Psychonauts

Psychonauts is a video game in the action genre developed by Double Fine Productions, Inc. and published by Majesco Entertainment Company originally released in 2005. It is currently playable on Windows.

At a summer camp for promising psychics, a young boy with an unusually high level of psychic ability inexplicably appears. The boy, named Raz, is allowed to stay at the camp until his father comes to pick him up, but his arrival coincides with very strange circumstances. Soon evidence is revealed that someone is psychically manipulating the minds of the campers, and Raz is the only one who can stop him. Raz must project himself into the psyches of several different people to find out what is going on and who is behind the recent events.

Psychonauts is a 3D platformer with an unorthodox style. The inner worlds of the characters are the levels of the game. Each world reflects the personality of the person whose psyche it represents, often resulting in unique and surreal creations, and influencing the style of gameplay. For example, the psyche of a giant lungfish is presented as a large city populated by fish people, in which Raz himself becomes a giant monster that can destroy entire buildings; the psyche of a mentally ill person is a huge board game, in which Raz has to command armies to defeat Napoleon, and so on.

There are also many gameplay elements and tasks that are common to all levels. Among them, Raz fights regular enemies (not very numerous), defeats level bosses, collects currency, 'figments of the imagination' needed to upgrade his powers, and bonus items such as complete sets of character memories and others. Many of the game's puzzles require the use of psychic powers, which Raz obtains in a more or less strict order. These powers range from combat abilities such as Psychic Shield to Telekinesis (moving objects without touching them) and Clairvoyance (reading other people's minds).

The camp itself serves as the 'hub' of the game, where the player can explore, interact with characters, search for secret areas and objects, etc.

Psychonauts is available at a reduced price on the following websites and is no longer abandonware.