The original Psychonauts was a beloved cult-classic. A 3D platformer with boundless creativity, whose fans have long clamored for a sequel. 16 years is... a hell of a time to wait. Yet Psychonauts 2 is here and it does not disappoint.
Despite the long wait, firing up the game will feel instantly familiar. Like no time has passed at all. You got the iconic artstyle, the voice-actors reprise their roles spot-on, and within minutes you're back to PSI-blasting enemies while performing platforming acrobatics. The game itself loves to poke fun at this, as technically the events of the first game were mere days ago for the characters. And yea, it really makes you feel like it was just the other day that you bounced around Whispering Rock, saving the world.
After a quick recap of the story thus far, it's straight back into action. Raz, Lili, and the agents Milla & Nein have just returned from a daunting mission. They rescued the head of the Psychonauts from the clutches of the evil Dr. Loboto, but he remains unconscious. Upon returning to Psychonauts HQ, this presents an awkward situation. The acting chief of the organization has not been informed of Raz, who has so far been an unofficial member. With nobody vouching for him, Raz is instead demoted to being an intern.
The other kids begin picking on him right away and their mentors are all keen on keeping the youth out of official business. Raz, however, learns that there is a traitor somewhere within the Psychonauts. One that only he can unearth, as all the adults are either suspects or refuse to take him seriously.
The game is once again told mainly through levels that take place in the psyche of various people. To investigate leads and make alliances, you have to literally enter people's minds. Their mental hangups are turned into monsters and their inner world become platforming stages.
This was also the main draw for the first game and a worry was that a sequel would fail to live up to the creativity of the original. Boy were we wrong in that regard. The levels in Psychonauts 2 are once again inspired. Each one has a distinct visual aesthetic that makes it stand out. Like the world of a musician, which draws on bright colors, dubious-looking mushrooms, and surreal, dream-like imagery. The gameplay scenarios within them are also surprising. In one level you end up in a cooking show, having to platform between needlessly-complex machines to prepare ingredients before carrying them back to their plate—all within a time limit. In another you're in a bowling-inspired world, rolling balls through tricky courses.
A lot of the storylines unfolding from this neatly tie into events from the last game. A big part of your mission, for example, involves helping Ford Cruller recover his broken mind. Ford is one of the most beloved and also tragic characters in the story. Getting to help him heal and reconcile with his own past was amazing. In a similar vein, much of the story involves Raz and his family. Him running away from their circus tore a rift between them that they now struggle to forgive him for. Even more so than its predecessor Psychonauts 2 has strong emotional moments scattered throughout its story. Even some hard-hitting tearjerkers.
What I also appreciated is that Psychonauts 2 is a lot less frustrating than the series used to be. The levels have interesting gimmicks, but none are as annoying or confusing as some of the old levels were. There's no obnoxious hazards that set you back or slow, tedious puzzles to solve. I love The Milkman stage as much as the next person, but having to constantly go into your inventory to swap out disguises is such a pain in the neck. And the less said about Edgar's level, the better. Psychonauts 2 focuses more on interesting platforming challenges, using your powers, and fighting enemies.
In those regards, the game benefits from refined controls. It still broadly plays the same as before, but movement feels more precise. Though this does at the cost that your powers are slightly nerfed. The levitation power is no longer so comically overpowered that it renders platforming pointless. A sensible change, but I do kinda miss it. The game is also quick to give you back your old powers with a handful of new ones to round out your moveset.
Combat has seen the most improvement, I have to say. Enemies are way more interesting now, which makes it so that button-mashing is no longer the ideal solution. I found myself changing up what powers I used a lot more than before. And not just to counter some enemy that's only vulnerable to one specific move, which is how these things usually go. Psychonauts 2 also introduces a lot of new enemy types, which make these combat encounters more diverse. Whereas in the 2005 game, combat was just the thing you did between platforming and objectives.
With that said, Psychonauts 2 does disappoint a bit in the moveset. You only get 3 new powers across the entire game, some of which are withheld til the very end. It makes it feel like you don't gain much across the adventure. Like Raz isn't growing stronger or more skilled. At the same time, you have the pins system. Basically you can spend money on tweaking your powers, with 3 slots being available for doing so. Barring a few niche cases, none of these pins were particularly interesting. With some of those exceptions being gated off by a high level requirement—making the whole idea feel kinda lame.
Other than that, I only have some minor quibbles with the game. It gets a bit drawn-out towards the end as the final boss battle is dangled in front of you for what feels like an eternity. It warns you about a point-of-no-return at one point, but when it does you're already trapped in the final area with no way to get back. And maybe some levels are a bit too linear.
Ultimately, its flaws are so incredibly easy to forgive. Psychonauts 2 captures everything that made the first game a classic and doubles down on it. It's a rare example of a game that has both solid comedy as well as sincere, heartfelt moments. A game that is brimming with creative design and character. If that sounds good, then I do absolutely recommend playing the first game before you jump into this one. Psychonauts 2 makes an effort to catch you up to the plot, but nothing beats playing through its events for yourself.
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