Psychonauts 2 – a cult classic’s return

Negative

• That it is basically a kick-started indie game is noticeable
• The battles oscillate between horrible and barely approved
• Confused track design to and from

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In 2005, Double Fine Productions’ big venture Psychonauts came, hailed and thundered. It could have been the end of the story for the acrobatic boy Raz and his psychic powers. Fortunately, fate wanted something different and in the years to come, Psychonauts became a real cult classic. The votes for a sequel became more and stronger. A sequel that is now here.

Pull up the grass roots

However, cult classics are nothing that makes publishers open their wallets and throw money at a project that may have a small but loud audience. Tim Schafer, with Grim Fandango and Monkey Island on the merit list, and his Double Fine Productions therefore had to use grassroots funding to get started with the development. A number of years and tours later, however, Double Fine Productions is part of Microsoft Game Studios, which has given Psychonauts 2 a bigger budget and more development time – even though the basics are still rooted in an indie game.

Messy worse, but it can be summed up by saying that Psychonauts 2 is not a grand and technical masterpiece. On the powerful Xbox Series X, the resolution may be high and the image update silky smooth, but the environments that are painted are more reminiscent of the Xbox 360. On the other hand, it is also a conscious choice to suit the series’ origin and style.

Fantastic fantasy

And it is precisely the graphic style and exuberant imagination that makes the courses sometimes look fantastic. Most paths take place in a person’s subconscious and are as colorful as a freaked out interpretation of the person’s strongest thoughts.

Among other things, we get to navigate around a giant mail-sorting robot, participate in a bizarre cooking show, roll bowling balls through construction sites and platform jump inside books and X-rays. In between, there are also more normal hub-like areas that offer plenty of secrecy. No two courses are alike and it’s always exciting to see what comes next.

Whimsically jumping with frustrating misses

Wonderfully crazy track design in all its glory, but when the adventure is largely about tricky platform jumping and secret searching, the sometimes difficult-to-interpret track design and certain extended levels are annoying problems. Countless times we fall from great heights because we do not understand where we are going or mistake background details for useful platforms; that we can, for example, once jump on leaves, and in the next annoyingly slip off them is bad game design.

With that said, platform jumping is still the adventure’s brightest star. We jump, bounce, glide, hover and roll forward in search of the course’s goal or secret sidings. It’s terribly fun, reasonably challenging and wonderfully rewarding when we take on hard-to-reach secrets. Platform jumping is also not made worse by the fact that the control is mostly excellent.

Unexpectedly unpolished

But like I said, for the most part. Unfortunately, some parts of the game are good at building on maneuvers that are not sufficiently honed. Like Raz bouncing off ledges instead of climbing on them, failing to grab vines or when the camera is tripped so simple jumps become difficult.

In battle, we also often manage to pick up the wrong objects with the psychic forces. Or yes, a lot in the battles unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired. It does not matter much which attacks we use, it still degenerates into a semi-messy soup where Raz attacks rarely hit as intended. It is fortunate that the level of difficulty is so forgiving.

A difficult competitive situation

Perhaps the biggest problem with Psychonauts 2 is that other games have done pretty much everything we get here, though better. This summer’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is superior in terms of impressive environments and entertaining battles, while this year’s Swedish success It Takes Two offers even smarter and more imaginative track design. The action role-playing game Scarlet Nexus could also be thrown into the mix, as it uses psychic special forces in a smarter way.

In the end, “good at a lot, but not the best at something”, is a fitting description of Psychonauts 2. Fortunately, the unique design, all the wonderful characters and the story elevate the gaming experience and make the adventure something much more than a pale copy. Just keep in mind that it is basically a thorough indie game and not a full-fledged top title, so it will be easier to forgive the problems that exist. Because despite its shortcomings, the world of Psychonauts is well worth a visit.

Psychonauts 2

Tested: August 2021
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
platform: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, S, pc
Tested on: Xbox Series X
Release: August 25th
Award: SEK 549 on the Microsoft Store

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