Parents' Guide to Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin

While many players miss "point and click" adventure games, the short, simple nature of this game keeps it from reaching greatness. Sure, adding virtual reality into the mix of Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin gives the aging adventure game a shot in the arm, and it does have funny dialogue and memorable characters (two hallmarks of designer Tim Schafer's work). Unfortunately, the puzzles, which make up the bulk of the gameplay, are overly simplistic, often repetitive, and, at only a couple of hours, very short. On one hand, there are clever and gratifying puzzles to solve, such as figuring out a string of symbols to punch into a kid's computer, bursting some instruments into flames to stop music at a disco, and underwater "sliding tile" challenges. But at the same time, there's an awful lot of jacking into the minds of eels and jellyfish, which gets boring and tedious after a while.

As a technical demo, though, Psychonauts impresses, especially since teleporting from body to body feels (and looks) good from a first-person perspective. There's also a good sense of scale in virtual reality, such as when you're held up as a small rat or zapping into the mind of a giant whale and seeing the world from that vantage point. And despite some tame fantasy violence, parents should like the inoffensive content found here. But if you're looking for deep puzzles or a lengthy adventure, you won't find either in this sit-down VR game.