Psychonauts 2

In many aspects, Psychonauts 2 is a worthy sequel to the 2005 original. For a longtime fan, it has everything you could want: the style, humour, and mystery you'll recognize as all being distinctly Psychonauts. You really can't get that feeling anywhere else, and I would have loved to fall in love with it, but my experience was frustrated by a game that refuses to let you explore at your own pace. The strongest aspects of Psychonauts 2 are its visual style and thematic design. The levels are gorgeous, and they each have a unique, creative theme that feels fully explored. I loved finding all of the tiny details that were crammed into every level. The idea of using brainscapes as environments enables almost infinite options, and yet it's still impressive how innovative the developers could be. Unfortunately, actually playing through these levels reveals the game's fatal flaw: you are constantly, and I mean constantly, interrupted by cutscenes. It would have been an unbelievably cool experience to discover the secrets of these beautiful worlds on your own time, but the game is always interrupting your flow with unimportant nonsense. Load into a level? Cutscene. Walk six feet forward? Cutscene. Walk to the other side of the room? Cutscene. Find an item? Cutscene. Activate an object? Cutscene. Open a door? Cutscene. Enemies spawn in? Cutscene. Fight off enemies? Another cutscene. Get a new power? First, a pop-up text tutorial that explains how to use the power in full detail. Then a cutscene. None of these cutscenes are overly long (usually 30-40 seconds each), but they are incessant. Psychonauts 2 is a deluge of one cutscene after another, as you are agonizingly led by the hand, never being fully let off the leash to have a meaningful, organic experience. Going back to revisit old levels reveals just how badly the game is broken up by these cutscenes, because you will find that most sections of a level are now completely inaccessible from each other, due to it always being cutscenes that get you from place to place, never a physical path. I don't even think the other gameplay aspects are that dated; the combat, platforming, and powers are all serviceable. More importantly: the core game is fun, and has exactly the kind of charm I'd hope to find in a nostalgic adventure game. But playing Psychonauts 2 is like trying to race Rainbow Road except there's a speed bump every 10 feet. It absolutely killed the game for me. Combine all of this with a story that feels eye-rollingly contrived, and a conclusion that has me scratching my head (I'm sorry, we're forgiving the genocidal mass-murderer and letting them live out their life free and in the loving care of their family?), and I just can't recommend Psychonauts 2. Unless you are a diehard fan of the original, I'd pass on this.

So you're telling me that in this game, Jack Black plays a gay psychic viking hippie who was in a band with a bunch of other psychics and also called himself the "Psi King?" Metal.

The game starts out great, awesome characters, great plot. Then i will guess about 40% into the game it goes all sideways. Story stop making sense, you get introduced to boring characters and no longer interact with the good ones, and its as though you're playing a different game. Nah not worth it, do not recommend.

Anita Sark-sexism-against-ment-doesn't-exit assited on this. Much crappier than original game. Less fun, more somber tone to the story. Wish I could refund it.

Its not a bad game, I dont recommend it just because it wasnt what I was expecting from a psychonauts sequel. I liked the first one because of its writing, its characters and the design of it all (because I can admit that the combat wasnt good but it was serviceable) and this one just doesnt feel the same, all the personality and originality of the first one is missing. The team of people that made this game either forgot what made the first one so special or the new team just couldnt emulate it, let me give some examples. In the first psychonauts Raz seemed to be an outgoing, extrovert and confident kid, but in this one is a complete pushover. One example would be just at the beginning of psychonauts 1, when Bobby Zilch tries to intimidate him, but Raz doesnt back down at all, he plants his face in front of Bobby, ready for whatever, that being its attitude during the whole game, eager for adventure and sure he can overcome whatever challenge it comes in his way, while in psychonuats 2 hes always being pushed around, being the butt of the joke. Hes either sad or insecure of whatever hes doing, I dont know why they were aiming to make him kind of pathetic. I dont know at what point they came up with the idea that the way to design the characters to keep fitting with the original style it was to make them look like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ muppets, its like they looked at the Robinsons from Gumball and said, so this is how you design psychonauts characters. The levels are your run of the mill plataformer by the numbers slop, linear, samey, uninspired and predictable. In psychonauts 1 I was always eager to enter some ones brain because of its unique perspective of his mind and the way they see the world, but in psychonauts 2 its just a thematic level instead, for example, in the first game the Milkman level its a neighborhood full of spies, eyes popping out of every corner and streets swirling, pure schizo madness or Sashas mind being just a cube, on the other hand in psychonauts 2 barber Ford Cruller its just a level with hair and big barber appliances or mailman Ford Cruller its just a level with cards and big post office appliances. This problems show in little details as well, to give another example, when you entered Millas mind in psychonauts 1 she sees you like a baby, showing its graphical perspective of you from her own mind, in this game you are just a disco dancer to her, the same goes for everyone else, the skateboard girl sees you like a skateboarder, the goth girl sees you as a goth and so on and on, its like now the mind of the characters its just a theme of what they do. I understand why people like the game, because as a lone standing game its alright, but, to me, as a psychonauts sequel its just not good.

游戏很好玩，但顾问名单里有安妮塔·萨克伊西恩（Anita Sarkeesian）

Psychonauts 1 really suprised me, it was 7 years on my pile of shame, untouched, until I finally tried AND loved it. I am even more surprised that, more then 16 years later, the sequel happend and is at least as good as the first one. Great story, funny dialoges, overall very diversified gameplay, Psychonauts 2 is a pleasure to play, and works great on Steam Deck, too. Big recommendation!

Having never played this series growing up, I jumped into this it recently. After getting a little over halfway through the first game, I bounced off of it due to its age. There's a lot to love with its charm, soundtrack, visuals, etc... Luckily, I gave the sequel a try because it does everything that I loved in the first game without the issues I had. Everything has a purpose, whether it's a throwaway joke or a background decoration. A huge ensemble of characters without it being overwhelming - everyone fits into the story and does their part. Never overstayed its welcome and is a masterclass in how a platformer can play. The gameplay and mechanics actually feel like part of the universe and story. Cannot recommend enough for anyone, no matter what your taste in games is.