Favorite Psychonauts level

[Moosferatu]

It's been a while since we've had a good Psychonauts thread. What was your favorite Psychonauts mind?

My favorite I think is Waterloo World followed closely by the Brain Tumbler Experiment. Waterloo World felt the most complete to me. I liked its size, feel, humor, gameplay, and how it was non-linear. One of the few things that bugged me about most of the minds was how they felt like they were on rails, and you had to follow one set path throughout. But in Waterloo World you had freedom to go where ever whenever and do things in whatever order you liked. I really liked the Brain Tumbler Experiment for its atmosphere. That first part with the egg was one of the coolest parts of the game for me. Sure the level was short and straight forward, but it was dripping with atmosphere and mood.

[Karimi]

The funniest and most amusing : Lungfishopolis (freeeeedom & twitching dude)

The most interesting ,deep and stylish : Black Velvetopia

Most puzzling : Gloria play thing.

Most difficult : Meat Circus

Most unique and creative : Waterloo

The mix of worlds is great, the game is so different. Meat circus was just horrible though , very tedious and creepy, sort of ruins the game. Black Velvetopia was pure class, the style , music , story , action ,the art, it was amazing. Lungfishopolis was hilarious and though the area was a bit dull and too orange it was lots of fun to go on a rampage.

I picked Blackvelvetopia because it mixed all the elements I though were good. But Lungfishop. and Waterloo were close seconds. The rest were ok , with MC being the worst. I like MC in concept but it was too difficult, and I think it may have been too scary, the freaky bunnies and the people throwing those knives.

[Tanukitsune]

Being a Godzilla fan, I can't help but to love Lungfishopolis!

[tabacco]

I chose Milkman Conspiracy entirely for the G-men.

"Although I smell like feces, I deserve your respect."

[Karimi]

For me , Brain Tumbler was too short to have any real effect. I think there was too little time spent in the camp though , too much time in the minds , I never got to meet all the kids. I did like the egg part , and the fact that the small bunny that was guiding you came back in the Meat circus as well , but as a fat suicidal bunny.

The thing that the bully does is pretty catchy though, I noticed myself doing it at times. Eeeh Chk eh eh chk Eh eh eh eh chk.

[Moosferatu]

Yeah, it would have been nice if there were more to do at the camp. The camp was with out a doubt the best part of the game. Everything about it was perfect and polished.

[JoeX111]

My favorite was the Milkman Conspiracy. Although I love the art style of Black Velvetopia and thought Lungfishopolis was one of the funniest, the inner conspiracy nut in me couldn't help but love seeing the way they turned suburbia on its head.

"I am a grieving widow."

"I cannot decide whether to remarry or stay faithful to my spouse."

"Look at that woman's breasts. They are large."

Too funny.

And I can't see why everyone hates the Meat Circus so much. Sure it was harder, but I thought its deranged creepiness was awesome, especially since it fleshed out the inner fears or Raz much more than we saw in the Brain Tumbler Experiment.

My least favorite level was Gloria's Theater. Man, that was absolutely no fun to play at all.

[MrHoatzin]

I think all minds have redeeming qualities, save for the brain tumbler experiment which I felt was too generic and straightforward. It began well (with the caravan and the egg) and it ended well (with the blueprint boss fight), but everything in between was meh. They could've done something more immediately weird with the level like with Fred's, Nein's and Boyd's minds, but they didn't.

[Karimi]

"I am a grieving widow."

"I cannot decide whether to remarry or stay faithful to my spouse."

"Look at that woman's breasts. They are large."

And I can't see why everyone hates the Meat Circus so much. Sure it was harder, but I thought its deranged creepiness was awesome, especially since it fleshed out the inner fears or Raz much more than we saw in the Brain Tumbler Experiment.

My least favorite level was Gloria's Theater. Man, that was absolutely no fun to play at all.

Yea, the G-men were funny. I actually looked around to see the woman with big breasts, there was no woman . Meat circus like I said was nice in concept , it shows Olly's mind and made me understand Raz as well as his dad. But it was a bit too hard and the bunny chasing thing was somewhat annoying , a bit too long. The freakiness was a bit too much for the style of the game which was pretty tame before that.

I think you can really see a progression in the game , going from tame and somewhat nice to awesome and Tim Schafer style; I think Lungfishopolis was the turning point of the game.

I agree with Kingz , there was no mind I really wanted out of the game; there were just some minds I wanted to get over with ( the sensor shooting part in nein's mind ) or improved (more to do in Gloria's mind) . I think Gloria's mind was sort of Tim Schafer taking a swing at some critics ) .

[vimes]

Definitely Black Velvetopia because it really is the only level that met my expectation of the game, meaning : it really made the player understand how Edgar's mind works by retracing the history of the guy through different locations and contradictory characters... it reallly felt great to discover step by step what was going on and finally cure Edgar.

The Milkman Conspiracy was fun and brilliant but it was more about finding objects than understand how to fix the mind... it might be te point of the designers but I don't think one can understand why most of things are how they are in this level.

Basic Braining was interesting the second time around when you could use some powers and discover some clue of what was going to happen in the main plot... and it made a nice introduction.

Brain Tumbler Experiment's beginning with the trailer is pure genious but

what follows was disappointing : the mood wasn't used at all... the only thing that stood out was the bath tub which is a reference to a dialog earlier in the game.

Sasha's Shooting Gallery.... Clearly not the mind I went back with joy, enemy respawn was too much once you cleared the mind a first time.

Milla's Dance Party. Fun. Very fun. Most fun around if it wasn't for the race. The not-so-fun parts were reaaaaaalllllly good.

I kinda dislike Lungfishopolis because of two things : first, the controls are frustrating; the designers tried to simulate 'heaviness' but in the end it really pissed me of to see Raz going around in slow motion... second, at the time I wen through Lungfishopolis, I hadn't figured out that Ford could help you with the bosses and I was stuck for hours with the one from this level

Gloria's Theater is based upon a great idea and the characters in this mind are really well written. Its main problem is the overflow of dialogs in which you can't interfer : the several plays were a good way to fully describe Gloria schyzophrenia but I must admit I skipped most of them from the second or third 'set-up'. Anyway,this level features the best Boss ever... the lines he delivers during the fight are hilarious.

Waterloo World is, there again, a great idea but I regret they didn't use the wargames idea to its fullest.. having Raz moved pieces around to defeat Napoleon would have been super-great. Still, the 'three levels' design is the kind of idea that makes me cry of joy in front of my computer.

I didn't finish Meat Circus : the aesthetic was really, really crappy in the sense that it was unbereable in term of taste. Blending the mind of the hero and the foe could have end up with a terrific last level but the part I went through was only about platforms jumping and, as I wasn't playing psychonauts for that, it bored the hell out of me... clearly a missed attempt, and it being the last level it really is a shame.

[Kolzig]

My favourites were Lungfishopolis, The Milkman Conspiracy and Waterloo.

All the levels were great, I loved the fact that every level was so different from another.

I laughed so hard on the Lungfishopolis level during all those news bits, they were excellent.

[Udvarnoky]

The Milkman Conspiracy was fun and brilliant but it was more about finding objects than understand how to fix the mind... it might be te point of the designers but I don't think one can understand why most of things are how they are in this level.

You don't go into Boyd's mind to fix anything, really. You just set off the implant that Oleander put in his head early.

Also I just wanted to say that I love Gloria's Theater. I've noticed that it seems to receive some negative responses but I thought the whole idea of having Gloria's troubled past acted out on a stage depending on her mood was brilliant, and the catwalks section was great platforming fun. And yes, the critic boss fight was great.

Anyway, favorite mental level is too hard to choose, but for now I'm going to say Black Velvetopia, for many of the same reasons vimes stated. I think it emphasized the best part of all the game's mental worlds: learning about the character directly through the gameplay. There's a lot of story you can learn just by walkthing through the world, seeing the high school stuff in the sewers, etc.

[netmonkey]

This is kind of off-topic, but it is about Psychonauts...

I'm playing the camp right after Raz gets out Mia's mind and if you talk to Admiral Cruller, Raz says: "Admiral, that boat...are you... in love with it?" which just so happens to come out exactly as the line Salvador Limones says in Grim Fandango: "Manuel, are you... in love with her?"

Good times.

[manny_c44]

I think the Waterloo level, while not instantaneously awesome like milkman or black velvet, was the most fun. It probably would've benifited with more of the puzzles spanning all 3 sizes but I thought it was great. It probably had the most entertaining platforming parts and the best logic puzzles.

The game as a whole let me down though.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I didn't vote because it only allows one choice, but:

The Campgrounds - It was complex, expansive, and the hidden items were wonderfully challenging to find. I loved that many of them can only be had once you had specific psi powers.

Milla's Dance Party - I was in absolute disco heaven. Especially when I saw the Raz dance for the first time. It's one of the most original, enveloping levels I experienced in gamedom. And the 'forbidden room' was brilliant, a very dark little spot in an otherwise irreverent, hedonistic mental world.

Velvetopia - Beautifully creative and deep in terms of exploration. The paintings to purchase are a craftily nice touch.

I still haven't reached Meat Circus yet, so am bracing myself for its perceived difficulty.

[Nappi]

Haven't finished the game yet, and I really can't name a single level that's my favourite. So far I have enjoyed them all (except for Sasha's Shooting Gallery with it's respawning censors. This wasn't too bad either, though).

Milla's Dance Party was really funky. I love her voice and accent, darling.

Freedom fighters (and those "hidden" messages in news reports) in Lungfishopolis really made me laugh.

I also loved The Milkman Conspiracy because it was just so freaking twisted. Those 'Cutting the bush does not hurt it' kinda comments somehow really sounded creepy. The level also had adventure game elements (searching and collecting stuff, and then using them in the right place) I'm so keen on.

[Thrik]

I really don't like having to choose, since I really did enjoy pretty much every single one of them. The "real world" side to Psychonauts is still my favourite, since it's just so awesome to be immersed it -- the atmosphere of being in a summer camp feels so right. I don't have any childhood memories of a summer camp, but if I did then it'd probably go something like this. If I were really pushed to name one when considering general initial coolness factor, then it'd be Morry's mind -- I've always taken a big interest in war, and seeing a level reflecting that, but not in a realistic way, is really just very cool. Black Velvetopia and Milla's mind also rank pretty highly on the coolness factor level, because they were so generally awesome to look at and run through.

With regards to the meat circus, I do have to agree that they really could have made that level much more memorable and enjoyable to be in. Whilst the gameplay isn't quite as hard as people say (with working out what exactly to do being the main problem -- when I played through the second time I didn't lose a single life in the meat circus), the general atmosphere of the level is pretty nasty when you first encounter it. After you've finished the game you look back at it in a less judging manner, since it does fit into the general storyline of the game pretty neatly, and it does convey what I assume was supposed to feel like a really nasty place (being the horrific memories of two children combined into one). It was, however, a pretty bad design decision to do it in quite such a gruesome manner.

I'd have preferred a much more surreal and dream-like level with the same two themes (meat and circus), though they kind of went there already with the brain tumbler experiment. I dunno, it just seems an awfully gritty level after what is a fairly light hearted game. After the pretty depressing (in a good way) Asylum atmosphere, I don't think they really needed to continue the negativity into the last level. Oh well, even the most attractive roses let off gas, right? Or something.

[David]

I would have probably voted for Milkman Conspiracy, except that I get carsick when I actually play the level. My nephew also commented that it was making him sick when he was watching me play through it. I really liked Lungfishopolis due to the combination of looks, unique gameplay tweaks, ease of getting figments, and also it's a level where Tim S's humor was especially showing through in a number of spots.

[steak-flavored gum]

I absolutely loved Milkman Conspiracy, for various reasons that have all been stated.

I actually found Waterloo World to be one of my least favorites - it didn't have as much funny and snappy dialogue as most of the other levels. In particular, I thought the soldier, peasant, etc. voices were very unfunny. I get that they're supposed to share Fred's lack of enthusiasm, but I think they could have been done in a much more amusing fashion; as it stands, it seems as if anyone could have come in there and read those lines straight off the page without thinking of how to best make them work.

Lungfishopolis would have gotten a mention up there with Milkman Conspiracy if there had been more to it - it was awesome, but it just seemed there wasn't the level of detail that went into the other levels. That almost doesn't even sound like a valid complaint, though, considering exactly how high that level got sometimes.

[Chris]

I think the point was that all of the townsperson voices were actually played by the same voice actor as Fred. That's what it sounded like to me, anyway.

[baconian]

Milkman conspiracy. Sheer genius. Like a good episode of the x-files on speed, crack, and acid all at the same time. One thing I'd like to mention is the memory vaults. I found them to be a charming and effective way of providing backstory and relished finding each one. Kudos to Scott Campbell for some brilliant visual storytelling.

[TMCB]

I have been keeping quiet for some time about this game... But I can't help it anymore, but does anyone know when the official release date was for this game on the X-box in England?

I've looked at a few websites and most of them say it has already been released, yet I can't find a copy any where.

It is driving me nuts reading all this stuff about Psychonauts and not being able to get my sticky mitts on a copy!

[baconian]

order it on PC from doublefine. That's what I did. The minimum specs aren't too bad. PCs that run Psychonauts aren't as expensive as they were.

It could be christmas by the time all the european localisations are done.

[TMCB]

Damn I only have a cranky old laptop...

[Thrik]

http://www.razputin.net/?newsid=1117661360