What an absolute delight this is - the visuals, the music, the story, the characters all very strong, but where Psychonauts 2 triumphs are the fantastic ideas that have gone into every single level. There's plenty of variety with the gameplay for it to hold up, but in terms of level design and imagination, this is off the scale. A simple premise - Psychonauts are able to enter other people's mind and fix things therein. The story surrounding this is lovely, very sweet in places with emotional punches balanced well with daft, irreverent humour
Gameplay-wise, I think it's fair to say that Psychonauts 2 isn't wholly original. It uses a raft of tried and trusted platform tropes across roughly 15 hours of gameplay before you reach the end credits. I've read some criticism of the game in this regard - it's not original. My take on this is that it works - so I have no problem with platforming sections seen umpteen times before. If it works well, no problem. The vast majority of this does just that, with a slight criticism being the clunky combat and the rather frustrating manual button mapping when it comes to equipping special powers. The good thing is that these special powers are again varied and fun to use, but having to switch between them can at times frustrate, especially during intense combat sections. That clunky combat is by no means a game breaker, but it's very basic and dumbed down which is something I didn't find in any other aspect of the whole game.
Back to those level designs - a hell of a lot of love and thought has gone into crafting the world of Psychonauts 2. From the central 'lobe' hub, to the exquisite themes found in every level (or 'mind'). The psychedelic music level is very reminiscent of Yellow Submarine, with other themes such as books, gardening, gambling, cooking giving an ingenious mixture of ideas - think of the mind of Norton Juster and Roald Dahl turned into 3D platforming levels and you're pretty much there.
I loved every moment of my time playing Psychonauts 2. As with the majority of story based games, there are plenty of things to go back and collect after the credits have rolled - I want to mop up a couple of achievements I'm close to getting, as well as trying some of the side quests.
This is a definite GOTY candidate. I'd be very surprised to see it pushed out of my top 3, and that's before I've played It Takes Two, Halo Infinite or FH5. All these big releases will have a lot of work to do to impress and delight me as much as this has. This isn't just a 'perfect Game Pass title' - it's a superb game regardless of the fact it's part of my GP subscription. The fact it's on there makes this an absolute no brainer - stick with it as the first hour or so were the least enjoyable because once it's opened up a bit and that imagination and level design are allowed to flourish, it's a wonderful gaming experience
Gameplay-wise, I think it's fair to say that Psychonauts 2 isn't wholly original. It uses a raft of tried and trusted platform tropes across roughly 15 hours of gameplay before you reach the end credits. I've read some criticism of the game in this regard - it's not original. My take on this is that it works - so I have no problem with platforming sections seen umpteen times before. If it works well, no problem. The vast majority of this does just that, with a slight criticism being the clunky combat and the rather frustrating manual button mapping when it comes to equipping special powers. The good thing is that these special powers are again varied and fun to use, but having to switch between them can at times frustrate, especially during intense combat sections. That clunky combat is by no means a game breaker, but it's very basic and dumbed down which is something I didn't find in any other aspect of the whole game.
Back to those level designs - a hell of a lot of love and thought has gone into crafting the world of Psychonauts 2. From the central 'lobe' hub, to the exquisite themes found in every level (or 'mind'). The psychedelic music level is very reminiscent of Yellow Submarine, with other themes such as books, gardening, gambling, cooking giving an ingenious mixture of ideas - think of the mind of Norton Juster and Roald Dahl turned into 3D platforming levels and you're pretty much there.
I loved every moment of my time playing Psychonauts 2. As with the majority of story based games, there are plenty of things to go back and collect after the credits have rolled - I want to mop up a couple of achievements I'm close to getting, as well as trying some of the side quests.
This is a definite GOTY candidate. I'd be very surprised to see it pushed out of my top 3, and that's before I've played It Takes Two, Halo Infinite or FH5. All these big releases will have a lot of work to do to impress and delight me as much as this has. This isn't just a 'perfect Game Pass title' - it's a superb game regardless of the fact it's part of my GP subscription. The fact it's on there makes this an absolute no brainer - stick with it as the first hour or so were the least enjoyable because once it's opened up a bit and that imagination and level design are allowed to flourish, it's a wonderful gaming experience