The first game ever developed by Tim Schafer's Double Fine Productions was the original Psychonauts, a quirky 3D platformer with Tim Burton-esque character designs, innovative gameplay mechanics, sharp writing, and a great sense of humor. Psychonauts was critically acclaimed at the time of its release in 2005, but despite its strong reviews, the game was a sales failure, and so plans for a sequel were put on the backburner. Dedicated Psychonauts fans have been waiting 16 years for Psychonauts 2, and they've been rewarded for their patience with what is Double Fine's best game and a Game of the Year contender.
Psychonauts 2 was worth the wait. Fans of the original game should fall in love the sequel pretty much immediately, with it picking up exactly where the Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin VR game left off. And no, the Psychonauts VR game isn't required-playing for those who want to enjoy Psychonauts 2's story. In fact, one doesn't really need to have played the original game to know what's going on, as there's a helpful, detailed recap at the beginning to catch everyone up to speed.
In Psychonauts 2, Raz and his fellow Psychonauts have successfully rescued Truman Zanotto, the Grand Head of the Psychonauts and father of Raz's pyromaniac girlfriend Lili, from the clutches of the disturbed Dr. Loboto. They arrive at the Psychonauts headquarters, which serves as the new hub world in the sequel, replacing the Whispering Rock campground from the original game. After clearing some introductory levels, Raz is mostly left to his own devices, able to freely explore the headquarters and its surrounding wilderness to gather collectibles and complete side quests.
Exploring Psychonauts 2's world and figuring out the best way to utilize Raz's psychic abilities is a lot of fun, with the game leaving the door open for players to experiment when it comes to completing platforming challenges and overcoming certain obstacles. Raz retains many of the abilities he earned in the first Psychonauts game, but Psychonauts 2 throws some new abilities into the mix as well. Besides the usual telekinesis and levitation, Raz can now zip around the game world using floating thought bubbles and can also create a duplicate of himself to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.
Every new ability Raz gains in Psychonauts 2 allows him to further explore not only Psychonauts Headquarters, but also the Brains he visits. For those who may be unfamiliar with Psychonauts lore, the titular Psychonauts enter the minds of people using tiny doors that they attach to their heads. These minds serve as levels and, in typical Psychonauts fashion, Psychonauts 2 isn't content recycling the usual stages that players have come to expect from 3D platformers.
Instead of generic water, fire, ice, etc. worlds that are typical of the genre, Psychonauts 2 builds its levels based on mental illnesses and disorders. Psychonauts 2 tackles gambling addiction in one of the earlier levels, and a later one manifests panic attacks as literal monsters that Raz has to fight off. There's plenty of traditional 3D platforming throughout the game, but each level has its own gimmick to help it stand out from the rest. From start to finish, Psychonauts 2 has some truly genius level design and gameplay mechanics for players to discover. It's so exciting to see what insane, hilarious new idea Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine came up with next so it becomes hard to put the controller down.
Players will find that the controls have been hugely refined since the original game, which makes exploring Psychonauts 2 levels a much smoother experience. Platforming feels great and is an overall massive improvement from the original, whereas combat has also gotten a noticeable upgrade. There are many more enemy types than before and a new dodge mechanic has been implemented to make it more involved.
Not only does Psychonauts 2 control much better than the first game, but it also looks a lot better, too. This is to be expected with a 16-year gap between releases, but Psychonauts 2 still deserves praise for its visuals regardless. The game looks gorgeous on Xbox Series X, with top-notch lighting, reflections, and detail to the environment. It brings Tim Schafer's vision to life like never before, and at times looks like it could pass for a Hollywood-level animated move. There is some minor texture pop-in throughout the game, but otherwise, Psychonauts 2 has great graphics.
As players are taking in Psychonauts 2's sights and collecting all of the goodies hidden throughout its levels, they will get to enjoy an enthralling, hilarious, and surprising story written by Tim Schafer and his team at Double Fine. Psychonauts 2's writing is some of the best in any 3D platformer ever, with a memorable cast of characters and a story full of twists. It opens the Psychonauts lore up in a big way, and by the time the credits roll, players will be anxious to explore more of the world.
But even though Psychonauts 2 will make players want to see more games set in the Psychonauts universe, the final quarter of the game does suffer from some pacing issues that drag it down. Whereas a common criticism aimed at the first Psychonauts game was its short length, Psychonauts 2 is a touch too long, with a couple of levels overstaying their welcome and having collectibles in annoying places that will inevitably force players to replay chunks of the stage.
The last few hours of Psychonauts 2 also have a bad habit of constantly ripping control away from the player to show cutscenes. Admittedly, the Psychonauts 2 story cutscenes are great and players will be interested in seeing what happens next, but it still hurts the pacing when players are only allowed to play for a few minutes before they are made to watch another long cutscene. It happens excessively at the end of the game and will make some people frustrated. But eventually, players will be done with Psychonauts 2's story and they will be let loose in the game world again, free to explore to their heart's content to complete its interesting side quests and find all of its hidden collectibles.
Anyone that was a fan of the original game will likely love Psychonauts 2, as it improves on everything that made the first game great. But newcomers should also make it a point to check the game out, as it's a phenomenal 3D platformer and a Game of the Year contender. And while it's worth every penny, Psychonauts 2 is also on Xbox Game Pass thanks to Microsoft's acquisition of Double Fine, so anyone interested can try it out without making a big financial commitment.
Psychonauts 2 launches August 25 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided with an Xbox Series X code for this review.