 | | Psychonauts is a crazy new game from former LucasArts designer Tim Schafer |
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Psychonauts is a whacky upcoming platform/adventure game from the designer of PC classics Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. In it you play young Raz, a new recruit in a so called "Psychonauts" training school - mind explorers with psychic powers.
This concept is taken quite literally, as the levels involve you running around inside people's heads, wading through their inner most demons, unlocking their emotional baggage and battling through twisted recreations of their troubled pasts.
In this impressively large demo level for instance, you're charged with completing an "obstacle course" inside the mind of your teacher...a psychotic WWII veteran. You'll find yourself clambering through luminously surreal recreations of war torn battlefields while evading minefields, flamethrowers and gun turrets, the whole time unsure just where his eventful past will take you next.
It's all barmy, extremely original stuff, made all the more charming due to its exemplary graphics. Fans of Beyond Good & Evil will appreciate the look and feel of the game immensely, but there's also hints of platform classic Alice in the surrealism of the level design too. From this extended demo it's quite clear that the art direction is nigh on amazing, and clearly the work of a possessed genius.
But while the game is fun enough to play, bouncing around these crazy levels and solving minor puzzles, it's the humour that makes it shine. While it's cartoony on the outside, don't let that fool you - this is some of the most pitch perfect comedy seen in a game since Day of the Tentacle. For that reason I can't recommend this demo enough.
You can grab it from the Gamer's Hell link below, with a full version due out on PC and Xbox later this week. A PS2 version will join them a couple of months down the line. Joypad highly recommended!
Gamer's Hell - Psychonauts PC Demo
This review/report was created by the great team at TPSreport.co.uk:
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