Then there are the alien objects that just don’t belong. There are ammunition belts, grainy projections, barbed-wire walls, anti-tank barricades, flamethrowers, dog tags, five-pointed stars, helmets, skulls, tires, flaming barrels, gutted planes, bowie knives, cannons, camp nets, mines, more cannons, military flags, wooden spikes, spinning death traps, and dimly lit corridors. Oleander’s mind bears all the trappings of military life. But their origins can be discovered through deep exploration. There will be things that seem out of place.
Sometimes the secrets show on the surface. This is where the mind hides its secrets like buried treasure. Then there is the basement level of the mind, the subconscious. This is the conscious mind that projects outwards. There is the outer surface of the mind, which represents how the character wishes to be seen.
It also sets up the pattern of nearly every mental level. The first mission, Basic Braining, prepares Raz for what lies ahead. It’s usually a sign that something is not quite right in the mind. The music can be heard at various points in the game. It consists of a pattern of eight notes that serves as the theme for Psychonauts. Even the music shares an uncanny resemblance. The scene is reminiscent of the opening to The Twilight Zone. Raz enters Oleander’s psyche through a literal door into the mind, known as a Psycho-Portal. Much of the dialogue in Psychonauts is written in the same humorous vein as these old-school adventure games. This joke resulted in numerous calls to the LucasArts hotline, and was subsequently scrapped from later editions.
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In that game, attempting to enter a tree stump would result in the same remarks, followed by a series of pop-up messages, stating the player needed to insert disc 22, then 36, then 114 in order to continue. This not only serves as foreshadowing, but also refers to classic LucasArts adventure The Secret of Monkey Island. Upon inspecting the stump, Raz makes a remark about it opening up into ‘a system of catacombs’. Especially if one chooses to interact with the tree stump at the beginning of the game. Those who grew up playing point-and-click puzzlers will find themselves in familiar territory. Psychonauts proudly borrows from the adventure game genre. However, they add colour to the camp, and sometimes reveal hidden truths. They are not, after all, essential to the plot. Most of these interactions are very easy to miss. On top of that, each child in the camp has their own three-act story, which occurs on the fringes of the main story. Show any object to any character and Raz will receive a unique response. Raz can interact with almost everyone and everything. And it’s this high level of interactivity that separates Psychonauts from the regular platformer. The environment welcomes many kinds of interaction. There’s children to talk to, trees to climb, caves to explore, squirrels to roast. Other than that, it’s just a fun place to hang out. It’s the central hub you return to between missions. The camp is a wide, sprawling area, made up of the kids’ cabins, main campgrounds, forested wilderness, reception area, and beach. Here young children with psychic abilities are trained to become international secret agents or Psychonauts. The game begins in Whispering Rock Summer Camp, a highly-classified, remote government training facility.
It’s a strange and curious world that invites a great deal of exploration. It’s a world rich in history, and character, and Easter eggs. So it’s no surprise that the world of Psychonauts is filled with so many little secrets. He also worked with LucasArts, a company renowned for its detailed craftsmanship and impressive attention to detail. It was created by Tim Schafer, who was mostly known for his work on point-and-click adventures such as Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, and The Secret of Monkey Island. While Psychonauts has the look and feel of a platform game, it’s an adventure game at heart. But the differences become apparent when you peek beneath the surface. It too is fun and whimsical with a colourful cast of characters. Their characters are a playful bunch, none of whom would seem out of place in a Saturday morning cartoon. These are games set in fun fantasy lands containing all sorts of shiny trinkets to collect and strange enemies to defeat. Popular titles of the day include Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper. Psychonauts was developed during the early 2000s, when platform games were still somewhat fashionable.
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