Psychonauts

The camera or the platforming comes up in 20% of detailed reviews, mostly as a complaint. The specifics repeat: Raz fails to grab ledges, poles and ropes, double jumps off nets don't fire, rails and slopes behave unpredictably, and he gets snagged on scenery. The camera swings behind walls, locks onto bosses or turns while a jump is being lined up. One reviewer wrote: "My biggest enemy in this game wasn't loboto or oleander, it was the damn camera". Another described "A camera operated by a drunken sailor." A third said "Raz doesn't jump when you tell him to jump". For some it decides the verdict, as in one negative review that loved the story and characters and summed up: "Game feel? 10/10. Gameplay? 2/10."

The final level draws more complaints than any other. It opens with an escort mission in which Raz protects a young Coach Oleander from nightmare bunnies, then moves to a climb up spiral fences and flaming nets against rising water, with tight jumps and checkpoints that send players back. Reviewers call it "the most sadistic level of any game ever designed" and advise "Just ignore the last level." A recommending reviewer said it "would have been much better if you had more time to complete the level." Several reviewers quit at this point and watched the ending online. Some note that the Steam release is easier than the original: "Thankfully the Steam version is extremely nerfed in comparison to the original release, as they added many checkpoints where the original had none at all." Another said "the Meat Circus is absurdly easy on PC compared to the nonsense difficulty of the console version". A few say it was not as bad as its reputation.

With a mouse, the camera behaves like an analog stick, moves in eight directions and feels sluggish; one player found it took "roughly 3 left clicks for your attack to register". Xbox pads mostly work, but players report PlayStation and Steam controllers going unrecognized or with swapped buttons, on-screen prompts showing the wrong buttons, bindings that reset, and "Oddly, a few of the menus only take in mouse input". "Use a controller" and advice like it turns up in dozens of reviews. One negative reviewer who found nothing but an official Xbox controller worked properly summed it up as "Great game, garbage Steam port." Another warned: "Don't buy this if you don't have a xbox controller to plug into your PC."

Reviewers report a game that shows as running but never opens, crashes after cutscenes or while streaming, flickering textures on AMD cards, and occasionally vanished saves. They trade fixes: compatibility mode for Windows 95, XP or 7, keeping VSync on ("Vsync MUST be turned on") because high frame rates break the physics so the first level's flag won't rise, and changing AMD's anti-aliasing setting. One reviewer recommended running it "in Windows 95 compatibility mode to make it stop crashing." A few reviewers still call the Steam version the best way to play, ahead of the emulated console releases.

These platforms come up in few reviews overall but in nearly a tenth of negative ones, and most of those negative reviews were written within two hours of play by people who couldn't get the controls or the camera to work. Deck reports are almost absent before 2022 and peak in 2025. The native Linux build, which the Deck runs by default, spins the camera nonstop and ignores controllers; the fixes reviewers share are forcing Proton and picking a community controller layout, and the layout doesn't work for everyone. Several are angry that Steam lists the game as playable on the Deck: "Psychonauts on Steam Deck is literally unplayable", wrote one. A reviewer who still recommends the game said it isn't good on the Deck either: "Which is a disappointment since the sequel runs flawlessly." Mac players report a rebuilt native version with missing textures and stutter, and a game that stopped launching on newer versions of macOS.

Completionists complain that the final stretch locks players out of the camp for good, with no post-game, so collectibles and achievements left behind require a replay. One reviewer wrote: "It doesn't warn you, you pass the point, and then it tells you." The achievement that requires buying an item on Christmas Day and the button-mashing punching minigame behind "I Love Punching" also draw complaints.

The Milkman Conspiracy is gated behind a cobweb duster that costs 800 arrowheads, and players who hadn't been collecting them must comb the camp. A rank requirement later in the game and paintings bought in Black Velvetopia work the same way. Some reviewers advise buying the dowsing rod early; a recommending reviewer warned, "You don't want any part of that grind."

Some reviewers point out that the pre-rendered cutscenes are low-resolution 4:3 video stretched to modern screens and that the HUD stretches in widescreen. One wrote: "Never before have the pre-rendered cutscenes actually looked worse than the game itself." Players mention fan patches for widescreen and HD textures as the fix.

A small number of reviewers report nausea or headaches, blamed on the twisting Milkman Conspiracy, the swinging automatic camera and some of the brightest levels. One player called it "the only game I've ever played that makes me nauseated".

A few reviewers flag slurs or jokes that land badly now, such as the word "gypsy" and Raz being called a spaz; one wrote, "No way you would get away with that in a kids game now."