Usually when I finish a game that I loved, I sit back and ask myself whether I’ll still be playing that game in a year; this dictates my next trip to CeX’s WeBuy desk. Well, after my first hour with Psychonauts 2, I knew I wouldn’t be trading it in, and not only because it’s a digital exclusive.
Even though Psychonauts 2 is a relatively short experience, weighing in at only 10-15 hours depending on how much time you give to the exploration sections, I expect myself to be diving straight back in before next year. The length of the game gives it the same qualities as a cosy tv series: I can relax over a week and knock out a few hours every night, each time getting a completely new adventure that reminds me of the presence of my heart.
So, what is this game actually about? Luckily, we needn’t work hard to figure this out, as we’re told from the offset in a pre-game mental health advisory: “Psychonauts 2 is a game about empathy and healing.” We follow Raz who, after the events of the previous games (which I haven’t played), has joined the Psychonauts, a group of psychically abled secret agents who enter the minds of those in need, to tinker with their psyche. Psychonauts experience the deepest subconscious of a person’s mind through abstract constructs, and it is in these crazy worlds that most of the game’s levels are set.
Raz bounces between minds like an indecisive frog, and his exploits take him to such subconscious locales as a toothy labyrinth inside the head of a reformed sadistic dentist, a hospital turned casino where the brain’s owner struggles with the deadly costs of risk-taking, and a living novel where Raz must regroup different chapters of an author’s personality.
Every level is jam-packed with unique collectibles that I had endless fun discovering. Whether those are ‘Figments’, which are essentially level-specific coins represented by abstract neon art; ‘Emotional Baggage’, portrayed by a tearful cast of actual bags; ‘Vaults’, which hide a character’s most repressed memories, often providing a touching moment of backstory; ‘Half a Minds’, collect two for a much-needed permanent health boost; or ‘Nuggets of Wisdom’, gratifying level-up rewards for exploration. These collectibles are not only delightful to uncover and force you to truly delve into every nook and cranny with a keen eye, but they also reinforce the core aesthetic and theme of the game, further juxtaposing the physical world with the realities we create in our head.
Speaking of the physical world, the base of the Psychonauts, the Motherlobe, acts as a hub between levels though it is itself the main stage as Raz unearths more of the original Psychonauts’ secrets hidden in the surrounding forests and mines. In the hub world, every rail you can grind, treehouse you can summit, and swing you can… swing on has been meticulously placed so that it tightly interlinks to the rest of the map, hiding level-up collectibles and charming treasures. Herein Double Fine presents modern 3D platforming at its greatest PS2-era-esque potential.
It’s all just so nice; Double Fine have perfected their level design to such a tee that the world feels lived in and characters feel real even if their archetypes initially come across as one dimensional. Psychonauts 2 presents the thesis statement that everything and everyone is deeper than you initially know through its blend of linear story and deep open world, and while you may not see every single character’s story play out to its conclusion (there are a LOT of characters, mind), you get the sense that at least Tim Schafer knows what’s going on, even if we may never know.
If anything is undercooked it’s the equippable upgrade system, which I almost entirely ignored in my playthrough. Early on you are given the ability to add modifications to your psychic powers with purchasable pins, though they were so expensive I figured my money was better spent on PSI-pops (health lollipops) since combat proved a decent enough challenge.
In combat you have three classic 3D platformer attacks – punch, combo punch, and jumping punch – and different enemies require different psychic powers to be defeated. Panic Attacks are fast and dominate space so you need to slow time to defeat them, Bad Moods limit your field of view so Raz must use clairvoyance to understand the cause of their misery, and Judgement manifests as a gavel-wielding magistrate who must be telekinetically blasted to be rid of. Combat typically arises in a thematically appropriate moment, making it less of a gamified gimmick and more a tool for storytelling – in one level a character gets more overwhelmed the further into the level Raz pushes, periodically creating combat encounters with Panic Attack creatures. After a few rounds, however, Raz has dealt with enough of that monster type that he is able to help the character deal with a panic attack on their own, making my actions in combat feel more meaningful than typical uses of combat in games such as God of War or Ratchet and Clank.
My favourite level was Feast for the Senses, taking place in the mind of a long dead brain as it slowly recovers consciousness and remembers things about its past. This sensual revelation is portrayed as a 60s LSD trip (without explicitly saying so) through an abstract Yellow Submarine cell-shaded concert as you regroup the brain’s band, slowly adding instruments to the funky background music and vibrant colour to the brain’s memories.
Overall, Psychonauts 2 presents a wonderful world filled with heart, warmth that uses its tight level design and classic 3D platforming roots to demonstrate why a game doesn’t have to be the length of 20 Avenger’s Endgames to be worth your money.
Sometimes it only needs to be the length of five.
5/5 stars – a modern must buy.
Images: Psychonauts 2 – Double Fine