It had a great beginning, if a little plot dense that relies on both the first game and the VR spinoff. The graphics and art direction were amazing, the teeth based platforming was delightfully gross. And there are a ton of collectibles to invite you to explore the level and your powers to get all of them. But then some of the collectibles are locked away where you need a new power to get to, and the game doesn't always let you know that you're missing a power, and replaying a level just to get a handful of squiggly lines isn't much fun. Thankfully there's a fast travel system when you go to replay a level, but it's still a hassle to get to. Sometimes the collectible isn't even locked by a power, the game will let you see one floating right there, but then go into a cutscene and move you past it.
The gameplay is split into 3 subsections: exploration, platforming, and combat. There is a bit of platforming in the exploration, but they are different. And the combat is just combat and nothing else. As the game goes on it doesn't really change much over time and the gameplay gets somewhat stale. Changing powers and badges constantly gets annoying, I wish they could have came up with a way to map more powers to buttons and combinations. It's weird that there are no puzzles in this game, the aesthetics are cerebral but the gameplay is not. You platform to areas, sometimes fight some guys, and watch really long cutscenes.
The story isn't bad, it deals with a variety of mental health issues and handles them honestly without dumbing it down. But the actual plot is a little too inwardly focused and relies too much on the previous two games in the series. In the first game you're training to be a Psychonaut, some kind of globetrotting psychic super spy that fights crime or something, I don't actually know what they do. And in this game you get upgraded to... intern. Still training to be a full fledged Psychonaut. You go on exactly one mission, the finale of which was excellent, but then the rest of the game is all about following up on the fallout from that mission. It's all about family and the founders of the Psychonauts and what happened in the past, but nothing about what the Psychonauts do. Make me a cool psychic super spy and send me on missions involving psychic powers!
The gameplay is split into 3 subsections: exploration, platforming, and combat. There is a bit of platforming in the exploration, but they are different. And the combat is just combat and nothing else. As the game goes on it doesn't really change much over time and the gameplay gets somewhat stale. Changing powers and badges constantly gets annoying, I wish they could have came up with a way to map more powers to buttons and combinations. It's weird that there are no puzzles in this game, the aesthetics are cerebral but the gameplay is not. You platform to areas, sometimes fight some guys, and watch really long cutscenes.
The story isn't bad, it deals with a variety of mental health issues and handles them honestly without dumbing it down. But the actual plot is a little too inwardly focused and relies too much on the previous two games in the series. In the first game you're training to be a Psychonaut, some kind of globetrotting psychic super spy that fights crime or something, I don't actually know what they do. And in this game you get upgraded to... intern. Still training to be a full fledged Psychonaut. You go on exactly one mission, the finale of which was excellent, but then the rest of the game is all about following up on the fallout from that mission. It's all about family and the founders of the Psychonauts and what happened in the past, but nothing about what the Psychonauts do. Make me a cool psychic super spy and send me on missions involving psychic powers!
Reviewed on Aug 12, 2022