Psychonauts 2 (Xbox Series X/PC) Review

Psychonauts 2 is a follow-up to the 2005 action platformer Psychonauts and it is a direct continuation of the VR game Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin. Thankfully, because not everyone has access to a VR headset, the long-awaited sequel does a good job of quickly catching the player up on what happened in Rhombus of Ruin. Psychonauts 2 follows the zany adventures of Razputin on his first day at the Psychonauts headquarters. Have the monumental expectations of fans been satisfied? No more delays, let’s dive in.

SPOILERS BELOW

Spoiler warnings to note, I will not be spoiling major plot points of the game but will be talking about certain levels, powers, and plot points from the first few levels of the game in-depth. I’ll be vaguely talking about the levels and plot points from the third level on; I feel that Psychonauts fans have been waiting a long time for this game and I would hate to spoil those moments.

The story follows Razputin on his first day of being an intern in the Psychonauts. Starting off directly after coming back from a mission that involved the events of Rhombus of Ruin. As Raz enters the mind of the nefarious Dentist Loboto (trigger warning for people who don’t like teeth… seriously the teeth in this game are overly detailed and there are a TON of them) Raz discovers not only was Loboto not working alone in Rhombus of Ruin to kidnap Truman Zanotto, the Grand Head of the Psychonauts but that there is also a mole in the organization. What follows is a fantastically told adventure following Raz as he unfolds who the leader behind everything is but also who the mole is and to my surprise, we get an incredibly crafted story diving deep into Razputin’s family and the founding members of the Psychonauts.

At the outset of the game, the player is thrust into the mind of Loboto which is stunningly disgusting and crafted almost entirely out of teeth, but it gives Raz and the game a good introduction to the basics of the gameplay while teasing bits of the story that slowly gets its hook into the player. Psychonauts 2 does a fantastic job of playing out the story through the viewpoint of whoever’s mind the player is inside of through half-thoughts in the brain of the character to Raz directly dealing with the twisted view the characters have of themselves in their own mind. There was no point during the game that felt like a slowdown. If anything, Psychonauts 2 has two storytelling styles. Humor is incredibly hard to nail in a game but the minds over at Double Fine have nailed this time and time again with Psychonauts and Brutal Legend just to name a few, but they have sailed it out of the park again with almost all their jokes hitting home. That being said, comedy, especially in video games, varies wildly from person to person.

The second style of storytelling found in Psychonauts 2 is on the other extreme of the scale, playing into thought-provoking and deep character stories that are ever-evolving. The way the characters grow in Psychonauts 2 is absolutely astonishing. Watching these supposedly seasoned psychics battle with depression, guilt, and in particular anxiety is dead on. Where the story really starts to ramp up (without spoiling anything) is in this moment where Raz finds his friends, who he had thought left him eons ago on purpose, and ends with one of my favorite moments in recent gaming. As one of the most heartfelt reunions in games, this scene had me cackling and almost in tears. To speak to the other side of that, there is a moment where a certain character is dealing with loss and the way that the masterminds over at Double Fine have led up to this big crescendoing moment only to have it immediately ripped from Raz as he has to watch that character deal with it had me sobbing for minutes on end.

The gameplay in Psychonauts 2 is reminiscent of the first Psychonauts just with different psychic abilities. For example, the Mind Link ability gives Raz the power to not only pull enemies towards him but also change thoughts in the minds of characters. Plus, this move acts as almost a zipline ability. All the tools at the player’s disposal have these multiple layers of use. Whenever you acquire a new one (which is often and the abilities keep coming well into the late game) there is always a short tutorial to show the many uses of these powers. These all feel good to use but an issue arises with there being so many. Not only that but these powers are mapped to the shoulder buttons, resulting in a lot of switching around. That only takes a brief moment to do so but it is a point of friction, especially when dealing with enemies.

Speaking of enemies, Psychonauts 2 features a varied cast and all of them are based on unpleasant things that can happen in and to someone’s mind. Some fan-favorite enemies return such as Censors but the stand out when it comes to enemies is the Anxiety enemy which is sporadic, next to impossible to predict, and tough to defeat. The boss fights in Psychonauts 2 are a great mix of hilarity and pattern learning, the stand-out here being a Chef.

A level outline in Psychonauts 2 follows a pretty established rhythm. For the most part, Raz goes into certain people’s minds, talks to their psyche, and finds out a deep-seated issue, upon which Raz helps them deal with their demons and talks it through with them. Of course, this is all sprinkled with platforming, a little combat, and maybe a puzzle or two.

Weirdly enough, Psychonauts 2 is a wholesome game at heart.

Where Psychonauts 2 really shows its strength is in its level and visual design. Each level and location is incredibly varied, and specifically how each person’s inner mind looks is truly astonishing. From the toothy nightmare described earlier to a hospital that changes after the character’s morals have shifted, with the standout being a level where a character is dealing with overstimulation, it really is something to behold. This comes with a caveat though, because while this level looks amazing it actually made me need to take a break after about 40 minutes due to, well overstimulation, so I guess job well done? Either way, the design of Psychonauts 2 is very 90s cartoon-based with its character design, just as the first one was and it looks spectacular especially running at 60 frames in 4K HDR glory on the Xbox Series X.

Psychonauts 2 has a timid soundtrack that somewhat works for the setting with everything being mostly in the background until the player finds themselves in these big bombastic boss fights and moments. Although, the biggest con of Psychonauts 2 is that even though the music suits it incredibly well and while it’s happening the player will find themselves drawn into the world with its upbeat spy adventure style tracks, but once the player walks away the music becomes instantly forgettable.

Where the music falters a little, the major player in the sound is the voice acting which is great, to say the least, with Raz and the Brain in the Jar being some of my favorites. All the key players in the story of Psychonauts 2 do a fantastic job of nailing down their characters and truly bringing them to life. The range of emotion portrayed is astonishing; I have a hard time thinking of any other game that can not only bring on cackling laughter but also bring about a guttural response that had me crying.

Psychonauts 2 is by far in my top three games of this year. Between how the story manages to pull the player through a range of emotions to the fun and wild powers having multiple ways of using them for combat and exploration and rounding off at a great sense of exploration after the player is set free. Once credits rolled, I found myself doing something that rarely happens. I started over from the start to see how things play out and to see the seeds that were sown earlier in the game and it works. Not only is noticing those details fun but once the player enters the post-game state, levels change, new paths open up, and you will find when using certain powers that character opinions of Raz change and evolve throughout the game.

Additionally, I was able to try out for the first time was Xbox Play Anywhere and it worked fantastically! Within seconds I was able to seamlessly switch between Xbox Series X and my PC. That being said about 90% of the game was played on the Series X so let these scores reflect that.

All in all, I think Psychonauts 2 does something previously thought impossible, it not only met expectations brought on by years of waiting but somehow unexpectedly surpassed them. Psychonauts 2 is a game that will stay with me for a long time and I’m perfectly fine with that; it deserves that spot in my brain. If you couldn’t tell, I wholeheartedly recommend playing Psychonauts 2 as soon as possible.

SCORES

GAMEPLAY - 8.5/10

VISUALS - 9/10

SOUND - 8.5/10

CONTROLS - 8.5/10

REPLAY VALUE - 9/10

OVERALL - 8.7/10

A copy of Psychonauts 2 was provided by Microsoft for this review. Screenshots and assets were provided. Psychonauts 2 launches on August 25th on Xbox X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Windows, and PS4. It will be available on day one on Xbox Game Pass.

If you want to keep reading about games that look amazing on next-gen consoles go on over and read Alex’s review of The Forgotten City, for more fun platforming action be sure to check out Joe’s review of Cyber Shadow!