a traditional point and click game in vr is an interesting concept to be sure, but in execution, well it makes the entire experience an extreme pain. despite being such a short game, it took me more days to beat than the first game did, because i just had to stop playing it after 20 minutes or so. i don't normally get vr headaches, but this game does absolutely everything to make sure you will, but constantly having these bright animated filters right up in your eyes, and fading to white everytime you go into someones mind (which is how you move around, so it happens a LOT), and when you first get to the final level, i swear the colors are a fucking virtual boy reference, and it hurts. but the headaches are far from the only problem in this game, see despite being so short, it has this annoying formula
it puts you in a moderately sized area filled with "people" for you to mind hop to, in that area you basically have to solve puzzles and pixel hunt. and while it wouldnt be too bad if this were just your average first person point and click game, it gets painful with every aforementioned thing the game does to give you a headache or eyestrain, and since your face is basically your mouse, having to constantly adjust yourself on top of all that makes it even worse. it makes solving puzzles a nightmare, and while most the time the puzzles arent too bad, just go inside the person, and do something simple, sometimes you'll need to actively pixel hunt for a clue, like a code or something. and given that most vr headsets dont have the best resolution... yeah...
but after you get done with one area, the way the game gets you to another area is by fish. doesn't sound too bad, right? hop into a fish and have it swim to the next level for you, right? wrong, you hop into a fish, wait for another fish to swim on screen, wait for it to stop, hop into it, repeat for 5 minutes until youre in the next level. that is the only way you go from level to level. the only time you don't do that is for the final level when raz snaps back into his own mind.
it's a miserable experience from start to finish, the only thing saving it is maybe the writing, or at least the area after you beat the only boss in the game (which was just repetitive btw).
watch a playthrough of it, never play it for yourself. its not worth it.
alternatively you can just skip this and get right into psychonauts 2
it puts you in a moderately sized area filled with "people" for you to mind hop to, in that area you basically have to solve puzzles and pixel hunt. and while it wouldnt be too bad if this were just your average first person point and click game, it gets painful with every aforementioned thing the game does to give you a headache or eyestrain, and since your face is basically your mouse, having to constantly adjust yourself on top of all that makes it even worse. it makes solving puzzles a nightmare, and while most the time the puzzles arent too bad, just go inside the person, and do something simple, sometimes you'll need to actively pixel hunt for a clue, like a code or something. and given that most vr headsets dont have the best resolution... yeah...
but after you get done with one area, the way the game gets you to another area is by fish. doesn't sound too bad, right? hop into a fish and have it swim to the next level for you, right? wrong, you hop into a fish, wait for another fish to swim on screen, wait for it to stop, hop into it, repeat for 5 minutes until youre in the next level. that is the only way you go from level to level. the only time you don't do that is for the final level when raz snaps back into his own mind.
it's a miserable experience from start to finish, the only thing saving it is maybe the writing, or at least the area after you beat the only boss in the game (which was just repetitive btw).
watch a playthrough of it, never play it for yourself. its not worth it.
alternatively you can just skip this and get right into psychonauts 2