Shane
The original Psychonauts, released in 2005 was a mind-bendy trip of an adventure game, now the long overdue sequel has been released – Psychonauts 2.
The second chapter in this twisted mind exploring and unique game continues the story of Rasputin, called Raz, as he finally gets to be a part of the Psychonauts.
An eclectic band of do-gooders infiltrating the psychosis, subconscious and imagination of those who have nefarious intentions.
Fresh from the defeat and capture of Dr. Loboto Raz enrols in a summer camp to gain accreditation and hone his psychic abilities.
But it’s not easy, as the other kids there don’t always take too kindly towards him and is all what it actually appears to be at the school?
Although Dr. Loboto has been captured was he actually the enemy, or was he being psychically and emotionally controlled?
You will play as Raz in a third person open environment adventure where your skills of levitation, telekineses, pyrokinesis and more are utilised to get you through the game and the game’s story.
Your abilities can be fine tuned and enhanced by way of collecting up cards secretly hidden around the world of Psychonauts.
Exploring the minds of NPC’s usually results in weird and surreal Levels that almost seem to be adaptive as you play through.
A lot of goodies to be collected, tons of secrets to be found – Psychonauts 2 retains and enhances the very unique visuals and puts us in the mentally tangled narrative where nothing is straightforward.
If you haven’t played any of the Psychonauts games before, I’d recommend picking up the first one to start out with.
While Psychonauts 2 does give some of the backstory for newcomers, there’s alot of references throughout this second chapter to the first game. In order for those to fit within the current gameplay of Psychonauts 2, you’d needed to have experienced the first game.
An excellently unique and long overdue edition to the Psychonauts franchise written from the imagination of Tim Schafer.
Psychonauts 2, lucidly trippy.
Released: August 2021
Rating: PG
Platforms reviewed: Xbox Series X
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Double Fine
Publisher: Xbox Studios