What’s going on in their mind?
The first Psychonauts released quite a while ago – 2005, to
be precise. When I heard of it, I was actually searching for games that had
something to do with dreams. Although Psychonauts isn’t based on any such
theme, it does involve infiltrating minds and, in some cases, even influencing
them. In that sense, much of its story takes place in an imaginary, astral
plane; much the same way as dreams. Although, at the time, Psychonauts wasn’t
exactly what I was looking for, I was still intrigued by its premise.
Hopping inside people’s minds sounded exciting. On numerous
occasions, we have met someone who seemed interesting or annoying or maybe even
both, and wondered what goes on in their mind. What causes them to act the way
they do, think the way they do, what’s the machinery like that is churning out
all those witty/annoying things they are saying? Psychonauts offers just that, with
each mind constructed as uniquely as the personality of its owner.
A ‘Mind’ Game
We start with a kid named Raz, short for Razputin, as he is
caught eavesdropping on the induction speech of Whispering Rock Summer Camp, which
aims at training psychic kids. It is here that the instructors at the camp recognize
Raz’s talent and enrol him at the camp, where he learns various psychic abilities
and, in the process, saves the camp and its students from the nefarious schemes
of an evil villain.
On paper this might read like an ordinary story, but as I
said, the single most exciting thing about it is going into people’s minds and
actually be a part of what goes on in their heads! And since we are getting up
close and personal with the brain itself, every related phrase in the English language
finds a personification here. There are mental cobwebs to be cleared, figments
of imagination to be collected, emotional baggage to be tagged (yes, literally “tagged”
so they don’t bother the mind anymore), half-a-minds to be re-joined, nuggets
of wisdom, memories sealed away in vaults, and many more. Though the humour is
appreciated, sometimes collecting all of this does get overwhelming. Some of the
bigger levels can have as many as 200 figments of imagination!
Filtering mockery out of humour
What’s even more worthy of attention is how each mind is modelled
and fit as levels into the game. So, how it happens is Raz encounters these
characters and each one has some mental issue going on. Raz enters their mind,
manipulates it from the inside, sorts their issue and the story progresses.
These issues, which range from ones that are heard more commonly like anxiety,
depression, self-doubt and egoism to more serious ones like Schizophrenia and
Multiple Personality Disorder, are represented in a light-hearted manner devoid
of any mockery or fun-poking. Having been able to separate humor and mockery
while portraying something so serious as mental illness is a commendable
achievement. When you see these mental levels in the game, how they are
designed, and what Raz does to unravel the psyche to cure these issues of the
mind, you smile and not laugh. These two words, I think, quite
appropriately portray the fine line that the designers must have walked while
designing the levels, and having finished the game I can say that they did with
aplomb. Kudos!
Definition of Crying
Apart from the level design, the attentive mind would find
lots of amusing stuff in the sound and voice department as well. Both the games
are brimming with witty quotes, one liners and puns. One of my favorites from
the series is: “My eyes are so full they are gonna vomit. Is that what crying
is?” The music, especially that of the second entry, fits the atmosphere of the
mental levels well and stands out in some of them, like the Grulovia anthem and
the hypnotic background music of the PSI King level. This level, formally known
as ‘Feast of the Senses’ in the game, is distinctly memorable because it is
heavily psychedelic, full of bright colours and is inspired from music festivals
where everyone is “lost in their own world”, if you catch my drift, and this
level is that world. It makes you feel as if you’re tripping, and if you’re
actually tripping, this is the one level you should play. That quote about
vomiting eyes is also from this level.
Just the right distance from reality
I don’t find much to comment on the story, since it’s one of
those where everything goes. You have psychics in the forefront, and the extent
of their powers is as limitless as imagination itself, which the designers of Psychonauts
have no dearth of. I could see imagination and creativity oozing out of every
little crevice in the game. Quite a few creative liberties have been taken,
with great effect, might I add, in modelling what the characters are able to do
as well as how they look. I mention this latter part especially because the aesthetics
of the game play a substantial role in carrying it far enough from reality that
it doesn’t feel too serious, but close enough that it stays relatable.
Everything is made to look quirky and cartoony. Now, it would be understandable if this was being said only about the mental levels, but even the real world is modelled the same way, which further amplifies the weirdness of the mental levels. This is another reason why the portrayal of mental illnesses does not feel offensive in any way – it just feels like a cartoon. Think about it – we have watched Tom get paranoid and obsessive about catching Jerry to the point of insanity, we have watched them getting depressed and tired of life, waiting on a railway track for a train to run them over; have we ever been offended?
A Bigger Playground
Moving on to the gameplay, it feels like a mix of platformer
and adventure, with occasional puzzles thrown in. There are some action elements
as well in the form of enemies like ‘Censors’ (who expel thoughts that don’t
belong) and ‘Guilt’ (who weighs you down), but beating them isn’t really that hard.
Even the boss battles are easy if you have the right psychic abilities. Where
the game makes you think are the puzzles, especially in the first game. I even
had to refer to walkthroughs in a couple of places because the game won’t let
me advance. Although there are a few challenging stages in Psychonauts 2 as
well, personally I never got stuck anywhere.
When I moved to Psychonauts 2 after finishing the first one,
and was marvelling at the gap of 16 years between the two games, I found that there
was also a VR game released somewhere between called ‘Rhombus of Ruin’. Now I
hadn’t played it and so there was a bit of a disconnect in the story between
Psychonauts 1 and 2 for me. The events in ‘Rhombus of Ruin’ have some
consequences in the second game and I think I could have enjoyed it better had
I played the VR entry. Other than that, though, Psychonauts 2 provides a much
bigger playground to enjoy, and also introduces side quests and a few new
psychic powers.
While we had only the Summer Camp grounds to run around in
the free play mode in the first game, Psychonauts 2 gives us the Psychonauts
headquarters, the Quarry and the Questionable Area (which is literally full of
questions) to roam and explore, and there are tons and tons of collectibles in
these locations which are significantly bigger than the first game. These collectibles
help Raz upgrade his abilities, increase his cadet rank and buy new psychic stuff.
As cartoony and removed from reality as Psychonauts may
seem, it doesn’t fail to portray whatever real world concepts it touches upon. There
are not many games in which you get to peek inside the minds of other
characters. Not only peek, you can interact with and experience the world
inside their heads, talk to the characters that have found a home in their brains
and make changes to their psyche that can have a lasting impact on their actual
persona! What better way than this for character development, right? Kind of
made me wonder how my mind must look like on the inside…
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