Psychonauts Reviews

Double Fine creates delightful games filled to the brim with charisma and insanity! Psychonauts is their first game, and as expected, it is a fever dream from start to finish. Considering Psychonauts is a 2005 game, it holds up pretty well for today's standards. It's a funny platformer with a rich universe, endearing characters, and a lot of care in all departments. The gameplay is creative, and the power-ups are both useful and amusing to use. The level designs are phenomenal, full of varied and unique mechanics. The writing is engaging and full of nuances, all topped with several unique interactions, the jokes are acid, and there is a lot of dark stuff going on if you're paying attention. Raz is a splendid protagonist, competent and naive, but not stupid. The controls could've been a little better, both in mapping and precision, and the cutscenes at a better resolution, but that is basically all the criticism I have for this one. Psychonauts is a cult classic, and it deserves all the praise. Creativity is one of the pillars of why Double Fine games are so fun to play, and Psychonauts is one of their finest examples, with almost 15 hours of gameplay, it rarely felt boring or obtuse, there was always something fresh to stir the experience. Easy recommendation.

There are many reasons why this is one of my favorite games of all time, and after replaying it all the way through for the first time since I first completed it over a decade ago (jfc) I can say it has held up insanely well. Like a lot of other content I come back to as an adult, there are so many jokes and thematic elements that went over my head as a kid. I now have even more of an appreciation for the humor, the voice acting, the story progression, and the intoxicating art style of such a gem of a game. Give patience to some of the clunky graphics and camera controls. Remember to get your cobweb duster early, and get the invisibility ability before the Milkman Conspiracy. And that final circus level is much more difficult than I remember, but not anything that won't leave you satisfied after it's conclusion. On a final note, the insane asylum level (and its 4 wacky characters) will go down as my favorite level to a game of all time. It's something I was looking forward to since restarting this game after so long, which hopefully gives you the indication that this game leaves such a lasting impression on you as it did me. "You guys wanna split a cab?" ~Boyd

A classic of the mid-2000s that still holds a lot of charm to this day, and only aged badly in a few select areas that do not ruin the overall experience.

This game taught me that helicopters can go up and down 10/10 masterpiece Truly a life changing experience

Fun romp through an enjoyable story with funny interesting characters and insanely creative levels :)

I remember all the commercials about this game when I was a kid, but I passed it up as campy and shallow...Truly 21 years later, when I finally decide to play it, I realize that this is the epitome of just calm, peaceful fun. Pure game with no needless idle time, cash-grabbing tactics...Sure the game is small-scale but games are not meant to replace life, they are part of the icing on life. 8.5/10, could have been expanded more for the PC version. If they could fit KOTOR on those old PC's then there's no reason not to make this game more expansive with more places to go, missions, upgradeable stuff, etc. Additionally, this game has some unexpected run-killing bugs that were never, ever fixed that involve collision boxes and interaction points for platforming and climbing. The physics sometimes gets wonky, too. The tongue in cheek jokes are not appropriate with the family-friendly aspect it is shooting for. Without those bugs, this game would be a solid 9.

This is such a fun charming game. Psychonauts is way better then Psychonauts2 unfortunately.

I LOVE THIS GAME SOOOO MUCH. I got it when I saw it was $1-$2 (which it does that a lot) and it really took me back to when I first played this. and this game is one of the best 3D platformer games of our time. and if you don't want to spend 10 bucks on perfection then just wait until it goes on sale for $1. although not all game are perfect like for example when they ported it over to steam I think they F**ked up the controls so its a lil janky at first but after a little fiddling around it should work, and to go with that "port f**k up" (from what I've heard) Controllers and the steam deck just don't work so sadly you are going to HAVE to use keyboard and mouse. but other than those 2 things its a great game that i hold near and dear to my little greasy, squishy heart. 7/10

I played this game a bit as a kid, I bought it on steam so I could try it again as an adult. This game is so much better than I ever realized. It's from the golden era of renderware 3d platformers, but has writing that has aged extremely well. It's funny for all ages, although I think honestly adults would find it funnier than kids would. Highly recommend it, especially on sale!

This game is hilarious and charming in the most delightfully weird way possible. An iconic cult classic you must play. The only downsides are the janky old platforming mechanics and the currency grinding you have to do around halfway through the game in order to progress. Otherwise I highly recommend.