Not that Raz isn't tooled up for a fight, as he comes with an arsenal of mental powers to use. They occasionally all come together to help Raz out, but for the most part you're on your own. In this way Psychonauts 2 is a bit less wacky than the original, and sidelines some of the more bombastic characters carried over from the first game, like Agent Nein and Coach Oleander, in favour of a more balanced cast of interns and staff who are a bit less memorable (aside from Sam, who is extremely memeable). Here he records all the minds he's been in, what he should do next, and keeps the little maps of places - like the Questionable Area, a kind of tourist destination. I know you're all about the menus in Persona 5, but I really love Raz's little project book. As such you can enjoy the brain worlds without feeling guilty, and while appreciating the overall message that, y'know what? Most people are dealing with some shit. But these levels don't come accross as crass - a balance is struck where you're not exploring these events in detail as they happen, but instead navigating the impression they left.
Psychonauts 2 questionable area full#
An aquatic garden, full of plants that look like martini glasses and bottles of liquor for platforms, represents a parents' secret alcoholism, for example. But Psychonauts 2 approaches serious themes more thoughtfully than before. The editing also makes use of jump cuts and crash zooms to great effect, too. It's still funny, with the art style and writing giving it Tim Burton via 00s Cartoon Network. This new and improved version of Psychonauts has a slightly more cohesive story, and takes a more careful angle on things. It's this setting that allows the levels to hit such rich veins of cartoony weirdness, as you're platforming around a metaphor for someone's relationship with their mother, and have boss fights against the fear of being abandoned, or guilt or over past actions. She was a powerful water-themed psychic thought to have died in a battle with the founding Psychonauts 20 years prior.Īs Raz, you dive into the founders' heads, with a few other cranial diversions along the way, to figure out what happened all those years ago, and where Maligula actually is. The 'nauts, a sort of private spy agency battling psychic threats by spelunking into different people's subconscious, are facing the return of Maligula. Psychonauts 2 continues the story pretty much directly from the VR-only Psychonauts: In The Rhombus Of Ruin, but you're brought up to speed quickly as Raz is inducted into the Psychonauts' internship programme back at their base. Most of Psychonauts 2 (as with the original Psychonauts) takes place in the battleground of the human mind. Or the paper trees that sometimes appeared among the towering archives of a giant book repository, where sketches of a knight and a dragon argued over pizza toppings. Or the juicy green landscape of a Yellow Submarine-esque 60s musical wonderland, every plant sprouting a crop of giant eyes. There were many times playing it when I had to stop my 3D platforming and just look around in awe, taking in the still tableau of a little town made of hair, threatened by a huge tower of waves of blue locks wrapped with curlers. The actual levels in Psychonauts 2 are more fantastical than anything I could conjure up here. Diminutive psychic spy Raz Aquato would probably pinball around a giant rockpool that somehow represents my relationship with my grandparents.
In their hands, it would become a fabulous riot of colour and whimsy, with even the darkest corners seen as works of strange beauty. If only my own mind could be filtered through the creative processes at Double Fine Productions and emerge as a level in Psychonauts 2.
Psychonauts 2 takes you on pure flights of the imagination.
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