Psychonauts 2 is a game I wanted, but I never actually thought I would see! Released over 15 years after the original and about 5 years after the VR game, Psychonauts 2 is every bit as fun as those two games. I was not sure if it would hold up to the nostalgia goggles, I viewed the first game with, but it more than lived up to it.
How to Download Psychonauts 2
To download the game for Windows, PlayStation, or Xbox, click on the Download button that is located at the end of this review.
The Game Review
Once again, we play as Raz, an acrobat who has joined the psychic superhero team that is known as the Psychonauts. While I do not think you need to have played the first two games to enjoy the story. I do feel that you will certainly have much more appreciation for the characters and the lore building they do here if you have experienced the series before.
I really do not want to go into spoiler territory here as the story is one of the best things about this game. It is a direct continuation from Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin where Raz and the other Psychonauts are trying to figure out who was behind the kidnapping of their leader.
That alone is the premise for how the story starts. However, things get much deeper as we dive into the family of Raz and the very foundations of the Psychonauts organization themselves! It is done very well and the world is full of interesting and zany characters that expand the lore even more.
I will admit that at first when Raz was forced to go to class, I was like “what the hell?” he just helped out the main team on a mission, and now he is treated like a rookie? However, the payoff for this works and I found myself very happy with the way that the story ultimately turned out.
The presentation of Psychonauts 2 is great. I played the game on an Xbox Series X on a 4K TV and it looked fantastic. I love the way the game is so unapologetically weird and while it can be very weird you just accept it as part of this crazy world. It has a kind of The Incredibles meets Inside Out vibe going on in terms of the style of the game.
As well as looking good, Psychonauts 2 is also a great-sounding game. The whole game is voice acted and they all do a great job of bringing these characters to life. As well as great voice acting, it has a very cool soundtrack, actually like the visuals, The Incredibles is probably what I would say the soundtrack is kind of like.
Now, the gameplay of Psychonauts 2 is very interesting to talk about. At its heart, I would say the game is an action platformer with some puzzle solving. In many ways, it plays like a classic game of this genre from 2005, but with modern gaming conveniences if that makes sense.
Raz controls great and he has a fun selection of abilities that he can use. You can have four of these abilities equipped at any one time, assigned to the four shoulder buttons. You can do stuff like shoot fire, shoot Psi energy blasts, possess others, and create a ball to roll around on to name some of them.
I think that the game does a great job of mixing things up to keep it interesting. There is plenty of combat, platforming, psychic puzzles to solve, things to collect, boss battles, and more! Just when you think that things are starting to get a bit “familiar” the game will throw something different at you.
I went into Psychonauts 2 with pretty high expectations after the previous two games. I can hand on heart say that this more than lives up to what the other two games offered. As a matter of fact, I think that this may actually be my favorite of the three games! This is available on Game Pass so you really have no excuse not to give it a try.
