tl;dr - Buy Psychonauts 2 with money.

Just as excellent as the first game for different reasons. Where it lacks the same sharp and relentless sense of humor from long ago, it makes up for it in well-explored poignancy of its characters. Perhaps at the risk of losing some memorability or opportunity for creative puzzle-solving, the gameplay is much more streamlined and will never leave you looking up guides--a lack of obtuseness I welcome after a certain amount of frustration with lack of clarity in the predecessor. And dear god, the presentation. The soundtrack is a standout of the experience (the way the orchestra swells during the late-game combat theme, WEW.) Higher fidelity models and textures are one thing for enhancing the visual style, but the animation is what really gets me--fundamentally, Raz doesn't look too different when standing still, but in motion the kid's got a better energy about him than ever before. Some character designs look more in line with the likes of Broken Age this time around, and I welcome that eclecticism. It shows how much the studio has learned and grown over the years. They did a double fine job on Psychonauts, yet again.

Reviewed on Mar 21, 2023


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