The game industry was alight this week with talk of Tim Schafer’s lightning-quick fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, a website that helps artists fund their projects by getting large groups of people to make small donations. Raising over a million dollars in a day, Schafer broke records and made indie game developers take notice. Even Notch from Minecraft has been tweeting about making a sequel to Shafer’s 2005 Psychonauts. This Schafer guy sure must make some fine games to get such an outpouring of support from fans and other game makers! It is with much shame I must confess that I never played one of his games…
It turns out that I actually own a bunch of his games, which include classics like Escape From Monkey Island, and Day of the Tentacle. He’s also made modern cult sensations like Brutal Legend, Costume Quest, and Stacking. Each time a new Tim Schafer game comes out, I play the demo, become enchanted, add the game to my ever-growing list of awesome games I intend to play “Someday”… then I never sit down and play them.
Somehow the gritty, serious, mature games always take my attention away from Schafer’s brand of humor and whimsicality. Even though I profess to like my games funny, I spend more time killing zombies than exploring life as a Russian matryoshka doll. But this week I put aside my usual M-Rated entertainments and joined the children of Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp to see what the fuss is all about with this Schafer fellow.
Psychonauts hit Xbox and PlayStation 2 back in 2005. I played a little of it on PS2 not long after it came out, and threw it on the backlog, but eventually grabbed the PC version too. The console editions are rather collectible so players who don’t already have an old copy lying around can save more than a few dollars by getting it for their PC. Also, the PC edition is graphically superior by far, so this is definitely the version to choose.
There was a big update to the game last year, and it’s genuinely surprising as to how well this seven year-old title has held up. It plays in modern widescreen with high resolution, and it looks as fresh as any of the quirky downloadable arcade titles that come out today. The visual design mimicked the design of a cartoon, or Tim Burton film, so the graphics don’t have a dated took to them. The odd little monster children found throughout the camp all have individual looks that suit their personalities and that still comes across.
But the technology and graphics were never the big draw for Tim Schafer’s fans. They follow him in droves because of his sense of humor and willingness to take on strange ideas. Psychonauts is set in a summer camp for children with psychic powers. They’re all “Psycadets” in training to become powerful “Psychonauts”, and are the playthings of overzealous camp councilors.
Players control Raz (Short for Rasputin), a gifted student who’s new to the camp. Just as Raz is learning his way around camp, the Player also find themselves in a weird world filled with strange children, stranger grown-ups, and whole campground full of places to explore, and items to collect. Raz eventually stumbles across the sinister true purpose behind the camp, and has to rescue his fellow campers.
It didn’t take long for me to make up my mind about Psychonauts; the opening cutscene had me laughing out loud, and there were just seconds of gameplay before I found myself talking to an NPC who had a funny scene involving squirrels and a tinfoil hat. This a funny game with a timeless premise, and it holds up perfectly. It plays like an action platformer, but there is a lot of NPC interaction too. The dialog is witty, often silly, and riddled with pop psychiatry jokes. There’s a dark sense of humor, but it remains child-friendly. This world is crammed with interesting people to talk to, and Raz can’t take a few steps before running into someone interesting who has some amusing dialog.
The actual gameplay still holds up too. Nothing here is revolutionary, or unique, but it still provides a satisfying challenge while waiting for something funny to happen. Jump, double jump, climb, slide on rails? It has all of the standards for platforming. Plus there are RPG elements in that Raz slowly levels up to gain extra psi-powers. On top of that, it has a pinch of Zelda in it as well and players will quickly find that they have lots of different kinds of collectibles to hunt for all over the camp, and inside missions too. Some of these items are basically money, others are power-ups, and yet more are part of scavenger hunts to get rewards from NPCs. As gamers progress they gain access to previously closed-off areas and can teleport back to finish their collecting in the earlier levels. Gamers who like earning 100% completion will spend a looong time in Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp!
I do have few complaints. One is that the cutscenes seem a little fuzzy, as though the in-game graphics were enhanced for PC but the video for the custscenes is still using console-quality resolution from the days before high def TV’s were common.
I’m sure that Schafer’s many fans will debate fiercely about which of his games is the best, but gamers who’ve yet to discover his work would do well to start with the PC edition of Psychonauts. Used copies can still be found, but it’s also readily available by download, and there is a Macintosh version too.
In the coming weeks on The Backlog I’ll play through the first two Mass Effect games again, along with all of their DLC in time for the release of the final installment of this franchise. Is there any reason for gamers to replay the first game? Don’t spend 60 hours of your life finding out, just read next week’s The Backlog.
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