Loboto is a dentist, and his mind is filled with gums, teeth, and all manner of dental detritus that'll have dentistphobes cringing. As telepaths, you can explore the minds of targets to gain intel, creating dream-like worlds of seemingly incoherent visual metaphors and grotesque imaginings. Therein lies the core function of the Psychonauts, after all. At the same time, Double Fine makes an effort to bring newbies up to speed, with an in-game summary of the previous entry, as well as a history terminal exploring the lore and backstory of the universe.įrom the outset, you're exploring the inner workings of Dr. Indeed, Psychonauts 2 began life as a crowd-funded project, and Double Fine spares no expense catering to those who backed the studio all these years. The game tosses you in right at the end of the first game, in a clear love letter to fans. Psychonauts 2's structure is almost dizzying for those unfamiliar with the original. Marrying the story with the dreamscapes of its world is absolutely critical to avoid coming off as random for the sake of it, and Double Fine delivers in a big, big way. Even the most absurdist LSD-inspired visions have a purpose in Psychonauts 2, as you learn more about the psyche of the characters that conjured them. Indeed, Double Fine is a comparatively smaller team, but for Psychonauts 2, that intimacy seems to have created cohesion between the narrative and world design that bigger studios often seem to struggle with. Simply put, Psychonauts 2's script feels like the result of a massive Disney-Pixar budget. Source: Windows Central / Psychonauts 2 (Image credit: Source: Windows Central / Psychonauts 2) Every line I experienced felt meticulously crafted, paying careful attention to each individual character's direction, with a side order of genuinely hilarious humor and double entendre. Every NPC has something unique to say, often with deeper dialogue trees with even lore and information.

I'd expected a pure platformer with collectibles for some reason, but Psychonauts 2 lays on character development and world-building with relentless density. Imagine if Inception was a Saturday morning kid's show, it might look a little something like Psychonauts 2. The setting itself is a stroke of genius, giving Double Fine the opportunity to fully explore the limits of absurdity in combinations few games have been able to tread. Imagine if Inception was a Saturday morning kid's show, it might look a little something like Psychonauts 2.Īs someone who didn't play the original and isn't too familiar with Double Fine's history, Psychonauts 2 is one of the few recent games that I can claim has shown me things I truly haven't seen before.

Psychonauts game