It makes backtracking feel less like a chore and more like an important, strategic decision. This time around, every collectible has purpose, whether that’s raising your Psychonaut Intern Rank and awarding skill points or just adding a few extra pieces of Psitanium to your wallet. With exploration comes collectibles, many of which return from the original game. Psychonauts 2 somehow feels more vertical than its predecessor, which makes the platforming improvements all the more appreciated.
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More and more of this game unfolds as the story progresses, and it genuinely feels like there’s always something new to find just around the next corner or high overhead.
Though some of the frustration that’s endemic to any platformer is still present here, it’s never more than a passing nuisance in the face of a glut of satisfying exploration.Īnd boy is there a lot to explore. Psychonauts 2 leans into its 3D-platforming roots in the best way with plenty of bouncy platforms, swinging poles, and carefully timed jumps to manage. In that way, each world reminded me a little of the dungeons from The Legend of Zelda: puzzle boxes designed to be solved through the use of a new tool.
Psychonauts 2 eased me into each of these new powers with well-crafted levels that are built around your most recently acquired ability.
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He also packs a few new tricks, such as the Mental Connection ability that allows him to zip between special points to access out-of-reach areas. Raz retains most of his mobility from the original game, though his Levitation ability is paired down a little. What the first game did with platforming and exploration is honed to a brilliant sheen in this sequel, and even combat has seen some notable improvements. I recently played through the original Psychonauts and it’s astounding how Double Fine Productions has managed to retain what made the first game so special while modernizing it so elegantly.
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Psychonauts 2 is a perfect example of how to bring antiquated game mechanics into the current decade.
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The performances coupled with the strong story often reminded me of the best animated TV shows of my youth. The principal cast of Ford’s original Psychonaut team and Raz’s fellow interns are all delightful to interact with as well. Richard Horvitz turns in another wonderful, nuanced performance here as Raz, David Kaye brings a new level of emotion and depth to Ford Kruller, and Kimberly Brooks shines as Hollis Forsythe, a newcomer to the series. It doesn’t hurt that the voice cast here is one of the best I’ve ever heard. A really good story probably the best of any game I’ve played so far this year. I started this game expecting a story with a lot of humor, in-jokes, and meta-textual references. Raz and his Psychonaut allies soon get wrapped up in a conspiracy that involves missing brains, the original team of Psychonauts known as the Psychic Six, and an old enemy known as Maligula. Psychonauts 2 picks up shortly after the events of the first game and its VR-exclusive sequel hitting the ground running. Psychonauts 2 takes everything I loved about the original game and makes it better, proving emphatically that 3D platformers still have a place in modern gaming. And the years have been nothing but kind to Raz and his friends. Now, 16 years after the first Psychonauts came out, we finally have the opportunity to experience the sequel for ourselves. Psychonauts 2 had one of the more interesting development cycles of any game in modern memory, shifting between publishers and lingering in production for roughly a decade.
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