Developer: Double Fine Productions
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Release date: August 25, 2021
Available on: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (reviewed on X… the console, I mean), PS4, PS5 (via backwards compatibility)
(This review contains spoilers for the original Psychonauts, as well as Rhombus of Ruin, but contains no spoilers for Psychonauts 2. Review copy provided by Microsoft.)
Psychonauts 2 is finally here, the long-awaited sequel to the 2005 cult classic. The original was an oddity in its genre, functioning moreso as an adventure game (developer Double Fine’s bread and butter), with point and click interaction swapped out for running and jumping. This gave the action more immediacy and freedom than something akin to, say, Grim Fandango. However, the original Psychonauts faltered the hardest when it leaned into the genre’s strengths, as its controls were clearly not designed for intensive, high-wire platforming action. This alleged failing can be seen through the eyes of critical fans, bemoaning the final level of the original, Meat Circus, notorious for its sins of combining an escort mission with finicky, unforgiving platforming and checkpoint starvation. Psychonauts 2 is the inverse of this. It is a 3D platformer first and foremost, with adventure game elements. The controls have been considerably tightened up and streamlined, making for a more enjoyable 3D platforming experience. This is good, because now ALL the levels are Meat Circus, sans the escorting and BS checkpoints. Every level is now jam-packed with platforming feats, and the creativity on display here is impressive, making for a markedly unique set of level themes you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.
I’ll touch on level design and gameplay in more depth momentarily, but now, for some context: Psychonauts 2 picks up where Rhombus of Ruin (the VR-only midquel released in 2017) left off. The titular team had just located Truman Zanotto, grand head of the Psychonauts, who had been kidnapped by deranged dentist Dr. Loboto, the secondary antagonist of the first game. Of course, Dr. Loboto has quite a few screws loose (and teeth, there’s a dental phobia warning for a reason, folks), so there’s no way he could’ve orchestrated this kidnapping alone. This leads to the realization that the Psychonauts have a mole in their ranks. This mole is also trying to resurrect “Maligula, the Deluge of Grulovia,” the Psychonauts’ most fearsome foe ever and the driving antagonistic force of this game. You play as Razputin “Raz” Aquato, as you journey into people’s minds to solve this mystery and stop Maligula’s return, mending strained connections and pained psyches along the way. Psychonauts 2 goes harder with its story than any 3D platformer has since, like… Sly 3. As well as managing to live up to the original’s quality brand of dark humor, there is a sizable amount of care paid to the themes of mental illness, trauma, and addiction presented here, as well as respect paid to the characters afflicted. There’s even a content warning when first starting the game, which I suppose is indicative of the past 16 years of ever-growing societal empathy, and how willingly Psychonauts 2 adapts itself to modernity while never shedding its unique identity. What we have here is a gut-busting yet poignant tale of personal growth, redemption, and humanity, framed by the quirky, frenetic style that defines Double Fine.
I told you, the dental phobia disclaimer is here FOR A REASON.
Now, let’s discuss the gameplay proper. It has the hallmarks of a traditional collectathon platformer, though the areas feel more linear than many entries in the genre, even compared to the original. This isn’t necessarily a negative, as the level design is now laser focused and less eager to pelt you with frustrating puzzles. Frustrating moments are an inevitability in adventure games, but as I stated above, Psychonauts 2 isn’t really an adventure game. It’s not that 2’s level design is *actually* more linear than 1’s, but rather 1’s objectives required more back and forth, whereas 2 is more of a straight shot to the end of platforming gauntlets. Navigating these levels is fun, especially as you unlock new PSI powers that allow you to reach previously inaccessible areas. Alas, while larger, more vertical in design, and still plenty fun to explore, the hub world does feel more lifeless than Whispering Rock, and lacks the atmosphere of the asylum from the OG. Your mileage may vary, but while I personally prefer the style and level themes of the original, there is no denying that the sequel is an objectively superior 3D platformer. With tight controls that make executing these acrobatic feats effortless, Psychonauts 2 feels good. It especially feels good when enabling the “Levitation Ball Pulldown From Glide” option in the Controls menu. This allows you to swap from your glide into your ball roll ability (a faster means of movement) with the press of a button, without ever needing to touch the ground. This was possible in the original, so I don’t know why it wasn’t enabled here by default. Either way, it allows a skilled player to keep momentum in their play, swapping between gliding and rolling at the whims of their ability, while also giving less skilled players a safeguard from fall damage, as the ball form negates it. This significantly improved my enjoyment of traversal, it really can’t be overstated. I’ve attached a short video below, demonstrating the pulldown in action.
Combat has a greater emphasis this time around, but it doesn’t serve the game well. You have a variety of PSI powers (all with their own skill trees), most of which are effective against a specific enemy type, and there are more unique enemy types this time around. However, the combat mechanics simply aren’t engaging or deep enough to prop up minutes upon minutes of enemy waves, and it gets old quickly. Challenge isn’t the draw here either, as while enemies deal plenty of damage, the battlefields are littered with health pickups. You can also purchase healing items, making health loss a total non-issue. The boss battles coast by on their creativity and symbolism, but are mechanically shallow, and even the final boss is anticlimactically easy. I would’ve enjoyed more challenge overall, but that’s not the focus here, so fair enough. For players who need them, the game sports an impressive array of accessibility options, including enabling invincibility and deactivating fall damage, as well as multiple colorblind options and larger text (which I swiftly enabled).
Graphically, the game looks great, sporting a claymation-esque look, reminiscent of Laika or Tim Burton. On Series X, the game loads faster than my intrusive thoughts, but suffers from textures not sharing that same punctuality. Textures will often load in seconds after the fact, usually when a scene cuts to another location. The game also crashed once, causing me to lose 25-30 minutes of progress. This also calls into question the reliability of the autosave, and the baffling removal of a manual save option. The only surefire way to know when the game last saved is to try exiting to the main menu, where a screen will pop up telling you how long since the last autosave. You can force an autosave by moving to another area, but a manual save would’ve negated this issue entirely. Also, random grievance: you have to exit to the main menu in order to check your total playtime, when that statistic was viewable from the save menu in the original (which this game, of course, lacks).
I have nothing appropriate to say here, so I just won’t say anything…
One final topic I’d like to address will likely fall upon many deaf ears, but I’d be remiss not to mention it and how it soured my overall taste for the game: 100% completion. First off, accomplishing this is made much more enjoyable here than in the original, for two reasons:
- A counter keeping track of your overall collected figments (the main collectable; think musical notes from Banjo-Kazooie). Since there are potentially hundreds of these spread throughout a level, this is an extremely worthwhile addition.
- 2 doesn’t have a “point of no return” like the first game. You’re free to sweep up collectibles and optional quests after the credits roll.
The unfortunate fact that sullies 100% completion is that you don’t get ANYTHING for it. Well, that’s actually a misstatement, as you do unlock the ability to use all of your powers without any cooldown. This would be neat if it could be carried over into a potential new game+ mode (as broken as that would be) but as it stands, it’s functionally useless since everything has already been completed. Even a 5 second secret cutscene would have sufficed as a 100% reward. The lack of any substantial reward inevitably detracts from the 25 hours I spent painstakingly combing every nook and cranny for those last few figments. You could say that’s on me for electing to 100% it, and you’d be right, but once you flick the “collectathon completionist” switch in your brain, it’s hard to shut off. I also had no way of knowing beforehand that there would be no significant reward. In the end, it simply wasn’t worth it, which is a shame. Still, I do recommend exploring the world during the postgame, to see how characters react to the climactic story beats.
Been there, Raz… been there.
Double Fine put a lot of care into Psychonauts 2’s design, and plenty of respect in tightrope balancing its heavy themes between irreverent hilarity and emotional resonance. We’ve seen quite the renaissance in 3D platforming as of late, and I hope Psychonauts 2 becomes a stepping stone for how other developers pay mind to story in their little jumpy games, as well as level concepts beyond “lava world,” “ice world,” etc. Psychonauts was not an industry-leading smash hit in its heyday, but its newfound mainstream success in the past decade puts Psychonauts 2 in a better place than ever to positively influence the genre. It may not have surpassed the original for me, but Psychonauts 2 does effortlessly manage to live up to it. This is not only a 3D platformer with big brains, but an adventure with a ton of heart.
8.5/10
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