Psychonauts 2 is a game that for all intents and purposes, should not have been made. It had the deck stacked against it from the very beginning. The first Psychonauts was not some resounding big success, more of a cult classic platformer that gained more fans over time than it did when it originally came out in 2005. It is a game that Microsoft almost killed back when it dropped it as the publisher of the game that was slated to come as an exclusive to the original Xbox to focus on the coming Xbox 360. It is a game that had to be crowdfunded on the platform Fig back in 2015 to be able to get off the ground and after many delays, with Microsoft coming back into the fold and buying Double Fine, Psychonauts 2 finally came out in 2021.
I am probably going to be a little more down on Psychonauts 2 then most of the other people that I have seen talking about it. There are certain aspects that I do not think hold up really well, that I will get in but overall I think it is special game, even if I think it has some minor flaws.
The game does a really great job of catching you up on the previous games. There is a video that plays at the very beginning voiced by Raz who is writing into his favorite magazine for psychic stories called True Psychic Tales, telling them about all the adventures that he and the Psychonauts went on in the first game and the PSVR game, Rhombus of Ruin. As someone who did not play either of those, this video did a good job on getting me started on the lore of the Psychonauts universe. There definitley was a little of a learning curve to getting all of the characters straight in my head, but once you get through the kinda tutorial section at the very start of the game, everyone and their motivations become pretty clear.
That is where this game really starts to shine for me: the story. The main beats are that Raz is brought in to the Psychonauts HQ not as a really agent, but as an intern. Everyone else is trying to figure out who the mole in the Psychonauts are and why they are trying to bring back Maligula, a really powerful psychic that the original Psychic Six had to fight. Each level takes place in someone’s mind, and each one gets progressively better and better. Each world that Raz travels to via someone’s mind opens up each characters background, emotional and mental well being, all of their insecurities, perceived flaws, and even repressed memories. Each of these worlds also have distinct feeling locations, whether it is a casino hospital, an Iron Chef-like cooking show, or a psychedelic rock concert where you carry around a brain in a jar that is voiced by Jack Black.
All of these great minds do such a great job of showcasing all of the great characters that are in the Psychonauts universe. The game gives you plenty of chances to get to know these characters by talking to them, and there is A LOT of talking, almost to the level of an old Bioware RPG. The game really lets you decide how deep you want to go into his story building. Between the great characters and the minds that you inhabit along the main plot, Psychonauts 2 does a fantastic job of dealing with very serious topics like depression, alcoholism, isolation, and plenty of other mental health issues with the light-heartedness that would come with a child seeing these issues in someone’s mind. That child’s lens that we look at these issues from does not take away the seriousness of them, and in many ways enhances them. One example of this is how all the enemies are named after mental health problems, like “Panic Attacks” or “Bad Ideas”
With all of this being said, Psychonauts 2 is not a perfect game. The combat for me left a lot to be desired, and for a lot of the game was downright just not enjoyable to me. One of the best decisions I made while playing was turning on Narrative Storytelling Combat, which made Raz do more damage, but not be invincible (which is also an option to turn on if you need more help). Even with that on, the combat was not fun to do and I instead viewed it as something I had to get through so I could get back to the great storytelling I was enjoying. Overall the platforming felt fine, it did take me a while to find my groove with it, but unlike the combat it eventually grew on me.
The upgrade system, with the ranks, Psi Cards, and the TONS of collectables the game has, was way too much and needlessly complicated. It felt like the worst parts of the Banjo games from Rare and I do not think it really added to the game in any meaningful way. Between the upgrade system and the combat, those parts of Psychonauts 2 still feel like that 2005 game and it did not age particularly well. Everything else about the game feels so fresh and new that these particular parts just end up sticking out even more.
The game brings a lot to the table with a short run time of around 12 to 15 hours, which could be longer if you wanted to run around the hub world at Psychonauts HQ and do some of the side quests (I did some but definitely did not do all of them and I don’t think I missed out on a lot)
Overall I think that Psychonauts 2 is a masterclass of a game by a studio that put everything it had into making their dream game a reality. While I don’t think that every aspect of the game lives up to that, the parts that do outweigh them tenfold. The characters, writing, worlds you jump into via people’s minds, were created by people who had limitless imagination for what they wanted this game to be. It really is a culmination of what Double Fine has been about since the first Psychonauts came out in 2005, using their imagination to transport you to new worlds, and I think this is their best one yet.