Psychonauts -Xbox- 5

August 24, 2023

I just beat Psychonauts for Xbox. I am sorry…I can’t say I liked this one. At first, it seemed like a decent enough mascot platformer, like Mario or Ratchet, but much more weird. That’s fine. But as I got further into the game, things started to turn me off.

This game boiled down to being a giant collect-a-thon, with occasional segments of average to decent platforming. And half way through, the game became loaded with tedious, obscure puzzles that were a chore to play. Specifically, the Milkman Conspiracy and Gloria’s Theater were the most painful.

Towards the very end, there’s a little more platforming and parkour with the Asylum climb and Meat Circus, and I had some fun there…but it was too little, too late. I appreciate that the game was trying to go for something different with the story and setting, but the puzzles and the collecting just got boring! And sometimes, the story and humor were amusing…other times they were just annoying and weird.

I think Psychonauts was just not my cup of tea. I love mascot platformers with challenging parkour…not ones that have you endlessly hunting for doodads. You don’t have to collect everything, but you have to collect enough of it that it gets tiresome. Most of the game’s puzzles were geared towards finding a bunch of junk that I just wanted to be done with. It didn’t work for me. I’m going to give Psychonauts a 5 out of ten. It’s not terrible, but I just don’t understand why other people love this game so much?