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Psychonauts 2 |OT| Mindraker

Buggy Loop

Gold Member
Started it last night after finished Psychonauts 1 the day before. I'm not far in but i'm already blown by it. Visually stunning and expands so much more artistically on the weird mind psyche than the first game.
 

Fuz

Banned
Completed it today.
It's a 10/10 game for me, its only faults are being a sequel (so can't take us by surprise) and being now a pure platform it's a bit less... imaginative its levels - there's no Godzilla or Napoleon level. Oh, and switching powers is kind of annoying, we could have had more keybinds on PC.
But those are very minor gripes on a game that's excellent in every imaginable regard. Great story, fantastic art direction, amazing voice actors, excellent cast of characters, thight controls and super fun from start to finish. I really want more of it, I hope they're gonna give us a Psychonauts 3 soon, even if they said they want to do something different now.
 

Bridges

Member
One of the few games I have felt compelled to 100% on the first playthrough. Fantastic through and through, really blew me away even after just playing Psychonauts 1 for the first time only a few months ago. It improves on nearly every aspect of the first and very well might be the best 3D platformer since Mario Odyssey (though admittedly I struggle to recall what came out between now and then that would even be competition).

Only complaint, as others had mentioned previously, is having to switch powers. This was the first time I played a game where I thought having paddles on the back of a controller or some way to add extra inputs would've tremendously improved the experience. You only have access to 4 powers at a time when really it felt like we should've had access to 6 (I never took Levitation and Psi Blast off the triggers so for me it really felt like I only had 2 slots, though I guess that's my fault).

Actually, one more minor gripe is having to replay certain levels to get all the collectibles. This is standard fare in other genres but honestly just seemed tedious here for a level based platformer.

Aside from that though, can't recommend it enough, anyone who played the first game needs to play the second.
 
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makaveli60

Member
This game looks amazing but I wanted to play the first before playing this. I finally finished it, but fuck me if it wasn’t one of the most frustrating games I ever played. It had awesome ideas especially for a game from 2005 but the horrible controls sometimes tortured me. Is the second game better in this aspect? I guess yes, because I assume this comes from the first game’s age.
 

elliot5

Member
This game looks amazing but I wanted to play the first before playing this. I finally finished it, but fuck me if it wasn’t one of the most frustrating games I ever played. It had awesome ideas especially for a game from 2005 but the horrible controls sometimes tortured me. Is the second game better in this aspect? I guess yes, because I assume this comes from the first game’s age.
Yes the controls and abilities are much tighter than P1. Lot of similar moves but less jank. The character controller feels very good. There's also not a lot of potentially very frustrating platforming levels like the meat circus. It's a well balanced game. Not too difficult at all
 

makaveli60

Member
Yes the controls and abilities are much tighter than P1. Lot of similar moves but less jank. The character controller feels very good. There's also not a lot of potentially very frustrating platforming levels like the meat circus. It's a well balanced game. Not too difficult at all
Great to know that, looking forward to it again
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I started this yesterday and I think it’s starting off slow, but I watched a review that said it starts off slow, so I’m gonna keep going.

I think some of the organization of the game is confusing though. I find it hard to track all the the collectible and I don’t really know what is what yet. Also I had to stop playing abruptly a few times and I lost some progress. Disappointed in how saves work in this game.

Still expecting good things though.
 

Krathoon

Member
Windows does this annoying thing were it updates the game in the background and you can't open it. I don't like that. You should have to run the game and then it does the update.
 
Just finished this. Such creative levels with enough changes in the mechanics along the way to stop things from getting boring. Loved the bowling level in particular. They definitely deserve all the praise they get for this one, one of the better 3d platformers that I've played.

They've mentioned wanting to remake the original Xbox games, I'd completely support that if the end result was something like Psychonauts 2.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I'm not sure if anyone has been watching the new documentary series about Psychonauts 2's development, but it's really incredible. Filmed over 7 years, covering everything from the earliest stages of concept, through the final ship date. It's a really raw look at game development, and the clashing personalities and work styles, difficulties really finding the game, the disaster of losing their publisher... And best of all it shows the journeys of some of these people, and what drives some of them to quitting or burning out.

It's also really interesting to see the journey the game itself took, how close the game was to being really bad, and how many things they tried to get some of these ideas to work.

It's something like 25 hours, but it's really one of the best looks at behind the scenes game development ever.

 

Paperboy

Member
Late to the party, but what a masterpiece! The art style, the soundtrack, the level design etc. are just superior. It's like playing a children's book! From time to time you'll see these wild concept arts but the final games seldom look and feel anything like those. But the fusion between the concept and the end product must be near perfect in Psychonauts 2. An absolutely incredible and addictive experience.
However, I don't understand how some of you guys managed to finish it in just 15 hours. It took me over 21 hours and I collected far from everything (ended at level 54 or so). It was enjoyable all the way through, but I would be just as happy if it was a few hours shorter.
Found the first boss (the Casino one) to be most difficult, unlike many of you, probably because I wasn't as familiar with the powers at that point. Switching between the powers could've been smoother (especially since you're often basically forced to during the fights) and I agree with the complaint about the lack of audio and feedback during the brawling segments.
 

Krathoon

Member
Jesus Christ. It is $59.99 on gog. Definitely get the Steam version. That is bullshit.

I managed to get it on gog for $30 and ported my saves over from the Gamepass version. It kind of worked. It did not get my save right where it left off.
 

Krathoon

Member
I need to get back to playing the game. I need to refresh my memory on the controls. I was getting pretty close to the end. I was in the bee woman's brain.
 

Astray

Member
I'm pretty deep into the game right now, and I really like a lot of it. Will probably post more thoughts later when I finish it, but this is tracking towards an 8.5 or a 9.0.

The big reason it won't be a 10 is the combat and the weird way you are constantly driven to remap controls on the fly, I would rather just have a settled control scheme thank you very much.
 
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