of the most creative and aesthetically satisfying games I’ve ever played.
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