Psychonauts

I'm still in the middle of playing Psychonauts and I have to admit that I'm having a mixed experience.

The story and graphics in this game are pretty good. Its a very distinctive graphical style, almost comic like in nature. However, what really sets this game apart is the zany humour. The game is highly original.

Just in case you don't know anything about it, here is a brief synopsis. You play the role of a kid who runs away from his home in the circus so that he can attend summer camp. The reason is that this kid has psychic abilities and the summer camp is no ordinary summer camp. Rather, it is a secret government training facility where future psychic warriors (aka pschonauts) are trained. The gameplay is in the form of a 3d platformer which primarily takes place within the minds of various different people.

As you can see from the synopsis, this game is bristling with originality. And there are lots of nice touches which you see throughout the game. The designer (I believe it was Tim Schafer) has really put a lot of love into designing this game and it really shows.

The only problem is the control scheme. Because I don't have a gamepad for my PC, I'm playing this game while hunched over the keyboard and staring at my 15" monitor. After having gotten used to playing action games with a gamepad and 42" plasma tv, its hard to make that adjustment back.

While I should be having a great time playing an original game, I just can't help noticing the shortcomings of the keyboard control scheme.