Psychonauts -- Final Opinion.

Twenty-seven hours later the credits roll on Psychonauts. My initial impressions seem to have rung true. The story and the characters are very good. They're the reason to play the game through to completion. The story is well written and smart and funny. The characters are charming and exceptionally well voiced. The graphics are varied, brightly colored, and vibrant. The art design is original and interesting throughout the game. The levels feature the same basic platforming throughout but the concepts of the levels are great and are a part of what's best about the game. The game isn't perfect though. It actually has a few major faults. The camera at times is a real pain in the ass. The camera for the most part gets the job done, but when it goes bad, it really goes bad. On a particular boss, where the perspective of the camera changes mid-battle, I died fifteen times within mere seconds because the camera refused to orientate itself and I couldn't see the boss that was attacking or even my character itself. You try fighting a boss you can't see with a character you can't see with instant death hazards around you also can't see. FUN! Another area the game doesn't really work is in its going overboard with the collection aspect. Literally the most collection happy game, going beyond Donkey Kong 64 with ease. Donkey Kong 64 didn't bother me, and the world seemed to hate it. Psychonauts just goes too far with what you need to collect to see the real ending. The last aspect of the game that isn't really up to par is in just how glitchy the overall game is. You'll fall through the floor here and there. You'll get stuck in walls. The collision detection will fail. You'll hit invisible walls mid jump. I'm knocking off a point for the collection overdose, one point for the camera struggle, and half a point for the overall glitch infestation. I'm giving Psychonauts a 7.5. Mr. Schafer needs to get himself some better coders for his next game and he might reach greatness.