Switching gears back to gaming for a quick second here. Over the last week or so I got sucked into a new title that just came out called Pyschonauts 2. I’d never played the first game (which came out all the way back around 2005) and had not even heard about this game until about two weeks before its launch. However, with the help of a certain gaming subscription service (Gamepass), I thought what the hell, everyone keeps singing its praises so I might as well give it a shot. Well that shot ended up being the whole game, and while it might not necessarily be my ‘Game of the Year’ I still loved my time with it.
To really hammer home how much I didn’t know about this franchise, a lot of the background information I’m about to provide I had to find out while writing up this review. Pyschonauts takes place in a fictional world where after a mysterious meteorite fell to earth known as Psitanium, the wildlife and human population slowly developed psychic abilities. Imagine your typical type of powers such as controlling objects with your mind, shooting energy blasts, seeing invisible objects, and a particular focus for the game, entering other people’s minds and affecting their thoughts. The Pyschonauts themselves are an organization of heroes looking to combat those who would use their powers for evil.
We see the world through the eyes of Razputin “Raz” Aquato who’s somewhat of a Pyschonaut in training. The only other thing you need to know is that there’s a “Big Bad Evil” villain who’s coming back into power and Raz and the rest of the ragtag group of Pyschonauts need to come together in order to stop it. If you couldn’t tell from the screenshot above Pyschonauts definitely displays itself as your typical kids game. Goofy looking animated characters, fun 3D platforming sections, and dialogue riddled with small jokes and silly puns but don’t let that fool you, under all of that is a subtle metaphor about mental health and self care that I was pleasantly surprised to discover (emphasis on the pleasantly and the surprise).
The first impression I had of this game (and it persisted throughout my 17 hour playthrough) was a comforting sense of nostalgia, mainly because it reminded me of the games I used to play in my childhood. Titles such as Spyro the Dragon, Banjo Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot, etc, all of which consisted of colorful and cartoony art designs that had fun, zany characters and focused on platforming, action, and so many collectibles spread throughout levels that your head would spin. Since 2013 I had discovered that video games had “grown up” with me and were telling dark, grounded, and more adult stories and I immediately latched on to that (to the people who humored and let me go on endlessly about games like The Last of Us, I’m sorry lol), so I suppose looking back I had forgotten about my roots and why I’d fallen in love with the medium in the first place.
There’s so much I could cover with this game but for the sake of brevity I’ll stick to some of the highlights. The first of which is just the shear level of creativity on display. Like I mentioned previously, one of the major gameplay mechanics within the game is entering the minds of others and exploring their subconscious. Each mind constitutes a separate level in the game (there are about 13-15 of these in all) and they’re all completely unique and distinct from one another. One is set in a library, another on a series of tropical islands, then a dentists office, a huge casino, and even the mind of the lead singer of a band which appropriately felt like I was on every type of drug simultaneously. You’re usually tasked with a goal that generally requires you to either obtain an object, cause some sort of change to occur within the mind of the person in question, or both!
Next would be the design of the minds (or levels) themselves. Pyschonauts 2 is what’s known as a 3D platformer which is pretty self explanatory. Most of the game just has you solving the puzzle of figuring out how to get from A to B by navigating your way across “platforms”. The genius comes from incorporating this design into the theme of each level in such a way that it feels perfectly natural and organic. For example in the library you have books strewn across the floor and shelves providing places to climb and specific books that hold some additional bit of information that allows you to understand your subject better (and maybe even enough to persuade them to your cause).
The third and final bright spot for this review (and trust me, there are a whole lot more I don’t have time to get to) has to be the writing and characters themselves. For the most part the game does feel like a children’s game with goofy, zany, and silly characters and honestly for me that’s been super refreshing. Most of them definitely fit specific and long tread stereotypes and tropes but that kinda comes with the territory (one of those, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, type of situations). I also loved the writing throughout and loved the way they addressed mental health, which is such a mature concept, in the story. The game deftly jumps between topics such as self acceptance, the nature of consent, and even smaller concepts such as emotional baggage (literal crying bags in the levels), ‘panic attacks’ or ‘bad ideas’ (shown here through a physical manifestation as enemies to be defeated), and even forms of addiction.
For all it does so well there are a few stumbling blocks along the way. The first of which is that while I have to applaud that it takes on tackling mental health issues head on, it’s not always the most successful in saying something profound or illuminating. This mainly comes from the cost of having to oversimplify a lot of topics in order to fit within the games aesthetics (if only ‘panic attacks’, ‘bad ideas’, ‘personal demons’, and ‘regrets’ could be dismissed by beating the shit out of them like you can in the game). The second is it doesn’t quit while it’s ahead and can have some more tired game mechanics at play. By the end of my playthrough I was starting to hope I was almost finished but each time I thought I was just about done the game would exclaim, “Oh you just need this one machine to work in order to beat the villain, but we need to do a list of 10 things for that to happen.”. As fun as it was, after a while I just wanted it to come to an end.
All in all I’m so glad I took the chance and played Psychonauts 2. It made me realize that just because I played and loved certain genre of games as a kid it doesn’t mean that I have to stop loving them now just because I’m an adult. Not only that but the game design and creativity on display here is truly something special that I wish more people got the chance to experience. Sure there are some small issues here and there but they by no means detract from the overall experience. If you’re already pre-disposed to loving 3D, action-adventure, platformers then by all means go out and get Pyschonauts 2, and if you’re like me and have access to Gamepass then you literally have no excuse. For everyone else I’d probably say wait until it’s down to maybe $20 on sale and give it a shot, you might come away just as surprised as I was!
8/10
Sources:
Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-13-psychonauts-2-gets-august-release-date
IGN: https://in.ign.com/psychonauts-2/165119/review/psychonauts-2-review
Rock N’ Roll and Disco: https://save-me-san-fran-psychonauts.tumblr.com/post/651652528887463936/a-peak-at-some-of-the-new-characters-from
Tom’s Guide: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/psychonauts-2
Xbox: Xbox.com
From the Tales of Wars and Rings 