Psychonauts 2 Review
The first game developed by Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions was the original Psychonauts, a unique 3D platformer with Tim Burton-like character designs, innovative gameplay mechanics, sharp writing, and great humor. Psychonauts was critically acclaimed at the time of its release in 2005, but despite its strong reviews, the game was a sales failure, and so plans for a sequel were put on the backburner. Dedicated Psychonauts fans have been waiting 16 years for Psychonauts 2, and they’ve been rewarded for their patience with what is Double Fine’s best game and a Game of the Year contender. Psychonauts 2 was worth the wait. Fans of the original game should fall in love with the sequel, which picks up exactly where the Psychonauts game left off in Rhombus of Ruin VR. And no, the Psychonauts VR game is not a must-play for those who want to enjoy the story of Psychonauts 2. In fact, one doesn’t really need to have played the original game to know what’s going on, because there is a useful and detailed recap at the beginning to catch everyone up to speed. In Psychonauts 2, Raz and his fellow Psychonauts successfully rescue Truman Zanotto, the Grand Head of the Psychonauts and father of Raz’s pyromaniac girlfriend Lili, from the clutches of the disturbed Dr. Loboto They arrive at the Psychonauts headquarters, which serves as the new hub world in the sequel, replacing the Whispering Rock campground from the original game. After clearing a few starting levels, Raz is pretty much left to his own devices, free to explore the headquarters and its surrounding forest to gather collectibles and complete side quests.
Exploring the world of Psychonauts 2 and figuring out the best way to use Raz’s psychic abilities is a lot of fun, with the game leaving the door open for players to experiment when it comes to completion. of platforming challenges and overcome some obstacles. Raz retains many of the abilities he gained in the first Psychonauts game, but Psychonauts 2 also throws some new abilities into the mix. Aside from the usual telekinesis and levitation, Raz can now zip around the game world using floating thought bubbles and can also create a duplicate of himself to reach inaccessible areas. Each new ability Raz gains in Psychonauts 2 allows him to further explore not only Psychonauts Headquarters, but also the Brains he visits. For those who may not be familiar with Psychonauts lore, the titular Psychonauts enter the minds of people who use little doors that they attach to their heads. These minds serve as levels and, in typical Psychonauts fashion, Psychonauts 2 doesn’t recycle content in the usual stages that players expect from 3D platformers. Instead of generic worlds of water, fire, ice, etc. typical of the genre, Psychonauts 2 builds its levels around mental illnesses and disorders. Psychonauts 2 deals with gambling addiction in one of the earlier levels, and later presents panic attacks as literal monsters that Raz has to fight. There’s a lot of traditional 3D platforming throughout the game, but each level has its own gimmick to help it stand out from the rest. From start to finish, Psychonauts 2 has some truly genius level design and gameplay mechanics for players to discover. It’s so exciting to see what crazy, fun new idea Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine come up with next that it’s going to be hard to put the controller down.
Players will find that the controls have been greatly refined since the original game, making exploring the levels of Psychonauts 2 a much smoother experience. The platforming feels great and is an overall huge improvement from the original, while the combat has also gotten a noticeable upgrade. There are more enemy types than before and a new dodge mechanic has been implemented to make it more involved. Not only does Psychonauts 2 control better than the first game, but it also looks better. This is to be expected with a 16-year gap between releases, but Psychonauts 2 still deserves praise for its visuals regardless. The game looks gorgeous on the Xbox Series X, with top-notch lighting, reflections, and environmental detail. It brings Tim Schafer’s vision to life like never before, and at times looks like it could pass for a Hollywood-level animated transfer. There are a few small texture pop-ins throughout the game, but otherwise Psychonauts 2 has great graphics. As players explore the sights of Psychonauts 2 and collect all the goodies hidden in its levels, they’ll enjoy a captivating, hilarious, and surprising story written by Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine. Psychonauts 2’s writing is some of the best of any 3D platformer ever, with a memorable cast of characters and a story full of twists. This opens up Psychonauts in a big way, and by the time the credits roll, players will be eager to explore more of the world.
But even though Psychonauts 2 will make players want to see more games set in the Psychonauts universe, the last quarter of the game suffers from some pacing issues that drag it down. While a common criticism leveled at the first Psychonauts game was its short length, Psychonauts 2 is too long, with some levels overstaying their welcome and having collectibles in annoying places that are bound to force player to replay chunks of the stage. The last few hours of Psychonauts 2 also have a bad habit of constantly taking control away from the player to show cutscenes. True, Psychonauts 2’s story cutscenes are great and players will be interested to see what happens next, but the pacing still hurts when players are only allowed to play for a few minutes before being watched by another long cutscene. This happens a lot towards the end of the game and will frustrate some people. But eventually, players will finish the story of Psychonauts 2 and they will once again be released into the game world, free to explore to their heart’s content to complete its interesting side quests and find all the hidden its collectible. Any fan of the original game will probably love Psychonauts 2, as it improves on everything that made the first game great. But newcomers should also make it a point to check the game out, as it’s an awesome 3D platformer and a Game of the Year contender. And while it’s worth every penny, Psychonauts 2 is also on Xbox Game Pass thanks to Microsoft’s acquisition of Double Fine, so anyone interested can try it out without making a huge financial commitment. Psychonauts 2 launches on August 25 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Today Technology reviews Psychonauts on the Neuron 4000D from Origin PC. Origin offers a variety of customizable PCs that can meet any gamers’ needs. Read more about Neuron here.