very conflicting game. on one hand, the very unhinged and wistful nature of the first game was it's best aspect in my opinion. there were dozens upon dozens of different interactions with the random camp characters that really breathed life into the experience of the game. After each major junction, (even one as small as the timeframe between the first brain tumbler experiment and completing sasha's basic training) you were treated to new interactions with those characters, and the writing was actually funny. The second game eschews this; possibly because even in developer interviews they mention how they toiled away, implementing features and things to a game with a myriad of logistical issues that most people just wouldn't end up experiencing. There are only a few different things a character can say at a given time, and what they say doesn't really change throughout the course of the game until near the very end; where the game's latter half is segmented by being set appropriately, at night, just like the first. the game's subtext isn't as beautiful as the first's; aside from the best mental worlds in the game (Hollis' Hot Streak, Cassie's Collection, Compton's Cook Out, ) almost everything leading up to that respective mental world gives you TOO much context about them, and then whatever you learn within doesn't feel particularly earned or as insightful as it did in the first game. And I can't tell if that's just me or not; The reasons why I love Psychonauts are very personal and unique, I can't exactly explain why I love that game so much. It's not due to a lack of words, but because there are so many little things that make the experience of that game one of the best I've ever had; Perhaps expecting the 2nd game to deliver on that level of charm is unfair; I mean, it's still a great game, the writing's still way more than passable; As a "game" it's much better than Psychonauts 1, it has some of the best 3d platformer controls since Mario 64 pretty much. By no means is it somehow way worse than the original, but when you make a sequel it inherently exists in reference and in contrast to something else. I think this game as is is a very healthy product, and although it's not as great as I think I want it to be, it's probably one of the best sequels ever created.