Game deftly mixes humor and darkness
to the PlayStation 2 era, as if the camera is an antagonistic force rather than a helper. Combat is highly inventive, with Raz being able to use multiple psychic attacks to fight back against his enemies. When it works perfectly, it’s exhilarating to wield telekinesis, pyrokinesis and other tricks in a dance of brainpowered violence. But the enemy encounters are so few and lazily scripted that it’s hard to get used to mastering different battle styles.
The process of switching between powers (some of which are necessary to beat certain enemies) is also slow and awkward. The uneven difficulty of the first game is still a problem, too.
Worst of all, the game pads its run time with collectibles you have to revisit levels in order to collect. In a game like “Psychonauts 2,” where levels are extremely linear and change dramatically throughout your first run because of story prompts, going back into previously explored brains feels like having to clean a dirty room again after your mom said you didn’t do it right the first time.
Like its predecessor, “Psychonauts 2” is a slightly janky adventure game shoved into a platformer mold that gets by on its weirdness and charm. In that regard, the sequel exceeds the original, bringing a maturity to the material that is spellbinding. Its themes are complex, and the way it presents worlds, both real life and inner, is mesmerizing. Everything that made the first game a cult hit is still here, and what it lacks in triple-A polish (despite the triple-A price point), it makes up for in heart. Frustrating as it is at times, it’s also impossible to put down.