Whether it’s the psychedelic, cel-shaded head trip of the Brain in a Jar level, the murky metropolis inside of a bowling alley, or just the sprawling and explorable quarry and campgrounds outside of the Motherlobe, Psychonauts 2 is a treat for the eyes. It’s definitely Double Fine’s most technically accomplished effort but above all it’s artistically and creatively leagues above anything I’ve played in recent memory. Just know that each is fantastic in its own right, and the sheer volume of bespoke content and mechanics that Double Fine has crafted for each is staggering and rivals even the biggest AAA platformers like Super Mario Odyssey. I could write thousands of words about the other mental worlds that Psychonauts 2 has to offer, but I’d be ruining so many wonderful surprises.

Whether using Raz’s newfound ability to slow time to better manage the superfast and relentless Panic Attack enemies, collecting the hundreds of unique Figments in each level or finding painful memories to explore at the bottoms of literal bottles, there’s almost nothing to see or do in Psychonauts 2 that doesn’t contribute to its themes and messages. The first game had a lot of success with the same idea, but it’s clear that Double Fine’s entire team from writers to artists and designers has approached every level and sequence with the goal of portraying its characters and their mental states and experiences in ways that are fun, visually interesting and contextually meaningful.

You can read about a couple of these in my early hands-on preview of the game, like the combination casino/hospital of Psychonauts acting director Hollis Forsythe’s mind or the sprawling library where Psychic Six founder Cassie O’Pia locks her various personality archetypes away in thick tomes.Įmpathy is such a powerful tool for storytelling, and so these mental worlds bridge that often challenging dissonance between gameplay and narrative by making gameplay inherently empathetic. Just like the original, Raz spends most of his time in-game exploring the mental planes of his friends and colleagues, where their innermost thoughts manifest into abstract worlds to be explored and challenges unique to their individual mental conditions. The brilliance of the Psychonauts games’ storytelling not only comes from Double Fine’s creativity and sharp wit, but from the core concept of each major ‘level’ in the game being borne of a character’s mind. It’s immediately clear that the series’ creator, Tim Schafer, had much more to say than was said the first time around and it’s a treat to see so much more of this world now being explored.

What this means for Raz, and for fans, is that Psychonauts 2 quickly becomes a deep dive into the origins of the Psychonauts themselves as well as the confronting of its past and the fallout of its founders’ troubled histories. With the agents in panic mode and old ghosts back to haunt them, Raz’s quest takes him across the Motherlobe and its surrounds to enlist the help of the founding Psychic Six to defeat Maligula once again. Of course there wouldn’t be a game here if things simply went peachy from that point on, and Raz quickly finds himself at the centre of a new adventure with the threat of a once-thwarted psychic villain named Maligula resurfacing and a suspected mole at Psychonauts HQ helping it happen. This is where the sequel picks up, with Zanotto returned to Psychonauts HQ and Raz awarded the official title of Psychonaut…intern. After joining the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp and subsequently saving his fellow camper’s brains from the evil Dr Loboto, Raz is welcomed into the secret psychic spy agency of the Psychonauts, working with them to rescue the organisation’s head, Truman Zanotto. The punchline, of course, is that while it’s been 16 years since the first game released, this sequel takes place almost immediately afterward. Right there is just about the funniest line I’ve heard in a video game – a remark from Psychonauts’ protagonist, Razputin Aquato, as he revisits a locale from 2005’s original entry. Luckily that’s absolutely not the case for Psychonauts 2, which proves itself to not only be a worthy follow-up to the cult classic, but a damned-near essential one. As elated as I was back in 2015 to learn that one of my all-time favourite games was making a return, there’s always that shred of hesitancy that some things are better left as pleasant memories. For a studio like Double Fine, one that’s known for its innovation and creativity and for a consistently unique output, the idea of a sequel might not make much sense.

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