Publisher: THQ/Majesco
Developer: Double Fine
Released: 10th February 2006
Platforms: PS2 (reviewed), Xbox and PC

You can tell when a developer loves what they are working on. Quality shines out of every pixel, every little nuance has been tuned and wound until it runs like a Swiss clock. Sadly such labours of love are rare and often oppressive deadlines, dwindling budgets and bullish publishers mean that would-be classics end up rushed out, reviled and forgotten. So, rejoice even more that one such labour of love, Psychonauts, is one such labour of love that made it through the barricades.

It's clear you're playing something special from the opening menu screen. Are you faced with a mundane list of "Start, Load, Options..." to cycle through? Oh no. Here in 'quality land', your character strolls into view atop a logo-stamped brain floating in the ether. Wandering around this mass of grey matter, you'll find literal doorways into the mind, one of which is marked "Start New Game". A clever interface isn't going to make up for a bad game, but like stylish opening credits to a movie, it sets the tone and hints at what treats are in-store once you dive through the gaping cranial doorway and the sweet madness really begins...

Through the canyons of your mind

Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp is the physical location of this hilarious third-person action adventure from Tim Schafer (the man behind the classic games such as Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango). I say physical because the game takes place in a lot of metaphysical locations as well. But more on that later, let's get back to Whispering Rock.

Picture if you will, a typical, all-American summer camp; log cabins, camp fires, awe-inspiring forests and restful lakeside views. At Whispering Rock you get all that, but mutated into a twisted caricature world that seems to have been siphoned from Tim Burton's head during a nightmare powered by an entire Brie and four Babybels. Even the cute main character, Raz, is a long way from being a poster-boy for youth fitness.

But far from turning you off from these freak-show characters, a fantastic script and some spot on voice-acting brings these mutant munchkins to life. You'll happily let yourself be drawn into the hilarious lives, loves and losses of Raz, Lili, Dogen and the rest of the Whispering Rock gang.

This one time, at Psi Camp...

Life at WR is lots of fun. You're free to explore the massive grounds, finding buried Arrowheads (the camp's currency) and PSI Cards (to upgrade your Psi-powers), as well as meeting and chatting with the other campers. Taking the best bits of other games in the genre such as Prince of Persia and Ratchet and Clank you can climb, swing, rappel, rope-walk and even grind your way around the camp's many areas finding arrows and cards as well as the hidden Scavenger Hunt items.

There's always something to do, although just eavesdropping the conversations of the inhabitants is so much fun, you may find standing still affords you some equally delectable entertainment.

But the kids aren't at WR just to roast marshmallows, tell ghost stories and try to get 'fingers and tops' with the pretty girl, these special youngsters are training to become Psychonauts; mental-powered secret agents, and you're the star pupil.

Basic braining

Each of the camp grown-ups (plus a couple of star guests) put you through your parapsychological paces to learn each of the eight Psi-powers. While this ESP shopping list of powers like Telekinesis and Pyrokinesis could have been lifted from any number of Psi games (Psi-Ops and Second Sight spring to mind) Psychonauts rarely does anything derivative and the powers are no different.

Levitation for example, isn't just a float 'spell', here it creates a bubble of force you can ride like Super Monkey Ball or grab like a balloon to glide. The Clairvoyance ability not only allows you to look through others eyes, but shows you what they think of what they're looking at, with some hilarious results.

As you learn new skills, utilising them around Whispering Rock allows you to access new areas, protect yourself or just to get around faster. As you'd imagine, they also transfer into the mental realm and this is where Psychonauts' genius shines even brighter.

Mind the doors

I don't want to give away too much of the excellent plot away, but suffice it to say you need to enter peoples' minds in order to do some very hands-on psycho-therapy - think of it as The Cell without J-Lo's bum to distract you. Just like real-life, everyone's mind is different and in Psychonauts this makes for some of the most creative action adventure levels ever seen on PS2 or Xbox.

I can't help thinking though, that if you wanted to showcase the weirdness of the psychic world, you'd think that developer Double Fine would have made the real world by comparison a photo realistic place full of motion-captured characters, Havok physics and carefully crafted, shaded and real-time lit environments. But no, Double Fine wanted Whispering Rock to be weird and so they're going to have to do pretty special to make the mental realm seem out of the ordinary. Which of course... they do.

Lesser games would offer some Dali-inspired platforming with a change in interior design for each separate mind, maybe add some broiling pink clouds, perhaps some whispering background noise. But Psychonauts is no such lesser game. Here, each mind is an entirely different kettle of fish (literally in one case), with ordered, cuboid mind-scapes, insane roller-discos, warzones, twisted 60's US suburbia and many more lobotomising levels to face. What's more, each mind-field offers a different gameplay challenge so that every brain is almost a new game in itself.

What remains consistent throughout are your Psi-powers, the myriad of collectibles to keep you amused when you start free-roaming (such as Emotional Baggage to reclaim) and the gloriously silly, perfectly timed, laugh-out-loud humour (such as the aforementioned Emotional Baggage - 'cos it's like 'baggage' right? Like suitcases. But upset. So, like emotional. Emotional... Baggage. Geddit? Oh please yourself).

For all my effusive comments, Psychonauts isn't perfect; it's got some jerky cut-scenes and some frustratingly deadly camera idiosyncrasies, but everything else is so carefully crafted, brilliantly presented and above all, fun to play you just don't care. This is a stunning game that will have you rapt from start to finish and doubled-over with laughter from beginning to end. Give your mind over to Pyschonauts, you owe it to your brain.

Check out the Psychonauts website here.

Richard Fentiman

[Editor's note - Since writing this back in 2006, Shafer has brought us Brütal Legend. Which is funny, great to play and has a killer voice cast... but it ain't as good as Psychonauts, baby. No sirree.]