In this edition of Play It, we’re focusing in on a puzzle platformer that refuses to play by its own rules.

Psych Out is a curious puzzle platform game. You play as a mental patient tied up in a straight jacket. Your goal is to break out of the lockdown facility. Unfortunately, you aren’t very reliable. Every single time you open a door, you find a new way to complicate the rules.

Maybe you can get by with just running and jumping in one stage. In the next stage, you’ll have to run across the ceiling to reach the key and open the next door. After that, you might defy gravity and run straight through the air or have to flick a two way switch three times to create a safe path. The rules change with every room and that’s what makes Psychout tick.

The controls are WASD or the arrows and nothing more. Up/W is jump, left/A and right/D are left and right, and Down/S is action. That’s all you need to play. That and the ability to keep re-configuring your brain to play with new rules every stage.

A lot of puzzle platformers try to make you feel hopeless and confused. Psychout does it in a fun way. Is it frustrating at times? Yes, but there’s always an easy solution. You’ll know as soon as you enter a room what the options are. It’s just a matter of figuring out which option is the right one.

There are some tricky timing issues with some of the jumps and a few places where Kongregate was perhaps a bit too specific in location to be a super casual platformer. If you’ve played this kind of game before, you’ll figure it out. If not, the learning curve might be a bit steeper than expected.

So are you going to give Psychout a try? Sound off below and let me know what you think.