Psychonauts

Not often do I play a lot of a game in one sitting, but with this game, I made it all the way to the mental institute. Such a great game, and also very humorous.

Such a great game from the old era, i love most parts and hated to death others, the platforming is good but sometimes frustrating, the bosses are super good and most of them require you to puzzle them to deafeat them which sometimes is infuriating, the characters are such a joy, especially Raz, i would 100% recommend it, just beware that some parts are annoying

What incredible charm, it's both nostalgic and mindblowingly advanced. To think that this game came out in 2006 is absolute insanity. The detail is incredible if you look in the right places 10/10
Please for the love of god do not try to 100% it like I did, do not suffer as I have suffered.

Psychonauts was more entertaining than I thought it would be. I got it on sale and played through the whole thing on my Steam Deck. If you want to play it on Steam Deck, you're going to want to force Proton Experimental compatibility. If you don't force proton compatibility, it tries to use a Linux build and the camera gets stuck rotating for some reason... Also, when you start the game, you'll have to use the touch pad to go into the game controls > key bindings, and set the Default key bindings every time you load the game. I don't know if this is an issue for everyone or just me. After figuring this out, the game played great! The controls, on screen, didn't match what I pressed on the deck, but once I figured out what button did what action, I was good to go. If you like playing old-school Xbox genera games, give Psychonauts a shot.

One of my favorite games. Super creative in it's game features and levels. Definitely check this game out it was one of the best games to come out of it's generation.

gameplay has aged a bit, specially with how it controls but that artstyle is so good I dont even mind. Outside of that it held up very well and each level has so much going for it with quirky characters and fun gimmicks that you dont expect to see in a game that's this old. Outside of a few flaws, its a very fun game and you should absolutely get it.

An absolutely amazing game, I seriously wish I played this sooner. Up there as one of the best 3D-platformers even though the platforming is kinda crap and not what you're actually there for. The game is absolutely oozing with humor and life, the kind of game only a visionary leading a team of creatives who love their craft can manifest.

You can see the effort and love this game was made, funny, hard to believe this game is from the ps2 era and it just 5 gb, the cinematics looks low quality but the game itself looks very good, one of the best games ever. Hard time playing it on the steam deck because of lack of controls but it was worth it downloading some controls

Psychonauts is a terribly flawed game that also happens to be in some ways brilliant and one of the best platforming games I've ever played. The main issues with the game are issues that plague a lot of games from this era- camera controls sending you off a cliff, wonky platforming sections, etc. But the core concept is so smart and well executed that it doesn't even matter.

This game was in many ways way ahead of its time because it takes place in a retrofuturistic 80s setting and has a strong emphasis on narrative among the different characters. Back when this came out NPCs were a lot more robotic. It's cool that in this game they move around and what they say changes as the game progresses. The story is also pretty fantastic because there are more developments as it progresses. Normally in a game like this the setup is everything, for example, Mario needs to save the princess. However, psychonauts story is more akin to one you would find in a point and click game as there are consistent developments that change the characters.

The game goes pretty deep into Jungian psychology. All the character levels are stored in a main hub called the "collective unconscious" and each character has some unresolved issue in their psyche that makes up the bulk of the level. For example, one character is completely focused on being mentally neat and orderly but goes nuts when that order is upset by the protagonist Rasputin. The humor in this game is actually pretty well done, I laughed a few times at the overall silliness of the story, and if you pay attention there are a lot of visual gags that are just brilliantly done. For example, the senior agent is hiding around the camp in different disguises. When you confront him in the underground area, he claims he cannot go above ground and is trapped because the psychic crystals underground are keeping him sane. During the end sequence, there is no explanation as to how he's above ground, but you see a crystal strapped to his back as though he found a rudimentary way to solve the problem, but occasionally just says insane things. It can be inferred that he is actually crazy and goes up and takes on other roles at the camp without realizing it. There are tons of things like this in the story and it's really a ton of fun to play a game that rewards you for paying attention.

Likewise, the platforming and combat aspect is just great in concept, and only somewhat flawed in execution. Attacking can be a little unresponsive, but this game is more platforming than combat. As you progress you get tons of powerups like the ability to levitate on a bouncing ball and pick up and throw objects with your mind. Beyond this just moving around in this game is more fun than it ought to be, as Razputin can swing, slide down rails, double jump, climb, hang from ledges, etc. It's probably the most impressive number of individual acrobatic maneuvers I've ever seen in a 3D platformer. Further, as you progress you get more upgrades and become more powerful. The game gives a rank from 1-101 which is like a level that bestows new rewards as you progress. It's really well done and makes collecting everything in the game a lot more fun. This game has thousands of collectibles and for some reason collecting things never gets old in this game. I like the idea of collecting "figments", which are basically little two dimensional drawings on the 3D plane that represent ideas. Because each figment is unique it makes the collectathon aspect a lot more fun. I used the guide on Steam and found all the collectibles with few issues, but it was very time consuming.

This game also has some great boss fights, and I like that there are sequence breaks to certain problems, ala, Mario 64. Once you get the levitation ball you can skip a lot of the platforming requirements you'd normally have by jumping and floating over them. For some reason this is more fun to me because you can come up with your own ways to solve the problem. And while the overall structure of the game and its upgrades feels ridiculously confusing at first, after a few hours I found it highly intuitive and cleared the game 100% without any issues. It's clear that this game has a cult following both for its fantastic game design and characters. There is enough content in here for five platformers and each "brain" you go into almost feels like its own little game. I would put it up there with games like Banjo Kazooie and the original Spyro trilogy as a AAA platformer that's just a bit rough around the edges because it's extraordinarily overly ambitious, I can, however, forgive most of this because the game was just incredibly engrossing and compelled me to keep playing it. With all of that said, aside from the bad camera issues and minor delay in the combat I wish the music was a tad more memorable. The tunes are good but they aren't catchy, even though the voice acting is excellent and it's incredibly impressive that such primitive graphics managed to pull off highly accurate lip synching.

If the concept interests you, there's no question that you should play it.

An extremely charming game with great music, art, and creative level design. Its not perfect, but i thoroughly enjoyed my time with every level (except meat circus). To this day, despite how aged this game is, i haven't seen level design like this EVER. On top of this, some of the best representation for mental conditions I've seen. It has room for humor and personality without punching down on anyone and truly showcases the troubles associated with them and how to overcome them. I'm gonna play psychonauts 2 right now and try to get all collectibles (i will die)

it's been almost 20 years since this game's release, 20, GOD DAMN YEARS.
it feels like this game was made in the 2020s with the humour.
10/10
looking forward to the rest of the game

absolutely amazing retro platformer. this is the historical peak of the genre.

I've put well over 50h into the game back in the day, in offline mode I guess since Steam didn't seem to record it. But the game is a classic and considered a masterpiece for a reason and is definitely one of the best platformers ever made.

If you are looking to play it on Steam Deck however do note that it doesn't work on Deck despite Valve's "testing" indicating it is playable. Apparently it worked on an older version of Steam Deck or so I'm told. But it doesn't work at all anymore.

Super fun and probably that one game you heard about on Youtube back then that described it as "surreal", but never outright said the game's name.

I genuinely do love this game though. Fish monster lady and that weird stage level...the Milkman of course.

It's definitely a product of the time of "platformers" for 2000s, but it's definitely worth your time. Will say, if you get stuck on Waterloo don't worry! Everyone else does too at some point lol.

Funny, quirky adventure.
Although the later stages might be annoying, the level designs are really fascinating.
This game has been on my backlog for almost 8 years; finally, I played it from beginning to end.

Psychonauts is a great game that has some of the best writing in the Video Game history BUT time also hasn't been very kind to this game in terms of control and combat.

Firstly, the games story, writing, voice acting, etc is all top notch and it has some of the best environmental storytelling out there (with exception to the sequel). Raz (the main protagonist) is a fantastic character and the voice job by Horvits is top notch.

Graphically this game doesn't hold up too well and it's not for the art style. While the Art Style can definitely be divisive personally I think it's fine. It's later polished up and I think looks way better in the sequel but here it's fine if not a bit ugly at times. However the art style mixed with original xbox graphics and low resolution cut-scenes can make parts of the game just look bad and dated.

The real part that makes this game not be a masterpiece is the combat and to a lesser extent the movement. The combat is clunky and tough to get the hang of (another thing fixed in the sequel). The movement is fine but the Levitation ability is completely overpowered which while fun completely negates a lot of the platforming challenge.

The games world and main hub (whispering rock psychic summer camp) is charming and fun to explore but the first levels or minds can feel very tutorialized making the start of the game one of the weakest if you're not fully exploring the hub. The game really picks up halfway when the story pivots to its main objective (not to spoil anything) and takes you away from the camp to really go into the best minds in the game. Sadly the final level is a mess. It's not this super insane challenging level it got over time but it's way tougher than the rest of the game and the bad and clunky combat makes it a frustrating chore.

Overall you play the original Psychonauts for the incredible story, fun word, and cleaver writing and not the combat/platforming. If you do pick this up (which I recommend if you're interested) be prepare to endure some dated gameplay to get to the parts that made this game a cult classic.

8/10 - Infinite

Though this games gameplay is rough and like a 5 or a 6 out of 10 for me, the story more than makes up for that. What started out feeling like a dumb kids game genuinly turned into an incredibly dark game. Don't look anything up about the story and play this game, you won't regret it.
8/10

It's narrative is fun with flavorful humor filled dialogue and the style of the game really lends to the cartoonish aesthetic! The combat isn't anything crazy, but the mechanics for the set pieces are enjoyable and make you have to think a bit about what's goin on. The platforming can be a little frustrating at times, but it lets you play about and not hold your hand. Rasputin's journey was heartwarming so give it a go!

Theres an issue on mac with a lot of texture clipping, its pretty terrible in the camp but in levels it isnt too bad and the game is still great enough to recommend

отличная игра, дерьмовый порт, большая часть игры комфортно управляется с геймпада, но некоторые меню управляются исключительно мышкой, соотношение сторон сбрасывается при каждом перезапуске, в первой же миссии я застрял из-за того, что у меня была выключена вертикальная синхронизация, а после нее я застрял просто потому что, решения в интернете так и не нашел, мозгоебка, лучше на эмуляторе проходить, очень жаль

Dated game with a MIGHTY NEED of remaster and way better end level.

Otherwise it's THE unique 3D action-puzzle platformer with whole lot of cool mechanics and amazingly original fun levels. Except the last one, god why, why Meat Circus exists, you fools, you had a good game and you ended it like this!

One of the best 3D platformers I've ever played, so full of charm you'd swear its just made of the stuff. It has aged surprisingly excellently, so don't worry about too much clunkiness. Maybe just get a Fullscreen fix mod, as that will help your enjoyment.

The controllers are making it unplayable. Raz just continues to walk off a cliff even I didn't push the button for almost 10 secounds. And many of the time it doesn't registrer that I push a button, even worse with a controller. Please get it fixed.

Psychonauts is an immensely creative and fun 3D platformer with tons of charm and wit.

Pros

• Solid platformer; decent physics that manage to be floaty but tight
  
• Extensive options for a game of its time
  
• Interesting and deep characters
  
• Excellent story and premise
  
• Strong themes of mental health as well as growing up; the Asylum area is really good at dealing with intense trauma and mental illness
  
• Diverse cast of different nationalities, backgrounds, and stories
  
• Characters live outside of just your narrow view; they develop relationships and change with time
  
• Sidequests (however few they may be) are usually fun
  
• Semi-open world is really nice to explore and manages to have enough variety to feel fresh despite being all in the same location
  
• Dowsing rod minigame is sorta fun and encourages you to pay attention
  
• Varied bosses testing your abilities in interesting ways
  
• Plenty of variety in setting via different missions
  
• Great sense of humor (the city section is a good one)
  
• All abilities are really cool; the ball one is the best
  

Cons

• Bit too easy to use the dowsing rod and get a ton of money early game; plus the minigame is just mashing which sucks
  
• Getting all collectibles (especially figments) is absurdly obtuse and difficult
  
[*] Fish boss forced perspective is a bit annoying

Conclusion

In a time in my life when nothing is certain about my future, this game has been a breath of fresh life and sanctuary from the harsh and unfiar reality I'm grueing through every day. This game is absolutely fucking timeless. This game has increased the quality of my life and is helping me through shit I wouldn't wish on anyone. Buy this fucking game. Bless

its a good platformer, it has good creative ideas, its got funny writing, and its got interesting graphics. What else do i even need to say?

Psychonauts is one of the most fun platformers I've ever played. It's not just a copy of other platformers but its brimming with it's own personality. I loved the story, The summer camp setting is great and every character have their own quirks and are fun in their own way (you should go talk to everyone after every level to not miss their interactions). Level design is fantastic, every level is unique and has it's own formula to get through and i enjoyed most of them especially Waterloo world in which you are playing a game of risk and lunfishopolis where you are basically godzilla and if you are the type that tends to complete everything this game is filled with collectibles. It's a game from a time when games tended to be more creative and I think it's a must play if you want a fun time.

Probably the most fun I've had with a game that infuriated me. The combination of floaty controls and precise platforming during certain sections made me want to end it all right there on the spot, and I'm pretty sure I missed 30-40% of the story on accident. With that being said, the story I have seen and the absolute control the game has on nearly every aspect of itself to make every character and location have a distinct identity and keep the gameplay feeling fresh sets up an undeniable charm that kept me going through the parts that absolutely pissed me off. I never would have thought a game I played because "Hehe, funny milkman guy" would be this amazing.

This was quite a delightful change of pass compared to other games in my library. The art style, character design, and over all level design felt very unique without fear of changing it up to go along with the games concepts. I personally am a fan of games that have collectibles to obtain and keep track of my progress. Collecting everything is not necessary for completion, but it can be beneficial for leveling up your psi rank to make the game easier.

This game did however come with some downsides for this port of the game. I frequently had struggles with collisions in parts of the maps and some unstable controls. I had to put some work in to fully complete this game in spite of it's difficulties in its design, but I am writing this after my completion of everything I found the game had to offer. Withholding spoilers, I did feel the ending still lacked something regarding closure of the defeat of one of the villains. It's not the shiniest jewel, but it is still very pretty to look at and play with.

If you are looking for a nice well rounded experience and enjoy platformer/collectathon games then I cannot recommend it enough for a try. It is a very low commitment game that you could bust out in a short amount of time and still feel satisfied. With that, I shall see you on the mental battlefield fellow Psychonauts!

One of my favourite 3d platformer collectathons (or even just games period) that I have ever played. From the SHEER number of collectibles, to the very varied level design and mechanics, to just the vibrant art direction as a whole, to all the interesting characters, to the fact an absolute potato pc can run it without issues! Literally the only complaint I have is playing with keyboard can be quite a struggle, so I recommend playing with a controller. 9/10

How could I've miss this game for so long??

great game, fun gameplay and story

A platformer with its share of flaws, but oozing with charm thanks to its characters and humor. Some bugs get in the way of the enjoyment, like a boss where on a latter phase the camera glitched out to the point where I literally could not see my character on the screen. I had to start the boss over in order to fix it and it happened twice more. Similar bugs occur throughout the game. Still, this is one of those titles I feel every platformer fan should play through at least once. I only wish it had better Steam Deck support.

I'ts well written, with very imaginative and inspiring areas that are fun to jump around in!

Worth Every Penny.

(there are some cryptic parts you may get stuck on for a while without a guide, and getting every Item for completion's sake just sucks)

Original, well-written, cleverly-designed puzzle platform game with great characters. Best enjoyed with high-resolution texture pack and widescreen fix given its age. Clunky at times, but worth pushing through that. Thoroughly enjoyed playing this and will be going straight on to the sequel.

A classic!! it's 20 years old but I can see why people still love the game even now. The levels are fun the story is good for what it is if I had to say anything negative it's the final boss play wise story wise it makes sense but the boss was wayyyy too easy

It's good! Sure, it's kind of janky and I often found the gameplay objectives confusing, but the writing is funny and whimsical and smart and it communicates its ideas so well that I have nothing but appreciation for it. The visual style is a big hit! (as long as you aren't a snob who can't handle mid-2000s graphics) Technically this is a platforming game, and the platforming is fun, but honestly I think it is driven most by its great ideas.

Despite being a game that becomes 20 years old this year, Psychonauts is more unique than most games that have released since then. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes 3-D platformers, or any game from the "weirder" era of the 6th generation.

The only negatives are the camera being weird to control at points (especially when trying to reach collectibles) and some of the boss battles being somewhat repetitive.

A little rough at the start, but if you can get past the first level or two, the game really opens up. The platforming is mostly well done accompanied by some very creative puzzles and humor. The combat shines during boss fights. There is plenty to collect in a wide variety of levels.

My only major complaint is the camera refuses to cooperate, It gets stuck behind objects and it fights you to snap back behind Raz when you want to look around. Fortunately, this does not make it unplayable.

I can admire the creativity and the game looks and performs fantastically well for a game this old. Just pick up and play. The problem is that it's interminable at times. I was begging for some gameplay sections to end and cutscenes to finish. The second game has endless cutscenes aswell but the gameplay is enjoyable and this one just isn't for the the most part. I didn't play it for a week and had no idea what to do and how to do it when i played again.

A classic masterpiece that much to my regret, I cannot recommend without reservations on PC. However, if you happen to read this and aren't that bothered by my complains, be sure to check it out because the game is undoubtedly good.

So my main gripe with it is that the game shows its age, but not for the reasons you might expect (in fact I couldn't care less about the graphics); instead, it feels outdated for four main reasons:

1. It has compatibility issues with W10 and higher. Thankfully it can be easily solved, so to avoid constant crashes after certain dialogues, set compatibility mode to something like Vista or earlier.
   
   
2. The controller support doesn’t work fully. It took some time to function and recognize Steam Input during the first few game sessions, and there are certain settings that can only be adjusted using a mouse.
   
   
3. It doesn’t come with subtitles in Spanish, which isn’t a personal barrier for me but is worth noting.
   
   
4. But my greater issue with the title is that mission design also feels outdated. Setting aside the technical aspects and delving into the gameplay, I don’t intend to dissect every single detail, but I’ll focus particularly on three: kinesthesia, pacing and difficulty scaling.
   

• Regarding the player's movement, jumping, shooting, grabbing stuff... It doesn’t particularly work like a charm... obviously! Still worth mentioning though, because I’m not gonna lie, there are certain parts of the game where I was mad at how clunky the controls and camera can get. Same goes for certain platforming zones, where my boy Raz took forever to grab the proper pipeline. It’s aged.
  
  
• The pacing, being more subjective, genuinely bothers me due to the mission structure—you spend half the game in a tutorial phase, and the rest is what truly feels like the actual game, although I have personal grievances with the design of certain levels: I find it unacceptable that some main missions are gated behind a required level. The grinding isn’t overly tedious but could've been avoided by designing a more organic structure.
  
  
[*]As for difficulty, the game is fundamentally too easy in almost all of its parts, except for around the last third. Additionally, some of these later puzzles (starting as early as the infamous Milkman mission) provide very few hints on how to solve them, so I had to check a guide. Btw, the last mission is too demanding, especially considering that throughout the game you are almost never expected to be that skilled.

Just finished the game after a year of playing it on and off. Genuinely one of the most creative, genre-blending, and awe-inspiring games i've ever played. Will try and 100% in the future.

Probably the only negative I have is that the controls are kinda finicky sometimes, and well, it WAS made in 2005, so that is to be expected.

10/10, please god, play this before you die.

Really inconsistent controls. This is a timing and memorization game, but the controls and camera don't work well. For example, at the beginning of the game, it will not detect pulling up arrow heads - nothing you can do will get it to detect the key strokes. This makes the game unplayable later in the game when it won't detect jumping. The camera is broken, sometimes it get stuck in a death spiral over the characters head; if you're lucky you'll die, but otherwise you get to restart the game. Saving is next to useless, it does not save progress.

The worst part about this game is the excruciatingly awful sounds effects. Brutally repetitive. Just turn the sound off, otherwise it is a spike in your brain.

The puzzles made this seem like it would be a fun game, but it is so unreliable at the end when the game degenerates into lazy game design, I really hated it. Did I mention that the sound effects are awful.

Yeah. This sucks. Wish I hadn't bought the package.

One of my favorite games of all time! I've played through it countless times, 100%'d it plus all it's sequels, and still find myself quoting lines all these years later. The characters and writing are just that timeless. The platforming is a bit wonky, you can tell it's the studio's first attempt at the genre. Some objectives are a little bit unclear at times. The entirety of the meat circus is still pretty messy too, even if it was measurably worse in it's original Xbox release. There's one specific point as you're climbing up a spinning fence you need to jump then quickly use levitation to float right away or else the camera whips around causing you to fall and you have to do the whole section over. Even still; all the levels are so incredibly imaginative, the narrative is wonderful, the ending is sweet, and it's just so much fun to play. I love this game!

This game was a really fun platformer with a unique story that never felt boring or dragged on too long. Since it's from 2005 though, theres a whole lot of jank in terms of controls and missing jumps so if you can get through that, I'd highly recommend it still. I played with a controller for 95% of the game but you do need a mouse to navigate some settings when paused. In terms of completion, clean up is not too bad but being able to find all the figments can be terrible even with the use of a guide.

This game is so fuckin funny. Some of the backtracking for collectibles can be annoying but otherwise great

Good wholesome fun. Felt like playing in a Nickelodeon tv show from the 90's/early 2000's.

Sure there is some jank, got lost a few times and other matters that has not aged great, but the setting, voice acting and characters is what makes this game special and glad I played this 20 nearly years after its release.

Onto its sequel

Both Psychonauts games are very appealing graphics- and story-wise, apart from the Meat Circus level of the first game.

This game feels like a comic brought to life, each character is so different from each other and they are so weird looking i love it!! Very silly, very funny game!! The environments inside the mind are so unique and strange, and the world they live in is so different from ours. Its mustve been really fun to draw the characters and the backgrounds. I LOVE THE STARTING SCREEN AAUUGGGHHHHHHH ONE OF MY FAVORITES EVER SO SMART
I love Milla!! love her design, her voice, her dynamic with Sasha, shes so lovely, so nice <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Kind of like an Oreo, you'll have a great time if you extract the gooey middle, roll a bunch up into a giant ball, and then drift off into a diabetic coma after consumption. Highly Recommend.

One of my all time favourites. 10/10
Incredible game, give it a try.
I waited a whole year to get that 'Christmas Shopping' achievement, it was worth it !