Note: this is a review in progress covering the game's first five hours and does not currently have a final score. This review will be updated when more of the game has been played.
Psychonauts 2 is every bit as warmly funny, aesthetically unique and narratively off the wall (so far!) as the two games that preceded it: 2005's Psychonauts (which was also developers Double Fine's debut title) and 2017's Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin. The latter leaned even further into niche appeal than the original cult hit, only playable in VR on PC or PlayStation 4. Knowing that, the team behind Psychonauts 2 provide players with a brief but comprehensive catch-up cinematic, so that they can go into this direct follow-up at least semi-confident that they know what the hippocampus is going on.
Long story: incredibly short: you play as Raz, an intern (nowadays) at the Psychonauts, a crew of secretive agents who can dive inside brains via handy lil doors and extract information or influence decisions by rewiring synapses and jumping around the insides of skulls in a classic 3D platforming style. Sadly for the 'nauts, there's a mole in their ranks - and so begins a new adventure, with faces familiar and all new joining Raz amid some of the most imaginative level designs gaming's ever seen. Just be warned (there is a content warning) that some of the sights might not be suitable for people with particular phobias. Straight out of the gate, there are a lot of teeth.
Raz isn't just light on his feet - he can shoot psychic blasts to chip health off enemies (a motley crew of protective measures, designed to prevent anyone from carving up a cerebellum that's not theirs); slide inside NPC minds to see the world (and himself) through their eyes; use pyrokinesis to burn through otherwise impassable areas; and roll around on a ball of brain energy to avoid deadly floors. And that's not the full menu of abilities this diminutive hero can use to his combat and traversal advantage - there are so many choices that you have to select between them rather than having them always mapped to shoulder buttons.
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This shuffling of superpowers can lead to some fiddliness when what you've had mapped to RB for the last hour is now a wholly different psychic proposal due to a recently visited area's environmental demands, and you inadvertently fall down a chasm or miss a clear shot. But Psychonauts 2 has some generous checkpointing to prevent mishaps feeling too harsh - and what's more, it also has a suite of accessibility options where players can turn fall damage on and off, and opt to make Raz invincible. In my time with the game (again, so far!) I've had no need to make my guy a god, but the option is there should a money-hungry tentacle beast of a boss be too frustrating.
And to be clear, having these difficulty options (alongside subtitle size and font selection, UI hints, colour blindness filters, camera shake intensity scaling, and increased damage to make any battle easier) is a good thing: Psychonauts 2 is big on story, so getting stuck at any point and losing the flow of proceedings would suck. Which is why it's a shame that the game gets itself in a mess on a few occasions, switching from player control to cutscene too regularly in some areas, dropping in loading screens that feel both too frequent and too long, and sometimes having two characters talk over each other with only one's subtitles on screen. There are also some navigational headaches, like when bits of scenery get in the way of the camera and where you're supposed to land isn't as clear as it could be, but that's something that 3D platformers have had to deal with since Super Mario 64.
Most of the time, though, playing through Psychonauts 2 is a riot of rampant colour and uncommon cool - and when you do have certain powers memorised, stringing them together to take out waves of baddies is quite a thrill. You can pop shots off at range and then basically hook the stunned opponent towards you for a pair of fists to the face. One, two, down they go. It's possible, too, to draw enemies into (un)friendly fire, and use flaming projectiles meant for you to heat them up, to the detriment of their health bars. The large array of collectibles and currency for power-ups and rank upgrades and tags to reunite with emotional baggage (gotta love the puns in this series) can feel overwhelming at first but a lot of it feels optional, after a while - though I stress again that I'm only five or so hours deep right now, and the need for upgraded blasts and the like is yet to make itself known. When the time comes, I'm sure I'll be well stocked up on the necessary trade-ins.
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For all of the slapping about of brain-spawned nasties, zipline-style zooming across bottomless pits, and the wildly eccentric locations this game takes you to, at the core of Psychonauts 2 is the same big heart that pumped so much love and care throughout the first game of 16 years ago. For all of the action and the jokes - some of which have made me laugh, which is never a given when video games attempt comedy - there's warmth here, soul, and relatable themes being explored through a wonderfully idiosyncratic lens. So far, I've played through the many and varied pitfalls of gambling, and clear critique on how the incredibly wealthy aren't necessarily rich at all, beyond their material possessions.
Raz's fellow interns, initially presented as pranksters, soon enough arrive to help him with their own weird abilities - I'll never look at a whale in quite the same way - and the emerging camaraderie of these characters is played with a subtle touch that feels more human than any of the cast actually look. If you didn't play (or click with) 2005's Psychonauts, you might find the character design off-putting at first, but everything on screen is consistent enough to make this strange and surreal world believable. This is more Aardman than Ghibli, with a real physical look to character models and set dressing.
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The bumps in my playthrough (for a final time, so far) have been minimal, and breaking to write these words to meet an embargo is keeping me from more quality Raz time. Psychonauts 2 is an intoxicating rollercoaster ride of invention and passion allowed the space and time to blossom that so few big-studio productions receive without substantial boardroom meddling, so credit where it's due to Xbox Game Studios for letting Double Fine loose with the creative juice. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've some more brains to bump around inside of, and some more retina-spinning sights to drink in.
Pros: Absolutely singular of look and feel, appealing characters and relationships, combat variety keeps encounters fresh
Cons: Some platforming inconsistency, you need to know what's happened before to make sense of the plot, loading screens go on a while on Xbox One
For fans of: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Full Throttle
8/10: Excellent (so far)
Psychonauts 2 is released on August 25 for Xbox One (version tested) and Series S/X, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac and Linux. Code provided by the publisher, Xbox Game Studios. This is a review in process, and will be updated in the near future. Find a guide to GAMINGbible's review scores here.
Featured Image Credit: Xbox Game Studios, Double Fine