Psychonauts (PS2) Review

Date purchased: Jan. 11, 2018
Price paid: $29.99
Dates played: June 14 to July 17, 2022
Playtime: 45h 1m
Date reviewed: July 17, 2022
Date posted: Feb. 24, 2023
Rating: 7/10

I found all the collectibles. If you don't go for all the collectibles, it's probably a 10-20 hr game. If you do go for getting all collectibles, I highly recommend doing so before the event that transitions it to nighttime (I had to look up a video for one item due to the netting required to reach it not being visible at night from where you have to jump to it).

Long load times, bad camera angles, and some dodgy controls for a couple PSI powers knock this down a point or two. The nature of the Imagination Figments makes some of them rather difficult to spot. It would have been nice to be able to see what collectibles you've gotten from any area, as opposed to only showing the current area. "Lives" serve no real purpose, other than the annoyance of 15+ seconds of load time while you get kicked out of a mind and then another 15+ seconds of load time to reenter the mind with a full compliment of "lives". There is no game over screen, so there's no loss condition, which would eliminate this from being considered to be a game if your position is that a loss condition is required for something to be a game. This also removed all worry about failing, as you retain everything you'd found when you run out of "lives". Thus, I had no problem suiciding to get several Figments.

While I'm not a fan of the character designs, I did like the art direction of several of the characters' minds that you enter, although the amount of darkness in many of them did make navigating around a bit of a pain. The game gave me a Ratchet & Clank vibe, and I really liked the three R&C games I played (R&C1-3). With the exception of the final platforming section leading up to the final battle, there was very little difficulty. Most of the "worlds" have little to no enemies. The bosses are all relatively easy, once you figure out how to damage them. The Lungfish battle is horrible, though, as it seems like someone who actually liked the stage "Welcome to the Machine" in Ecco the Dolphin made it. If you are having issues with anything, there are hints you can access for virtually everything. There is a nice selection of powers that you gain throughout the game, although the power and item inventory system is a bit cumbersome. The game had me chuckling at several instances, and it's worth hanging around some of the characters while in the campsite to get their full dialogue.