PSYCHONAUTS 2 NEW GAME PLUS SERIES
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Special abilities are a lot easier to switch between with a touch of the D-pad, and running and jumping feels so much more responsive. Sure, you can occasionally get stuck on some objects or face some minor judders, but there has been a vast improvement in the moment to moment gameplay. If the original Psychonauts had a number of issues with sloppy controls and overly-exacting jumps, here those are a thing of the past. Railslide through the treetops to hunt hidden collectibles. Psychonauts 2 is inventively bonkers, and beaming with happiness as it throws anything and everything at you. Another strong entry sees you taking part in a cooking game show with an audience of anthropomorphic ingredients volunteering to be sauteed, with a judging panel of sniffy glove puppets.

This elevated world adopts a super-saturated, cel-shaded art style which is unique to this setting, further accentuating the trippy experience. A personal highlight is a psychedelic level overlaying new-age spiritualism on a 60s music festival, as you activate rainbow bridges and jump across slow-motion fish swimming through the air. Some worlds have clearly had a touch more TLC in their creation than others, but when they’re good they are very good. Psychonauts 2 thrives on this constant switch-up, as you’ll rarely spend more than an hour in any single mental world, constantly jolting Raz into a new situation before the previous level can run out of steam. Each brain you dive into has its own set of rules to crack, and individual perils to avoid. Varied and dizzyingly imaginative at times, these settings careen from grotesque, toothy, flesh-scapes to idyllic tropical paradises. New areas are opened as you progress and level up, making it a nice, neutral place to return back to - but the meat of the game is found once you dive into a character’s mind to help them overcome their inner demons.

PSYCHONAUTS 2 NEW GAME PLUS FREE

Starting in ‘The Motherlobe’, the Psychonauts’ base of operations, this hub-like open world gives you free rein for exploration in between story missions.

PSYCHONAUTS 2 NEW GAME PLUS ZIP

This adds some needed zip to Raz’s mid-level combat encounters, and more importantly invites engagement rather than simply being able to spam punches and mind bullets until the last onscreen baddie has given up. New enemy types and mini-bosses are eventually introduced as well, and even if the basic combat isn’t super satisfying, it does require some planning and the correct powers to be equipped to take down different enemies in turn. Psychonauts 2 is primarily a platform game, so these powers are chiefly used to activate switches and bypass obstacles in your way whilst repetitive combat areas do return from the previous game, these seem to have a lesser weighting for the first half of the experience (outside of some colourful boss fights). Over time Raz will increase his arsenal with new powers not seen in previous games, such as slowing time or creating a 2D projection of himself which can follow basic instructions. Raz starts the game with a good number of mental abilities up his sleeve, being able to set fires, shoot mind blasts, or grab and throw objects with an astrally projected hand. You play as Rasputin ‘Raz’ Aquato, newly graduated from psychic summer camp, and now enrolled into an intern program for the titular Psychonauts - a globe-trotting group of psychic superspies. ‍ ‍ Psychonauts 2 picks up just a few days after the events of the first game, but a handy recap is there to catch you up on the main plot beats. Some truly gross excavations of teeth and gums await. But I’m very glad that Tim Schafer’s sequel has been kept alive by groundswell and finally made it out of development hell - and in doing so has managed to improve almost every aspect of the first game, ironing out a lot of the kinks found in the original Psychonauts. The fifteen-year gap between core Psychonauts games (ignoring 2017’s stop-gap VR adventure Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin a satisfying but short amuse-bouche to warm audiences up to Double Fine’s extra-sensory world once more) feels pretty unheard of for a title without the same popular appeal. In the last few years there’s been a number of efforts to revitalise older games (with mixed success) such as Streets of Rage 4 or Battletoads, each of which had almost thirty years between instalments.

PSYCHONAUTS 2 NEW GAME PLUS SERIES

Developers have to capitalise on popularity if they’re set on turning a game into a larger franchise, and sequels are often greenlit by the time a title has gone gold - but equally, for commercially underperforming ones, a potential series can just as suddenly be canned in favour of a new IP. The world moves quickly nowadays, and the video game industry is no exception.

Psychonauts 2 new game plus