Psychonauts

Several weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to take advantage of the latest Humble Indie Bundle which featured a whole lot of fantastic independent games.  One of those games was Psychonauts, made by Double Fine, which I think might actually be one of the best games I've ever played. 

Psychonauts is an action-adventure platformer game in which you control Raz, a young psychic who's run away from home (which happens to be the circus) to sneak into a summer camp that trains other young psychics.  Throughout the game Raz gains different psychic abilities, such as pyrokinesis, levitation, and invisibility, and goes inside the minds of several other characters.  Each of these mental worlds is very unique.  I think my favorite one of these was Lungfishopolis, an homage to giant-monster movies like Godzilla.

The main thing that really stands out to me about this game is the amount of detail and care that went into it.  All of the dialog is completely voice acted, and voice acted well (which is definitely not always the case in games) and even minor characters have interesting personalities and backgrounds.  In addition, some of the powers you gain are usable on other characters and pretty much all of them have different reactions.  Plus, it looks fantastic.

Raar!  I am the mighty Goggalor!

Oh, hi there, Linda!

It's challenging, too.  Especially if you're looking to get all the collectible things in the game.  For the most part, though, it's not too hard.  At least until you get to the Meat Circus.

Yup, it's exactly what it sounds like.

Though from what I understand, the version I have is actually easier than the original release was, for which I am grateful.  Cuz yeah, that Meat Circus is a giant pain.  It would also probably have been easier if I'd used a game controller rather than the keyboard and mouse to play. 

Really, the only thing I don't like about this game is that there isn't a sequel.  There's been fairly recent talk about one, but who knows if or when it'll actually happen.  In the meantime, though, Double Fine had a ridiculously successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a new adventure game, so at least I have that to be incredibly excited about.

If you're at all interested in getting Psychonauts, you can buy it from Steam (for the PC or Mac) or GOG (PC) for $9.99 and for the XBox 360 for 800 Microsoft points.