Psychonauts

Studio

Double Fine Productions

Publisher

THQ
Majesco Entertainment

Senior Developer

Tim Schafer (Creative director)
Scott Campbell (Art design)

composer

Peter McConnell

Erstveröffent-
lichung

Xbox April 19, 2005 February 10, 2006 Windows April 26, 2005 February 10, 2006 PlayStation 2 June 21, 2005 February 10, 2006 Linux May 31, 2012

platform

Xbox , Windows , PlayStation 2 , macOS , Linux

Game mode

Gamepad , keyboard , mouse

system advantages
preconditions

OS : Windows 2000 / XP
CPU : 1 GHz
RAM : 256 MB
Storage requirement (HDD) : 4 GB

medium

5 CD , 1 DVD-ROM , download

language

German English French

Current version

1:04
1:05 (Steam patch Unofficial backport - Patch )

Age rating

USK

PEGI

Psychonauts is a 3D platformers Run and Action Adventure of the US game developer Tim Schafer and his studio Double Fine Productions . The computer game stands out due to the bizarre-surreal story and the weird humor.

action

In the game you take on the role of young Razputin (Raz) who grew up in a circus family and is now breaking away from the circus in order to receive training as a psychonaut in the summer camp at Whispering Rocks (Whispering Rocks Camp). However, it soon turns out that the psychonauts - a club made up of several top agents - are in extreme danger because a very insidious conspiracy is underway.

The game begins with training in the holiday camp together with several more or less psychically gifted children. Little by little you learn the skills of a psychonaut in an adventurous way in a wide variety of scenarios. A psychonaut possesses several psychic ( PSI ) abilities, from psychokinesis to clairvoyance to mental projection. In addition, psychonauts can penetrate into their own world of thought or into the world of thoughts of other people and beings.

In a huge game world between the real world and worlds of thought, the player definitely needs a certain sense of orientation. This complexity is one of the special charms of the game. The more skills Razputin learns, the more adventurous his experiences in the twisted brain convolutions of the people and beings into which he enters. His tasks are initially in learning the skills, then in solving the psychological problems of others. For example, one has to slip into the head of an opera singer in order to overcome her mood swings, which are represented by the phantom of the opera. As the brains of the other children are gradually stolen and the agents also disappear, Raz recognizes the signs of a huge conspiracy.

Gameplay

optics

The comic-like look of the game is detailed and sophisticated, the animations run smoothly and show many effects and animation sequences. The landscapes are varied and of extremely different characters. A special tendency towards the surreal runs through the entire game.

The sometimes somewhat blurry textures bear witness to the game's console origins.

Sound and music

Peter McConnell's soundtrack is weird and varied like the graphics.

Unlike more modern games (e.g. Dreamfall ), the voice output cannot be changed while the game is running, but you have to decide on a language during installation. The speech outputs are consistently of high quality and have professional speakers. Razputin's German voice comes from Sandra Schwittau , who also voiced the cartoon character Bart Simpson .

Development history

Game designer Tim Schafer is known for titles from the early 1990s such as the first Monkey Island part or Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango . After LucasArts left and his own development studio Double Fine Productions was founded , Schafer made his debut in 2005 with the comic-action-adventure Psychonauts .

Psychonauts was first released in 2005 for PC , Xbox and PlayStation 2 and was well received by the trade press. However, it was initially unsuccessful commercially, which ultimately led to the resignation of the publisher's CEO and Majesco's withdrawal from the full-price gaming market. Nevertheless, the game was later ported for other platforms: 2011 for macOS and 2012 for Linux as part of the Humble Indie Bundle V by Ryan C. Gordon .

Through these further ports and digital distribution via various providers ( Xbox Live , Steam , gOG.com , Humble Indie Bundle ), it ultimately became commercially successful over the years with 400,000 copies sold.

reception

Psychonauts was highly praised in the reviews and by the trade press and mostly rated well, but initially remained a commercial failure. It has also received multiple awards, including a. with the Game Critics Awards 2002 of the E3 as Best Original Game .

International averages at GameRankings :

PC version: 89.6%
Xbox version: 90.2%
PlayStation 2 version: 86.2%

Reviews

Awards:

British Academy Video Games Awards 2006 : Best Screenplay
GameSpot Best and Worst of 2005: Best Voice Acting, Best Graphics Artistic, Funniest Game, Best Game No One Played, Best Platformer
IGN 2005 Awards: Best Platformer, Best Game No One Played
EuroGamer.net : Overall Game of the Year 2005
PSM: Buy or Die award (issue # 100), 5th place Top 10 Games 2005, Best Characters
Electronic Gaming Monthly 2005 Awards: Best Game No One Played
Game Developers Choice Awards : Best Writing
PC Gamer Magazine 2005 Awards: Best Game You Didn't Play, Editor's Choice Award
E3 2002 Game Critics Awards : Best Original Game
GameShadow Innovation in Games Awards: Nominated for Best Game, Innovative Visual Effects, Best Narrative

Psychonauts 2

On December 4, 2015, Double Fine started a crowdfunding project to finance the development of the successor Psychonauts 2 . To do this, they use the fig.co platform, which Double Fine co-founded 4 months earlier . The donation goal was reached after about a month, on January 7, 2016.

On June 9, 2019, at Microsoft's E3 press conference, Psychonauts 2 was officially announced by Tim Schafer for 2020. At the same time it was announced that the developers of Double Fine Productions were taken over by Microsoft. Nevertheless, the game will still be released for Playstation 4.