The characters and writing are absolutely the stars of this game hands down. This game has some of the best writing i've ever experienced in a video game and I went so far out of my way to here every line of dialogue that I could. And thats not to even mention that I undisputedly believe that this is the best voice cast in a video game ever. The voice actors/actresses’ performances in this game is so top notch, that I cant even think of one character that i didn't love. This is all to be expected though as its a Tim Schafer game, and story/characters/writing were bound to be the best aspect. I went into this game only knowing a little about the concept, and knowing it was only a 3D platformer. What I wasn’t expecting though, was that this would be a melding between a 3D platformer collectathon AND of traditional point and click adventure games. It started to become aparent to me that that was what they were going for during the Milkman's Conspiracy where item puzzles are super utilized to progress through the level. And Gloria’s Theater also leans super heavy into the adventure game aspect. For the most part, I think they succeeded immensely, but there are major aspects and flaws that really hold the game back. The biggest thing being how shoty the controls and platforming can feel, way too much jank that made me want to pull my hair out. I went for 100% completion and despised a lot of jumps the game wanted me to make for figments because the game was so rough on its mechanics. Another not so great aspect is the figments themselves. There cool and all in the context of the world but sometimes in some levels, they just totally blend in to the background and become a NIGHTMARE to backtrack and collect them all, because there are so many. Really, my only grievances with this game come with the slightly sub par platforming mechanics. All of the other aspects of the game are so polished and unparalleled by anything else I can think of in games, that its almost forgivable. I loved all the campers and wa honestly under the impression that each of the levels would take place in there minds earlier on, because of how distinct and fleshed out they feel. But instead it goes with larger levels with the asylum inmates, which was still REALLY good (except for Waterloo World), I guess I was just hoping to see a little bit more out of the kids because of how funny and memorable they all are. I hope they all apear in some form in Psychonauts 2. Speaking of which, if done as well as this one, and they just polish up the actual gameplay mechanics and level design a bit more, 2 has the potential of being so much more, the skeleton and structure is all right here and theres nothing else like this. This feels like an actual evolution of the adventure game formula.