Psychonauts 2 was announced almost six years ago after years of fan campaigning and professional flirtations between Double Fine and potential publishers. Subsequent re-releases raised its profile and expanded its player pool, which made it possible for the sequel to attract almost $4 million in crowdfunding. The first Psychonauts didn’t sell well initially, but its distinctive visuals, off-kilter characters, and endearing tonal mix of comedy and empathy made it a critical and cult favorite. Like its celebrated predecessor, which arrived in 2005, Psychonauts 2 is a third-person platformer developed by Double Fine, the Microsoft-owned but independently operated studio started by Tim Schafer, the legendary LucasArts auteur. Psychonauts 2 doubles as an interactive art exhibit, but in some respects it’s also a semiconventional video game, so here’s a more mundane description. Yet even though every level looks different, they all unquestionably belong inside Psychonauts, a singular series that follows few rules except to stay resolutely and exquisitely true to itself.
Psychonauts 2 genres full#
The environments of Psychonauts 2 are as full of folds, wrinkles, and contradictions as the addled in-game brains that contain them. Not because of how lifelike it looks, but because of how much less lively real life looks by comparison. But I compulsively snapped stills of Psychonauts 2 like a tourist on his first trip away from his hometown. I’m not normally a screenshot person when I play games, because fumbling for a capture button or being ambushed by a pop-up breaks the spell of the scenery. After spending time in a world where every character and corner is at least slightly askew, obedient buildings are boring. Nor would one want them to conform to familiar designs or stick to symmetrical layouts. No structures seem up to code, except for the computer code that created them. Every plant needs a trim, and every human a haircut. In the figuratively and literally twisted settings of the sequel to Psychonauts, every hallway is warped.
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