Game Review | Psychonauts 2
When I first played Psychonauts, I was a janitor. I hadn’t even started my IT career. That was a bit over nine years ago, which is hard to believe. I’m not sure how I found the game—I think it was part of a Humble Bundle, or perhaps a gift. However I found it, though, I’m incredibly grateful. The game won a space in my heart quickly before I even finished my playthrough. I knew early on that it was something special.
So, when I saw a video from Tim Schafer announcing that they were crowdfunding Psychonauts 2 through Fig, I immediately threw all of the money I could spare at the project, eager to revisit the world of Psychonauts in a fresh way. At the time, I think “all of the money I could spare” amounted to about thirty-five or forty dollars. Not a lot when it comes to crowd-funding, especially games, and I wish I could have given more, but I’m glad I was able to be part of the success of Psychonauts 2 and help it come to fruition, even if my contribution was marginal. It meant a lot to me when I saw my name in the credits after I completed the game.
I tell you this not to brag (although, heck yeah, I’m bragging—I helped this game get made!), but to let you know that I came into this game with a bit of bias. I was prepared to not enjoy it as much as I’d enjoyed the first game given that I’ve changed (and so has my taste in games), but my expectation was that I would love the game equally as much as I did the first. I was pre-conditioned to love Psychonauts 2, but I tried to give it a fair shake and aim to be fully honest in this review of the game.
What I Didn’t Really Like
Just a second, here... Before I get into some negative thoughts on the game, I want you to know that I had a good experience. I still love Double Fine, still admire Tim Schafer, and will throw my money at their next crowdfunded project without hesitation, should the opportunity arise. So while I do have a couple of negative things to say about the game, I’m asking you to bear with me, because my positive thoughts will follow shortly (and I do have positive thoughts). I just think it’s important to be completely honest and well-rounded in reviews like this.
Poor Snapping
I think this might be something that could be patched in a future release, and I personally hope that it is. Raz doesn’t always behave fluidly, especially when it comes to snapping. In particular, there are grind rails that he’s supposed to slide on and poles that he can jump to or from. Neither of these seemed to function consistently for me and could result in a frustrating experience. At times, it was so bad that it reminded me of the Tarzan world in the first Kingdom Hearts game, which is bad. The game wasn’t really forgiving enough when came to snapping for these components of the game’s platforming. This may just be a matter of personal taste, but I hope it’s something we see improved in a future release, because I never felt challenged when I came across these parts of a level, just annoyed.
Raz’s Weight
Sorry, I don’t mean to shame Raz, but he felt heavy at times, and not in a very enjoyable fashion. This, much like my previous gripe, is a matter of personal taste and is such a small complaint that it’s hardly worth mentioning, but I wanted to mention it anyway. Raz felt a bit slow and unresponsive to me, and he seemed to weigh a lot more than he looked like he should. Maybe that big head of his is incredibly dense, who knows. This, again, is a design choice. It also isn’t easy to change, since the entire game is built around Raz’s weight and responsiveness. I personally would have enjoyed a version of the game where Raz was more lightweight and fluid in his movements more than I enjoyed this, but only marginally so. Raz still feels good to play, I just think he could have felt better.
Story Structuring
Don’t get me wrong, here: I loved the story of Psychonauts 2, and I’ll get to that in a bit. However, the story structure left something to be desired in terms of the way that it affected gameplay. I think the story structure was excellent in terms of the story itself and how it all played out, the problem is that for the last third or so of the game, I was isolated to one region of the map and hastily guided through to the end of the story, rather than having time to ruminate between levels as I did in the earlier parts of the game. This, again, isn’t a significant complaint and I still enjoyed myself, but I would have appreciated having more to do between those levels as we approached the end of the story.
In this same vein, the suddenness of the final boss fight kinda got to me. I had expected at least one more complete level, but instead, I felt thrust into the and a bit rushed. The ending was still satisfactory, but I was a bit bummed that it was over. Maybe that’s a compliment and not a complaint, I’m not sure—ultimately I just felt like my gaming experience (but not the story itself) was rushed in the final third of the game.
What I LOVED
Trust me, it hurt to write those complaints, even if they were all quite minor. I didn’t want to say anything negative about this game because I enjoyed it so much, but there were some points that had to be brought up and that I wanted to address. Now it’s time for the praise, and there is so much to praise about this game. I don’t even know where to begin, honestly, and I’m worried that this is going to end up being an obscenely long review. Best start rambling and get on with it, starting with…
Accessibility
Those of you who know me are likely aware that I’m a huge proponent of accessibility in games, as it allows for a more inclusive experience and helps connect gamers of all backgrounds and lifestyles. A more diverse player base is only going to make games better. Double Fine seems to understand this because they have a plethora of accessibility options available in their games. There are so many options available to players of all abilities. I’ll put a clip showcasing some of the menu options down below so you can see how incredible this is.
For one, there are tons of control optimizations available so that you’re able to make sure that you can control the game how you want. If you watched my Metroid Dread review, then you know that I had a serious issue with the accessibility of that game’s controls. Psychonauts 2 has options that I would have loved to see in Metroid Dread, like changing input modes between pressing and holding.
Additionally, you have several options that allow you to adjust the difficulty of the game and make it even more accessible based on your personal abilities. These options include narrative combat, which gives Raz a huge power boost for players who don’t want to be too stressed about the combat, allowing them to focus more on the story. You can also disable falling damage—which is great for people who aren’t great at the quick reactions required to prevent fall damage in most circumstances—and even make Raz invincible entirely.
All of these options that allow players to customize their experience are excellent and will help Psychonauts 2 be experienced by a wider range of people, which I totally support and am delighted to see.
Story
The story of Psychonauts was incredible and emotional, with so much heart in it that I simply couldn’t believe it was all packed into a game that I’d initially thought was going to be a silly, cartoonish experience. Psychonauts 2 manages to deliver the same heart while also featuring a twisted mystery that’ll keep you guessing right until the very end. I’m serious about that. Maybe I was off my game, but I genuinely did not see the big reveal of Psychonauts 2 coming. Having finished the game, it should have been clearer to me, but the story was just done so well that I wasn’t able to figure it all out. I was stunned when the story finally unraveled for me—they did such a remarkable job with the execution of the mystery in this game.
They also made sure to hit the emotional beats that made me fall in love with the first game. In particular, I was struck in the heart by the story in Bob’s mind and his struggles, some of which resonated deeply with me. If you watched my Straight Edge anniversary video that I put out last week, you can probably guess why this part of the game hit me so hard. I even shed a few tears during that boss fight. Some of those moments were just… powerful.
Powers
In addition to the return of many powers from the first game, Psychonauts 2 grants us several new abilities! I really enjoyed all of the powers in this game, but I think that the coolest one was the Mental Connection ability. In my opinion, it wasn’t really utilized as well as it could have been. We saw it used in some really awesome ways shortly after first receiving it, but those same uses of the power didn’t make many additional appearances after the fact, which was disappointing to me because I really enjoyed using that power. Maybe there’s some extra content I can find where the Mental Connection ability is utilized to a greater extent than it was in most of the levels of the game.
There are some other awesome abilities, too, but the other one that I really loved is a super late game power and I don’t want to spoil it for you. Just go play the game all the way through and I bet you’ll be able to figure out what my other favorite ability was.
Technical Praise
Before I wrap this review up, I just want to set a bit of time aside to praise Psychonauts 2 as a technical achievement. This game isn’t just a heart-bending game, it’s a mind-bending one, as there are so many astonishing things happening behind the scenes while you play Psychonauts 2. I imagine most people who are playing it casually will notice these things, but they may not stand out as much as they did to me. Psychonauts 2 featured so many moments that really impressed me as someone who has tried his hand at developing games.
The ones that really stood out to me were the gravity changes and the portals that were essentially 2-dimensional planes showing you the next part of the level. The latter could be especially trippy and, in some cases, you could miss them if you blink. A few times, the gravity changes really tripped me up, too, especially in the last full level of the game. At one point I jumped off the edge expecting to land on a platform below, only to remember as I fell that gravity had changed and I wasn’t oriented the way that I thought.
Final Rating
As I sit here writing my final rating, I’m reminded of all the other things I want to praise, but probably shouldn’t given how long this review is starting to become. I want to talk about the amazing voice acting, Schafer’s delightful humor, the unique art style, the creative world-building and magic system, the lessons that you’re taught from beginning to end, the other moments that made me tear up, the awesome feeling of the final boss fight… I want to praise all of that, but I know that this would end up being a novel praising Psychonauts 2, so I’ll just tell you to go play the game and experience it for yourself.
When I think of everything about this game, the incredible and the less incredible, I hover between four and five stars. There is so so much to love about Psychonauts 2 and it has undoubtedly earned a place in my heart. I’m glad that it has found such a broad audience and I hope that many who enjoy this game will go back and experience the first one, too. My inclination is to hand this game five stars because the story deserves that and more. It’s an excellently told story and I loved it.
However, considering some of the frustrating gameplay experiences and the lack of fluidity and responsiveness that I had with Raz in particular, I’m not sure that a five-star rating is really a fair score. Psychonauts 2 doesn’t quite stand up to the other five-star games I have (and they’re very few—if you aren’t aware, I’m pretty stingy with that five-star rating) played and reviewed in the past. There’s a lot to love about Psychonauts 2 and I would strongly encourage anyone to play it, young and old, but the final verdict from me for this game is going to be a very solid four stars.
This was a ton of fun, the story really resonates and hits home, many lessons are learned along the way, and I will definitely be seeking 100% completion on this game, as well as replaying it sometime in the future. It’s an excellent game and among the best I’ve played this year. I have a couple of minor gripes about it, but all around, Psychonauts 2 is a worthy successor to 2005’s Psychonauts and my only regret is having so little money to contribute to its development back in the day.
But hey, I’m still in the credits.
Conclusion
Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my review of Psychonauts 2, I really appreciate you! If you’d like to support me further, you can do so by following me on social media (I’m @TLBainter on most platforms and I’ll have links below) and/or subscribing to my YouTube channel! Anything helps and I am immensely grateful for whatever form your support comes in. You're helping me get this platform off the ground and for that, I cannot thank you enough.
Until next time… bye!