It’s not as unique as it once was, which admittedly is its own fault. Indie developers love delving into the psyche, grappling with mental illness, focusing on comedy, and creating bizarre non-Euclidian mindscape levels all the things that the original was known for. It did not ignite the same sparks of wonder that the original did, because times have changed. I binged it in a little over a day, which is certainly enough to call it a quality game. Its cast of characters was as delightfully bizarre as ever. Its stage design was incredibly creative.
The Psychonauts fan base, including myself, was delighted to see them apply all their design experience to a new, modern-day iteration of the franchise.Īnd yet, now that it’s all over I can say I’m of two minds about Psychonauts 2. Double Fine is a much bigger studio now, having worked with celebrities like Jack Black, launching several successful crowdfunding campaigns, and while they still solidly land in the increasingly small circle that is AA development, they are big enough to have made some of the more memorable quirky titles of gaming history. Lots of people have a lot invested in this game, literally since it partially raised funds for development via Kickstarter. It’s been 16 years since then and its sequel, Psychonauts 2, has finally been released. We were willing to put up with just about anything to hear the next joke and explore the next mental world. It’s just that we didn’t care about the flaws. There were even platforming segments that were positively rage-inducing, including the final Meat Circus. Its psychic powers were clunky to switch between.
While we might look back on Psychonauts with rose-colored glasses these days, it’s easy to forget that it had a lot of jank.
There was nothing quite like it at the time.īut it wasn’t perfect. It puts you in the shoes of a psychic circus performer, Raz, and exploring the inner psyches of a delightful cast of cartoony characters. It blew our minds at the time, combining Double Fine’s quirky comedic writing, a bizarre, exaggerated, and somewhat grotesque animation style, and incredibly creative level design. Psychonauts, a brilliant little PS2-era game by Double Fine, is largely regarded as one of the last great platformers of its generation.
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