![]() Psychonauts 2 is a third person action adventure game where you play as Razputin Aquato, or Raz. Fans have been clamoring for more ever since, and except for the brief (but savory) morsel that was In the Rhombus of Ruin, we haven’t been able to catch up with Raz, Sasha, Mia, Liili, and Ford Cruller in a full blown adventure since 2005-but the wait was worth it. A surreal platformer with a strange sense of humor, it became a cult classic. He left LucasArts over 20 years ago and formed Double Fine Studios, known for their debut title, Psychonauts. Psychonauts 2 is absolutely one of the best games so far in 2021 and serves as a fantastic example of why Xbox looked to purchase Double Fine in the first place.As a kid, I played many LucasArts games, so I had an early introduction to the works and humor of Tim Schafer. And even if you're a newcomer who has been interested in Psychonauts 2 from afar, there is still more than enough here to keep you smiling from ear to ear on a regular basis. If you're someone that also loves the original, I have a hard time believing that you won't enjoy this experience from beginning to end. And despite being so off the wall, all of the game's different elements work together in great harmony to create something that is novel in every way.Īs someone who has loved Psychonauts since I first played it over a decade ago, I cannot stress how much joy this sequel has brought me. From the music, to the art style, to even the characters, everything within Psychonauts 2 has a distinct, zany tone. If you haven't played a Double Fine game before, perhaps you're not familiar with this, but the studio almost always finds a way to craft unique worlds that are unlike anything else you'll see from video games. Psychonauts 2 also just oozes style in every way. Although I don't think some of these levels are as fun to explore a second time around to pick up every object that you missed before, those who are looking for a good collectathon will find it here. Like any good game of its genre, Psychonauts 2 will also awaken your collector's itch, assuming that you're someone who likes to find everything that there is to offer. ![]() The level design in Psychonauts 2 is so good that even the worst worlds in the game would be considered the highlight stages in other platformers. And another level will then throw out the platforming format almost entirely and will instead ask you to compete in a cooking challenge. Another world will see you sailing around the world on a "boat" so that you can collect seeds to plant in massive bots. In one world, you'll find Raz navigating a 1970s-inspired landscape in a hippie van so that he can get an old band back together. This is primarily because each world offers up a completely different theme and goal, which means that you never feel like you're doing the same thing twice. Psychonauts 2 features a multitude of levels that players will explore over the course of its roughly 15-hour play time, and in my own estimation, not a single one is boring. This is perhaps the quality of the first game that fans loved the most and it continues to be a standout in the sequel. Double Fine does a great job of balancing these qualities as well so that the story never feels too aloof or grim at any one time.įar and away the best aspect of Psychonauts 2 is its level design. Humor permeates throughout almost every aspect of Psychonauts 2, but the throughline narrative itself is also far more serious at times than I would have anticipated. What made this game more impressive to me than previous Double Fine outings is that the story touches on some darker, more complex topics than normal. ![]() Tim Schafer has always been one of my favorite video game writers and his work (along with Erik Wolpaw) continues to shine here in Psychonauts 2. Still, even with so many characters rotating in and out of the game, Double Fine's penchant for writing continues to shine through no matter who might be on-screen at a given moment. While I enjoyed every character that did show up in Psychonauts 2, it almost suffers from having a more bloated cast than before. ![]() This is the same for the returning characters, as well. Although there are some new characters that I liked quite a bit, not all of them get enough screen time to lead to you feeling strongly about them. Rather than simply sticking with the same cast, though, Psychonauts 2 also introduces a number of new characters. This also means that essentially every familiar face from last time around makes a return in some capacity. Psychonauts 2 picks up mere days after the events of the first game (and its spinoff, Rhombus of Ruin), which makes it very easy to jump into if you're a returning player.
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