A deeply, deeply frustrating game. If it were just a bad game, it might have been easier to bear, but the huge imagination, glimmers of fun gameplay, the writing and memories of the original left me desperate for the game that could have been.
The platforming, the combat, the abilities, the level design, everything that makes up the Game part of the game feels janky and unpolished. Bad ideas from Psychonauts 1 are preserved, completely unaltered even after 15 years of hindsight. The biggest single offender is the abilities- these are mapped to the 4 shoulder buttons, but you start the game with 6 abilities, and end with 8, so frequently have to pause the game and rebind abilities. This would be alright if it were a matter of preference, letting you equip whichever abilities are the most fun, but it's not. Every ability is shoehorned into puzzles or combat in a way that's unavoidable. None of it feels organic or fun, it feels as if the designers said "Oh no, the player might stop using Pyrokinesis, because it's shit. I know! I'll MAKE them use Pyrokinesis!"
The game shines for about an hour or two in the middle, when it gives you access to a big open world hub area where you can run and jump and explore to your heart's content, find lots of collectibles and secrets, talk to NPCs, just generally do what you want. I wish more of the game had this approach, but it's in a minority. Every level feels as if the designer's first priority was cool, unique visuals, their second priority was telling a good story, and a distant third priority was making something actually fun.
As for the story, it has a lot of twists I didn't see coming, and that I enjoyed for the most part. It's a little crowded with characters, they all have pretty unique personalities but many just disappear into the background for large chunks of the game. Overall it feels a little too concerned with tying up loose ends I never knew existed, and manages to make the world of Psychonauts feel very small and insular by the end.
I kickstarted this over 5 years ago because I liked the first game so much. Now, I'm thinking back and wondering how much I really did like the original, because most of the problems are present there. I guess I just felt a little more leniant on it then, whereas after all this time it really feels like the designers should have learned some lessons.
The platforming, the combat, the abilities, the level design, everything that makes up the Game part of the game feels janky and unpolished. Bad ideas from Psychonauts 1 are preserved, completely unaltered even after 15 years of hindsight. The biggest single offender is the abilities- these are mapped to the 4 shoulder buttons, but you start the game with 6 abilities, and end with 8, so frequently have to pause the game and rebind abilities. This would be alright if it were a matter of preference, letting you equip whichever abilities are the most fun, but it's not. Every ability is shoehorned into puzzles or combat in a way that's unavoidable. None of it feels organic or fun, it feels as if the designers said "Oh no, the player might stop using Pyrokinesis, because it's shit. I know! I'll MAKE them use Pyrokinesis!"
The game shines for about an hour or two in the middle, when it gives you access to a big open world hub area where you can run and jump and explore to your heart's content, find lots of collectibles and secrets, talk to NPCs, just generally do what you want. I wish more of the game had this approach, but it's in a minority. Every level feels as if the designer's first priority was cool, unique visuals, their second priority was telling a good story, and a distant third priority was making something actually fun.
As for the story, it has a lot of twists I didn't see coming, and that I enjoyed for the most part. It's a little crowded with characters, they all have pretty unique personalities but many just disappear into the background for large chunks of the game. Overall it feels a little too concerned with tying up loose ends I never knew existed, and manages to make the world of Psychonauts feel very small and insular by the end.
I kickstarted this over 5 years ago because I liked the first game so much. Now, I'm thinking back and wondering how much I really did like the original, because most of the problems are present there. I guess I just felt a little more leniant on it then, whereas after all this time it really feels like the designers should have learned some lessons.