Psychonauts 2 is a flood of joyous ideas.
PsychonautsPsychonauts 2 begins with the camera sweeping over the textured contours of a giant brain. The complex organ appears topographical at this scale — each curve is a hill in the mind’s landscape. The image reminded me of Sigmund Freud’s classic The Interpretation of Dreams. The cover photo showed a scene of rolling green hills. Was it a lady lying on her back, with her back to us? Or was it a bull resting on the gentle slopes? This is a metaphorical idea. I believe dreams and the unconscious mind, in general, are involved. It is not always as it seems, and sometimes one thing can be used to replace another.
Freud and his psychoanalytic methods have a complicated history. Sometimes, digging into people’s heads and trying to solve their problems can worsen things. Psychonauts 2 is well aware of this fact. Psychonauts 2 tackles a variety of psychological issues, including some more serious ones. It does so with great warmth and compassion.
You’ll be taken back to the beginning of the game and placed in the shoes of Dr Loboto, an ex-dentist. You and other Psychonauts members create an alternate reality for Loboto to manipulate him into revealing information. These are the beginning stages of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, where a group of spies work together to penetrate and defeat a mind’s defences.
Lobato’s mindscape consists of a gritty realm of body horror. The level is surrounded by pink, spongy walls and toothy doors that you must unzip using telekinesis. Monsters of the mind (Regrets and Doubts) will be your battle, while collectables such as “Emotional Baggage and “Repressed Memories”, which are hidden in secret corners and behind false walls and doors, can be found.
Memories provide a glimpse into the backstory of the person you are in. However, you can also collect many other collectables, such as the neon “Figments Of Imagination” that litter your landscape. All you have to do is increase your Psychonaut rank. Although I am not a completist, I found the enthusiasm of Psychonauts 2’s collectables to be very enjoyable. They constantly take you off the beaten path and into undiscovered places.
Psychonauts2 has an infectious energy. The cutscenes are as thrilling as Saturday morning cartoons, and the dialogue is sharp and funny in true Double Fine style. After a mission that took you to a large casino complex, Psychonauts 2 settles into an internal rhythm.
Most of the game is set around the Psychonauts Headquarters. The game is a large part of learning the history of the international psychic group. Six founders are broken women and men with dark secrets and trauma from a 20-year-old confrontation. The game involves helping these people open up and confronting the past.
It’s not that the Psychonauts physical world is dull. There’s a waterfall that flows up, a huge tree-top playground and a funicular. But it’s the 10 or so mental worlds you enter that are most unique and vivid.
Psychonaut2‘s levels have some of the most innovative platforming levels. You can carry your food through a huge platforming obstacle course in a cooking game show. You can also jump from one flying envelope to another while trying not to get caught in the vortex below. You’ll visit a highly imaginative, gravity-bending dreamscape after dreamscape.
Psychonauts2 is a solid platformer. You can also do satisfying jumps and summon a levitation balloon to ride on, much like a circus performer. You’ll find chunky sections that revolve around ball-rolling mechanics. It’s amazing how they have never been frustrating. It’s not Marble Madness or Monkey Ball, but it’s close.
The sequel introduces only a few new psychic abilities. You can use a time-stop ability to slow down spinning objects too fast and a projection power to make a paper model of yourself distract your enemies. These abilities can be used in creative ways. For example, you could use pyrokinesis to set a campfire alight to create an upward gust wind that combines with your levitation ability.
