Monday, March 19, 2012

Played Lately: Psychonauts

  • I suppose it's about time. The game came out in 2005 during the previous console cycle. It has felt like a huge hole in my gaming knowledge. So last night, instead of saving the galaxy, I loaded up Psychonauts for the first time.

  • Like any older game, it feels out of time even with the improvements Double Fine made to the PC version. The fact that it reads my controller on the PC is amazing, even if the button prompts still reflect the keyboard keys. The graphics are decidedly Xbox quality, but the style helps overcome the deficit.

  • My favorite thing about the game so far is the explorable hub world. I like that they give you this open space and set you free to do what you want. I'm sure that I could exhaust the possibilities if I focus on it too much. But so far I've found several hard-to-reach or hidden areas that keep me looking for more. And I love that there seem to be multiple ways to approach different problems in the open world.

  • I've only tried the introductory level so far. It seemed a little long and the frightfully linear. But the art design was great to explore and it told an interesting story.

  • Only an hour and a half in, I'm on the fence about Psychonauts. That first level didn't win me over like the open world has. I'm hoping that further levels draw me in more.

© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

2 comments:

  1. I'd say the first level is among the weakest. One of my favorite games, some of the later levels are absolute classics imo. My only quibble the game is that I ran out of things to do in the open world part too soon. I would have liked to see the camp used more, since that is what really sucked me in at first.

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    1. @ Yeebo - Glad to know that the later levels get better. And sad to know that I'll be exhausting the camp sooner than I would want. I'll keep writing as I play more.

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