The Red and Black

"Psychonauts," is not a run-of-the-mill adventure game.

The game's style is "Invader Zim" crossed with Tim Burton crossed with "American McGee's Alice."

The game's look, missions and voice acting are trippy and hilarious - "Psychonauts" walks a fine line between childish and comically adult.

No game since "American McGee's Alice" has provided a character within alternate realities. In "Alice" you play within a sinister, cracked-out Wonderland; in "Psychonauts," levels consist of both the reality of a summer camp for young psychics - that Razputin crashes - and the fantasy world created by the psyche of different characters.

The game's style, wit and sense of humor helps break the mundane nature of the traditional adventure game format.

Because the game is about the mind, there are, in addition to a slew of sly psychology-oriented jokes, physical embodiments of emotional baggage, figments of imagination and mental cobwebs.

In addition to Raz collecting new psychic abilities, points and objects to become a psychonaut, the game features an abundant supply of side missions and hilarious tidbits of dialogue throughout.

The open-endedness of the game compensates for a lack of multiplayer by presenting a game that takes an eternity to explore.

My biggest complaint about the game, which has more to do with the Playstation 2 system, is the annoying load times when you want to take Raz to a new challenge or section of the camp.

It's simply the price paid for having a game that provides so much great content within each loaded environment.

The only other problem is the targeting/locked function that has a very limited range, preventing you from marking enemies far away.

Despite that, the bottom line is that "Psychonauts" is a fun game to play for both young and old.

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