Developer: Double Fine
Publisher: Microsoft
Genre: Collectathon, 3d platformer
Gameplay Stats: 23 hours, 57/57 achievements
A sequel to my favorite game ever. 16 years in the making! Was the wait worth it???
Visuals: This game looks pretty similar to the original back from 2005 but with updated graphics for 2021. It's pretty much everything I could've asked for. The characters and enemies look pretty similar but with more variety and more skins than in the previous game. The new enemies do a good job communicating what they will do by their design and by telegraphing. All special effects look great and everything is still drawn in Nathan Stapley's style, like you'd expect from Double Fine at this point.
Audio: The music is really good, it's actually shocking to me that everything was written by one composer in particular. The music bounces between fantasy sailing theme to nods at the Grateful Dead to old Russian-esque anthems. There's even a strange version of It's a Small World Afterall that's meant to be annoying! All of the music and sound effects hit the nail on the head in terms of achieving what it seems like they set out to achieve. A couple of the loops were a bit shorter than I would've liked so I ended up turning the music down when I was finishing up achievements, but overall it was really strong. The voice acting was strong in this game as it has been in the past with several lines getting audible laughs from me and my audience while playing.
Plot: I was genuinely surprised with how the story turned out! It did seem like it wrapped up all of the outstanding questions from the first game nicely, so I'd be surprised if there was a Psychonauts 3, but by that same token I would love to see a game where they were better able to flex their creative muscles instead of being bound by previous decisions. I was able to guess pretty early on which minds I would be exploring, but I don't think any of them disappointed. There weren't any quite as showy as Black Velvetopia from the original game, but I enjoyed exploring all of the worlds.
Gameplay: The platforming felt good, like any collectathon platformer should. The jumps were spot on even if the feeling was a little off at times. I think that was a product of the camera changing distance from Raz frequently so it was tricky getting a feel for some of the jumps. They were almost all spaced in such a way that a double jump would get you where you wanted to go, but sometimes it felt more dicey than it was. The combat got a serious step up in this game which was nice. It was way more engaging than in the first game, with it being necessary to frequently dodge and prioritize enemies. A huge step up from the first game. I think the only complaint that I can muster here is that I had to frequently change my powers around. Which isn't even too much of a complaint I suppose. So many of the powers were good and interesting that I needed access to more than the 4 bumpers could easily accomodate.
Overall I really loved this game. I was really glad to have this sequel at all and if we get another I hope it's not after another 16 years. The writing, art, and gameplay were all on point. And the plot was pleasantly surprising! I can't recommend this game enough, although I think I'd recommend playing the first game first. [10/10]
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