Review: PSYCHONAUTS 2 is Mind Warping Fun with a Great Story

At the end of August, Double Fine and Xbox Game Studios released Psychonauts 2. This was the highly anticipated sequel to the cult classic Psychonauts that was released on the original Xbox. Xbox Game Studios was kind enough to provide me with a code to play the game on my Xbox Series S and I just recently finished it and it’s a great game. You can play it on PC, PS4, and Xbox. It’s even included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate if you have that.

So, first things first, my experience with Psychonauts was all of about 15 minutes roughly a decade ago. I liked what I saw, but got really busy and wasn’t able to play much of it. That being said, the game does open up with a nice primer of information to help remind veterans and explain what happened in the first game to new fans. It’s not in great detail (for that, go play the first game), but it’s enough for you to not feel confused and lost. The story picks up seemingly immediately after the events of the first game and continues the narrative into a fantastic conclusion. There are a couple of things that I wish were addressed in more of an epilogue, but the story is very satisfying to play through. There are a lot of heavy themes such as loss and manipulation throughout as the game deals a lot with the mind, so be prepared for that.

I love the graphics for Psychonauts 2. Everything looks absolutely stunning, especially with the very weird and stylized art style. The sound design is on point as well with everything having a fitting sound and the music being incredible. The platforming in the game is really nice and feels good to play, The level designs are a lot of fun, too. Since so many of them occur in the minds of different people, each one reflects some aspect of the character, but it also will change as you progress. This creates a lot of variety in the level that is a lot of fun and helps make the game feel longer than it is.

Speaking of game length, Psychonauts 2 is not particularly long either. It’s not super short, but it only took me roughly 18 hours to complete and I mostly just did the main story. This feels like a decent length to me. If you’re looking for a 3D platformer that plays well, has an interesting story, fun characters, and isn’t a million hours long, you can’t do much better than Psychonauts 2.