Psychonauts 2 Review

Verdict

Psychonauts ii is fun, and wonderfully quirky, making it an platonic buy for any fan of the original or gamer on the chase for their adjacent platformer. But, after years in evolution for well over half a decade its graphics and sure gameplay mechanics can experience slightly dated.

Pros

Quirky, fun story
Solid puzzle and platforming mechanics
Fun for adults and kids alike

Cons

Retro feeling combat

Availability

Great britain RRP: £60
Usa RRP: $sixty
Europe RRP: €threescore

Primal Features

Available on: PC, Xbox Series S/X, PS4, Xbox One
Full controller support Plus keyboard and mouse
Single player The game doesn't feature any multiplayer modes

Introduction

Psychonauts 2 is the long awaited follow up to 1 of veteran games maker Tim Schafer'due south most beloved games.

Psychonauts 2 continues on from the 2005 original as a puzzle-platformer, with a heart-warming entertaining story best described as what would happen if Tim Burton and Pixar fabricated a video game.

Information technology offers a charming, slightly retro, platforming feel that sees yous navigate protagonist Raz through a series of different worlds, based on NPCs inner minds, using his diverse psychic powers to solve puzzles and traverse hazards.

The experience is fun, especially for those that played the beginning game, but its long development cycle means its graphics, and sure gameplay mechanics can experience slightly dated.

Story

The story follows straight on from the original game and is child friendly
Information technology features a catch up at the showtime for new players to become upwardly to speed
At that place are several returning characters and gags

Jumping into the globe of Psychonauts, everything is instantly familiar. It sees yous work every bit Razputin "Raz" Aquato in his continuing endeavour to bring together the Psychonauts.

It sees the counsellors from the showtime game return as they guide Raz to the psychonauts main base in an effort to figure out who instigated the assault on the offset game's camp.

This wonderfully zany cast of characters, coupled with a cheeky script, lets the game tow the line between dark sense of humor and a kid-friendly narrative with wonderful precision.

Navigating the world Raz, on more than 1 occasion 1 of the many NPCs littering the maps would spout out a ane liner that made me and my niece genuinely giggle.

Gameplay

Suitable for older kids, but a niggling too circuitous for younglings
Excellent platforming and puzzle sections
The gainsay is a little drab

This tone seeps into the gameplay and is ane of the principal incentives that kept me wanting to move forward, despite some slightly frustrating retro segments and poor tutorials.

Psychonauts is a puzzle-platformer that tasks you lot to navigate Raz through a serial of unlike worlds, existing in both the game's "existent" world and the minds of diverse NPCs.

Each globe is wonderfully distinct and brings its ain specific challenges and puzzles. Early, for case, you lot're tasked with changing a character's heed by rewiring her encephalon's connections through a series of puzzles. This is all while y'all jump, levitate and curlicue your manner through the hazardous platforming sections.

The distinct artful and humour adds to the experience, with the NPC narrating the new connections I was making with wonderful comedic timing.

In another psychoscape later on on in the game, I was forced to take part in a horrific "cooking show" in an attempt to help another NPC overcome his trauma. This saw me accept to lug "ingredients" using Raz'due south telekinesis to diverse giant cooking tools while avoiding a serial of traps.

Solid level pattern, with stiff platforming mechanics help make the game engaging, just it was the ongoing tone that kept me plowing through. I've referenced Pixar as a clear inspiration for the story and I hateful that with the greatest respect. Raz is a lovable character with good intentions, chief of which is to help people deal with trauma and protect his newfound Psychonaut friends from the imminent threat they face up.

Not plenty games manage to get this tone right. Every bit we saw with Biomutant, many oversimplify things, creating a narrative and experience that is also simplistic for anyone older than 8 to engage with. By comparison, Psychonauts offers players a good rest, delivering a narrative that'south nuanced and full of enough hidden jokes to keep adults entertained, while remaining child friendly.

The game also adds an element of longevity past offering various hidden treasures and collectables. These are fairly shut to what the kickoff game offered, with each section having figments, emotional baggage and "half a heed" items to collect.

On height of this, there are custom collectables that chronicle to specific side missions that you lot pick up from the game's various NPCs. These are similar to the scavenger hunts of the first game, seeing you trek around the map looking for random items.

As a further incentive, yous can too observe psychic upgrades that tin exist traded in to improve Raz's powers. This is an of import feature that can be used to admission previously inaccessible areas of levels. For example, one upgrade lets Raz connect to "night thoughts", opening upwards unabridged new areas of the map as a issue.

However, while Pyschonauts excels with the platforming and collectibles, its combat feels very dated, even with the customisation options and various powers at Raz disposal.

Exterior of the game's boss encounters, the enemies are all fairly direct forward, with each having a critical weakness that's easy to exploit. Smaller enemies tin can be taken out with a basic punch or long-range psi blast. Others are extremely weak to fire (pyrokinesis). Once you figure out the patterns this makes the combat sections feel fairly dull and repetitive.

Graphics

Visuals wait outdated
Lacks support for ray tracing

Double Fine games always have very distinct art styles and that remains the example on Psychonauts, which features a cast of characters akin to extras in The Nightmare Before Christmas.

And for the most function this, plus excellent piece of work past the animators, hides some of the game's rough edges. But afterward a while it'due south hard to not meet, Psychonauts isn't the best looking game around. I was never expecting photo realistic ray tracing or immersive HDR on a game like Psychonauts, but even playing information technology in 4K on PC there's no getting around the fact it looks similar it's running on a Xbox 360.

The graphics are a far cry from what we've come to look from new current gen' games for the Xbox Series X. Numerous textures on occasion look lower res than they should and the calorie-free effects are very basic. The characters have reasonably skillful facial animations, but on more than ane occasion I've seen cutscenes where office of the furniture is poking through them.

This doesn't quite interruption the immersion, but it does make the game feel slightly dated, which is a shame as a little more than polish would have gone a long fashion.

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Should you buy information technology?

You lot desire a to play a fun engaging platformer: Though Psychonauts 2 isn't the prettiest game available, its fun narrative and solid puzzle and platforming sections brand information technology a rare treat in today'due south landscape, offering a game that both kids and grownups can enjoy together.

You desire an action game:
Psychonauts 2's gainsay is its weakest part. so if you want a game that's heavily action focussed, yous'd be amend off looking at Nintendo'south Zelda series or PlayStation's Ratchet and Clank.

Terminal Thoughts

Psychonauts 2 is a fun, endearing puzzle platformer total of quirky challenges and entertaining dialogue. If you're a fan of the original, or just enjoy platformers, Psychonauts 2 is a great buy. The merely downside is that its graphics and combat mechanics can feel a niggling outdated.

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How we test

Nosotros play every game we review through to the finish, exterior of certain exceptions where getting 100% completion, like Skyrim, is close to impossible to do. When nosotros don't fully end a game earlier reviewing it we will always alert the reader.

Played through the entire entrada

FAQs

Does Psychonauts two have multiplayer?

Psychonauts 2 is a unmarried actor game. There are no multiplayer modes.

Does Psychonauts 2 support ray tracing?

The game does not support next generation ray tracing lighting effects.

What consoles is Psychonauts 2 on?

You can play Pyschonauts 2 on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series 10/S.

Jargon buster

Ray Tracing

Advanced low-cal-rendering engineering that allows for more than realistic lighting and shadow effects inside in-game worlds.

FPS

'Framerate per second' indicates how many images are shown inside 1 second. The college this effigy, the smoother in-game motion will announced. Powerful detached GPUs are far more likely to offer higher framerates compared to integrated graphics housed inside processors.

HDR

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and refers to contrast (or departure) between the brightest and darkest parts of an image. HDR content preserves details in the darkest and brightest areas of a flick, details that are often lost in old imaging standards. HDR10 is mandated to be included on all HDR TVs. It's likewise supported past 4K projectors.

Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/psychonauts-2

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