Wow, I never thought I play a game where I get to play as this telephatic kid who gets to do weird, gooey stuff in people's brains. Enter Tim Schaefer, a name that is recognized by the eclectic and the obscene. The man that has helmed games like Brutal Legends, Rad, The Cave, and a bunch of other weird, small titles. Including prototypes. Man this studio does things pretty unorthodox when it comes to making and selling games.
But most notably, he is known for his time in LucasArts, where he made the most popular mouse-click adventure game, Grim Fandango. That game was a lot of fun. But eventually would lead Tim to leave and make his own studio called Double Fine. Where in 2005, they released the first Psychonauts video game. Which was his studio's first ever release. Hence, now am going to talk about its seminal sequel.
The Gameplay Stuff
Psychonauts 2 is a very peculiar game, but one that stands out for one very important reason. The game is about mental processing. About helping a person deal with their grievances, their pain, trauma, a lot of psychological factors that makes them who they are. The gameplay is spiritually and mechanically similar to the first game, but there are changes and new additions that makes it fresh to play for a sequel. Expands upon more of the original's gameplay philosophy, with more room and areas to explore to.
Some parts, a bit tricky. But here's a the basic stuff. You can jump, dodge, and attack. These are simple gameplay mechanics, but the other important aspect are your PSI abilities (or PSI Powers). You have 4 button slots to pick and choose which PSI to input to. By default, I had picked telekinesis for right trigger, and levitation at left trigger. The rest I pick based on the platforming puzzles and combat. They're pretty fast to switch on the fly.
You fight against so many different kinds of enemies. Of course, most of them come from inside the minds of the people you get inside of. You're psychically battling foes that don't just go down by psychic punches. They are projections of the person's inner psyche.
Combat is fast paced, sometimes more hairy. Enemies will gang up on you and you won't be given the time to prepare. You'll have to act really fast, but they aren't brutal that you become instant kill fodder. Increasing your ranking gets you rank points to upgrade your PSI Powers and your melee attacks. Your PSI Powers are ambidextrous when it comes to how they're used. They can very handy in combat, but they also are used for platforming.
The platforming is a bit tricky, this is because sometimes the camera doesn't help or when you're supposed to be latching onto leafs, you inadvertently fall for some reason. Least the game isn't very punishing when it comes to the platforming parts. But I feel like other games have done it a little better with control input and responsiveness. But it is still better than 90% of the games out there regarding platforming. Even the map and level design is splended. There's so many areas to observe and gawk at, sometimes you'll even find hidden passages. Of which the game has plenty of.
You'll need to use your PSI Powers for reaching places you normally can't, same ones you'll also use during combat. Your character gets to use his entire acrobatic abilities from flipping on horizontal poles, walking on ropes, grabbing grassroots to shimmy around to the side, and so on.
Unlike the sequel, this game is complete open-world, which allows you to tackle different main and side objectives. Reaching areas you don't see often, needs gadgets like thought tuner to find dangling thoughts on the air to reach (actual thoughts you use with one of your PSI Power to latch onto and trasport to different places of the level). A lot of what am saying usually wouldn't make any sense elsewhere, but just stay with me on this, and try to figure out the peculiar nature of this game.
The game has a non-linear progression system. As in, if you want to rank up. You need to find cards, and buy this one-eye thingamajig to increase a rank. Or if you're in someone's mind, you can go around and grab figments that'll also increase your ranking. There are also other natural ways to progress your ranking just by playing.
You can purchase Psitanium wallets, which is the first important thing you actually have to do, because that's basically currency for buying things. Among anything else the Otto Matic store gives. Doing all of this collectively to progress is very important in order to rank up and discover newer, better abilities.
The gameplay is a lot of fun, it's pretty addictive thanks to the unorthodox gameplay design that works. Combat isn't the prime focus but it brings good challenging moments. Especially boss battles, being so climactic, despite being a little easier to beat. The platforming sections are really cool accompanied being visual spectacles to feast on and amazing level designs. Add up a great progression system that let's you work to your own pacing.
Story, Themes, And Characters
Psychonauts 2 is a direct sequel. It takes place in a world where there are people with hidden telepathic, and telekinetic abilities. Basically, if everybody was Jean Grey and Charles Xavier. Kind of. It's a 60's trip, everything's like this woozy acid trip to this Tim Burton esque aesthetics
While the original was more free spirited and open to exploring a lot of themes. This one is a bit more condensed, with more emphasis and focus on the few themes that is has, while offering a lot of charm. Both the humor and wit carries the scenes and interactions, most of the characters are so well written and even multi-faceted. There's a lot to like when to comes to the main storyline.
It allows more thorough exploration into the characters with a large no of dialogues to pick. Each sometimes having unique response in accordance to their personalities. Also, this game is really funny. It's quirky but also spontaneous with a few endearing moments sprinkled on them.
Most of these characters carry a pragmatist schticks, I mean the entire game, they tell you as if being a psychic is very miserable. Yet you stick around for their rhetorics, because of the humor, duh! You'll start liking these characters, and start being attached to some of them even. The writing matches up to something those highly popular Saturday morning cartoons are known for. You know, from the early 2000s?
It's obvious that this game has Hollywood level of writing, camera work, and scene choreography. Studio being based in California pretty much explains that. Psychonauts 2 has such an endearing story, funny and charming characters, amazing world building, fun and eccentric gameplay, and tons of Tim Schaefer weird stuff. Not to mention, the stellar voice casting. They did amazing, adding so much color and substance to the world and its inhabitants.
I can't say this enough, this is a great comeback for Tim Schaefer. Man just hasn't made enough games for the past 2 decades. Especially in the second one, while I've noticed some small foes that could have been better implemented, little concerns in the grand scheme of the overall enjoyment I've had playing this game. Also made me miss Brutal Legends, might try that game again.
I hope Double Fine is releasing another game real soon. Maybe not that soon, considering how small their staff size is, this might change soon in the future thanks to Microsoft buying them. Am rooting for these guys now. If you guys can, definitely check this game out. It's pretty therapeutic, as well as a zanny and wacky ride to the inside of the mind.