–Raz, when entering the Brain Tumbler after Sasha's Shooting Gallery
The Brain Tumbler Experiment is the second Mental World explored in Psychonauts, set in Razputin's own psyche, which he can access with the help of Sasha's Brain Tumbler. It is a dark and bewildered place, littered with thorny bushes and strange pieces of meat.
Points of Interest
- The Caravan
- The Hatching Grounds
- The Woods
- The Bathtub
- The Tower
- The Blueprints
Story
Upon entering the door to his mind in the Collective Unconscious, Razputin ends up in a dark clearing covered in thick fog, with only a gypsy caravan in the middle (this is where Raz was born). After entering the caravan, he becomes stuck in an egg-like disturbance, but manages to punch his way out of there. The first thing he spots while looking around the hatching grounds is a small bunny-like creature that emits little pink hearts. Razputin ultimately decides to follow this being. It leads him to another clearing, where a nightmarish monster with big glowing eyes lies in wait. Since the young PSI-cadet has not yet learned how to Psi-Blast, however, Sasha brings him back into the real world for additional training, just as the beast spits a diving helmet at him.
After having completed Sasha's Shooting Gallery and having earned the Marksmanship badge, Razputin returns to face his demons. However, after shooting just one Psi-Blast at it, the monster disappears. Raz can then continue along the pathway, until he raches the last clearing, past a bathtub marked "S.S.Oblongata". In the middle of the clearing a colossal tower seemingly made of thorns rises up out of the fog. At the very top is a small round room, in which Raz can clearly see Dogen strapped to a chair, being threatened by a strange dentist wearing a shower cap intent on removing his brain. He climbs up as high as he can, only to be informed he can never hope to get to the very top without knowing Levitation. Thus, Razputin once again has to leave the Brain Tumbler for a new power-up.
So, it's off to Milla's Dance Party, after which Raz can finally float to the round room at the top. In there, the dentist actually succeeds in removing Dogen's brain and quickly dumps it into what appears to be a garbage chute. Not only that, but he also walks into the next room, revealing Lili to be strapped into a chair as well. Raz instantly gets inside and jumps down the chute, after Dogen's brain. He falls into a small square room with walls covered entirely in blueprints, the brain within reach. Before he can grab it, a mechanized claw beats him to it and drops the brain into the top of a tank in one of the blueprints. The machine drives off, and Raz finds himself into an arena made of blueprints, face-to-face with it. Cue boss battle against the Blueprint Brain Tank.
After beating the lethal contraption, Razputin gets thrown out of a little window into a familiar white hallway, and realizes the Brain Tank is a plot set up by none other than the camp's own Coach Oleander. He hardly has time to think much about it before Sasha extracts him from the Brain Tumbler, rushing off on 'important Psychonauts business'.
Enemies
- Plant Monster
- Stamping Censors
- Shouting Censors
- Tiny Censors
- Personal Demons
- Blueprint Brain Tank (Boss)
Collectibles
Vaults
Foreshadowing
A lot of the strange things seen in the Brain Tumbler Experiment are actually allusions to Coach Oleander's plot to take over the world.
- The bathtub is a reference to having to cross Lake Oblongata to reach their base of operations, and the fish-shaped figment underneath symbolizes Linda.
- The bathtub may also foreshdow Loboto's backstory learn in Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin for the PS VR
- The tower made of thorns symbolizes Thorney Towers, and the round room at the top that looks like a brain is Loboto's office.
- The bottom of the tower looks like a straitjacket; this is a reference to the inmates on the lower floors.
- In the clearing around the tower, four figments are shaped like a basket of milk bottles, a large thistle, a Napoleonic hat, and a purple bull.
- The mental reel "The World Shall Taste my Eggs!" is symbolically foreshadowing his plot. The eggshell is a head, the egg is a brain, and the tea cup is the Brain Tank.
Other things in the Brain Tumbler Experiment also foreshadowed the way Coach Oleander's and Raz' minds will combine in the climax of the game.
- Various meat cuts, showing Oleander's past with his father.
- Plants made of meat, which also appear in Basic Braining.
- The bunny Raz has to follow is called Mr. Bun, which is what Little Morrie called the bunny in the Meat Circus.
Also proof of other things that Sasha's Brain Tumbler has failed.
- This could all be a combination of everyone (in the area, including the asylum) else's nightmares combined.
- The figments found in the level are everyone's minds crowded together.
- The mental reel could be the plan for the Brain Tank, but it's been messed up because the minds have been jammed together.
Gallery
