Psychonauts

The story is set in Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, a remote US government training facility under the guise of a children's summer camp. The area was hit centuries ago by a meteor made of psitanium (a fictional element that can grant psychic powers or strengthen existing powers), creating a huge crater. The psitanium affected the local wildlife, giving them limited psychic powers, such as bears, with the ability to attack with telekinetic claws and cougars with pyrokinesis. The Native Americans of the area called psitanium "whispering rock", which they used to build arrowheads. When settlers began inhabiting the region, the psychoactive properties of the meteor slowly drove them insane. An asylum was built to house the afflicted, but within fifteen years the asylum had more residents than the town did. The government relocated the remaining inhabitants and flooded the crater to prevent further settlement, creating what is now Lake Oblongata. The asylum still stands but has fallen into disrepair.

The government took advantage of the psitanium deposit to set up a training camp for Psychonauts, a group of agents gifted with psychic abilities and used to help defeat evil-doers. The training ground is disguised as a summer camp for young children, but in reality helps the children to hone their abilities and to train them to be Psychonauts themselves. Due to this, only those recruited by the Psychonauts are allowed into the camp.

Characters
 
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The protagonist and playable character of the game is Razputin "Raz" Aquato, the son of a family of circus performers, who runs away from the circus to become a Psychonaut, despite his father's wishes. When at camp, Raz meets four of the Psychonauts that run the camp: the cool and calculating Sasha Nein, the fun-loving Milla Vodello, the regimental Agent/Coach Morceau Oleander, and the aged Ford Cruller, said by Raz to have been the greatest leader the Psychonauts ever had, until a past psychic duel shattered Ford's psyche and left him with numerous quirky personalities and no memory of his real self (which explains why he's seen throughout the camp as a cook, ranger, admiral, etc.). Only when he's near the large concentration of Psitanium does his psyche come together enough to form his real personality. During his time at camp, Raz meets several of the other gifted children including Lili Zanotto, the daughter of the Grand Head of the Psychonauts, with whom he falls in love; and Dogen Bule, a boy who goes around with a tin foil hat to prevent his abilities from causing anyone's head from exploding. Raz also meets ex-residents of the insane asylum including ex-dentist Dr. Loboto, as well as Fred Bonaparte, an asylum inmate with dissociative identity disorder, also known as a split personality.

Story
 
Raz (short for Razputin) is the main character of Psychonauts

Raz, fleeing from the circus, tries to sneak into Whispering Rock but is caught by the Psychonauts agents. Though they contact his parents so that they may recover Raz, they allow Raz to stay at camp though not allowing him to participate in the camp activities.[1] However, they recognize that Raz has strong psychic abilities. After Coach Oleander allows Raz to participate in "Basic Braining", Sasha, impressed by his performance, invites Raz to test how strong his abilities are.[2] While exploring his own mind, Raz comes across a vision of Dr. Loboto attempting to pull Dogen's brain from his head, claiming it to be a "bad tooth", but Raz is unable to overcome a mental barrier to see more.[3] When Raz returns to the real world, he finds that Dogen's brain has gone missing;[4] the Agents pass it off as part of Dogen's personality. Raz is able to overcome the mental barrier in his mind to learn that Dr. Loboto is working with Coach Oleander to extract the brains of the children and put them in psychic death tanks. Raz learns that Sasha and Milla have gone away from camp on official business, Coach Oleander is nowhere to be found, and learns that Lili has been chosen as the next victim, taken to the insane asylum for the process. Raz consults with Ford, who is unable to leave the camp but gives Raz a piece of bacon which he can use to contact Ford at any time.

Raz crosses the lake, and encounters the few remaining residents of the insane asylum. After Raz helps to resolve their mental issues, the residents help Raz to reach Dr. Loboto's laboratory at the top of the asylum. He finds that Oleander and Doctor Loboto have taken Lili, Sasha, and Milla hostage. Raz is able to free them, where they turn to fight Oleander and Loboto. As they fight, the insane asylum is burned down, and while the others escape safely, Oleander transfers his mind to one of the death tanks and attacks Raz. Raz defeats the tank, but upon his success, super sneezing powder is ejected from the tank, a last resort of Oleanders. The powder causes Raz to sneeze his brain out. Raz, without much choice, moves his brain into the tank, where his psyche merges with Oleander's.

Raz finds himself in a mental world that combines his own fears of the circus with Oleander's childhood features of his father, a butcher. Raz escorts "Little Oly", the child version of Oleander, safely through the world, and is able to defeat the gruesome visions of both of their fathers successfully. However, as their minds are still melded together, the two visions combine into a overall amalgam of the two that Raz is unable to defeat. Suddenly, Raz's real father shows up in the mental world, and explains to Raz that he too had psychic abilities, and did not mean to dissuade Raz from exploring them further. Together, the two are able to defeat the amalgam, and pull Raz' and Oleander's brains apart, restoring them to their proper bodies. As the rest of the children's brains are restored, Raz is congratulated for his outstanding work, and is allowed to become a Psychonaut by both the agents and his father. As he is leaving camp, news arrives that the Grand Head of the Psychonauts has been kidnapped. Raz and his fellow Psychonauts fly off to rescue him.