PSYCHONAUTS 2 THE KOTAKU REVIEW UPGRADE
Combat has seen an upgrade with a dodge button and a greater assortment of enemies. Largely, it plays a lot like the first game with the same movement mechanics still in place. To be fair, I’d rather the fumbled rush to bring closure to everything than, say, a 90-minute cutscene where everyone gets their happy ending. All these relationships cause a lot of loose ends, and many of them get tied up rather hastily. The finale is where the problem shows up. They’re all pretty enjoyable - special shout-out to Dogen’s sister, Sam - with few of the campers from the first game returning in favor of a fresh cast. There is a minor issue with the game having too many characters in the mix.
It perhaps coasts over the finish line but doesn’t feel like it putters out long before that like the first game. There’s still a point-of-no-return towards the end, but the balance between the exploration, character interaction, and platforming is a lot better. Psychonauts 2 avoids it for the most part. The level design is at its best in the latter half with memorable scenes like The Milkman’s Conspiracy and Lungfishopolis, but it loses what made it really special. In that game, you roam around the summer camp interacting with an assortment of interesting characters, then that all gets shunted aside and you’re more or less left to complete the remaining levels without that delicious exploration to ground things. However, being the plucky psychic he is, he starts weaseling his way into the organization’s business in an effort to uncover the nasty plot and rub his fanboy all over his heroes.Īs much as I love the game, my biggest issue with the original Psychonauts was its pacing, which just died around the halfway point. Meanwhile, Raz finds out that his official Psychonauts badge given to him by Ford Cruller is worthless and he’s bumped down to the level of intern. Someone seems to be trying to bring Maligula back, possibly through necromancy, and that would be bad for everyone. The fight left one of them presumed dead and the rest wresting with their own various demons. The story centers around the history of the Psychonauts and a battle they had against their greatest foe, Maligula. I’m not saying you couldn’t understand the plot of Psychonauts 2 without playing at least the first game, but you’ll be left with a few blanks. Psychonauts establishes a lot of groundwork for how its world works, and that’s not explained well in the recap. But there is a recap of both the first game and Rhombus to bring you up to speed, it just doesn’t do a particularly great job. Are you poor like me and don’t have VR? Tough luck. The narrative of Psychonauts 2 picks up after Rhombus of Ruin.
PSYCHONAUTS 2 THE KOTAKU REVIEW SERIES
Psychonauts 2 ( PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S) That was back in 2015 and now, nearly six years later, we’re ready to finally open the door to see if the juicy grey matter of Psychonauts 2 still has that special sauce slathered over its undulations. Not enough to entice publishers into funding a sequel, however.įor that, Double Fine turned to crowdfunding. It was a special sauce that endeared it to a lot of people. You’d explore their pain and try to glue the fractured parts back together. Aside from the NPCs who roamed the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, there were some whose minds you would delve into. Not just fancy talking farm animals to give you quests, either, it was people with depth. It was characters, and it had them in spades.
It followed a lot of the standard platformer concepts - powering up, collecting gobs of different items, jumping - but it added a special sauce.
Back in 2005, Psychonauts was something different.
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