Psychonauts 2

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JaySevenZero
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Psychonauts 2

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Psychonauts 2 for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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RadicalDog
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by RadicalDog »

Neither this or the first one did it for me, even though I'm a big fan of 3D platformers, and good writing in games. For my taste the humour was "I get it, that's clever" instead of ha ha funny. Sorry Tim!
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stvnorman
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by stvnorman »

I never did get off the fence about this, even now, months after finishing it! Unlike its predecessor, movement felt good in the main, but there were times where the camera went a bit old school and dampened my enthusiasm for the more complex platform areas. Apart from boss fights, combat was unnecessary filler. Cut scenes were often overly-long and overly-dramatic. But for all of this, the promise of the next bewilderingly ingenious, utterly spectacular set piece kept me going! The psychedelic sixties level in particular was just jaw-dropping, and that memory alone is making me think I probably enjoyed it on the whole after all!
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Girard
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by Girard »

I found the game Visually inventive, and constantly surprising. The art direction at this high fidelity feels like a Henry Selick film in video game form, which works a lot better than the visuals of the first game, which I found almost unbearably ugly.

The game is also more thoughtful about the responsibility of entering and manipulating a mind, the issues of consent attending that, and the ways that mental illness are presented in the game. That said, I'm not sure the game actually had much to say about those issues. And the resolution felt strange - acknowledging that all people have shameful or traumatic facets of themselves, but that they belong repressed into a memory hole feels both progressive and regressive at once?

Another weaker aspect of the game was that, for lack of a better term, it felt weirdly 'edited,' with different areas and moments feeling disconnected from each other, and the transitions between them often jarring.

While I didn't get much out of the game thematically, and the gameplay was often frustrating, it's undeniable that a lot more imagination went into the visuals, settings, concepts, and gameplay than is common for games of this scale. The narrative was satisfyingly twisty, and often surprising, though, again, I'm not sure it had much of anything to say.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by Jobobonobo »

The original Psychonauts was quite significant among the many 3D platformers that were abundant during the 6th generation of consoles. For one thing, the setting and level themes were incredibly original taking place in various characters’ minds with a wide range of gameplay styles. But what was most special about it was the genius way it integrated the story with all the elements in the game and how exploring the levels not only led to hidden collectables but also told you more about the psyche and personality of the character you inhabited. Story was always a tertiary concern for platformers up to this point so to play one where it was front and centre was a breath of fresh air and showed the genre could go far beyond rescue the princess. So I was always excited to try out a sequel to Psychonauts but thinking it was never going to happen because well, Tim Schafer does not really have the best of luck when it comes to commercial success and is not really known for his blockbuster franchises.

To see it finally happening when it was officially announced a few years back was a shock to say the least and it coming out 16 years after the original made me sceptical whether it could really capture what made the original so special. But I was also excited to try it out and so Cane and Rinse doing an episode on it this volume gave me the encouragement to put it at the front of my ever expanding backlog and give it a whirl. I am happy to say that within five minutes it had grabbed me completely and the intro level is one of the most memorable ways of introducing to you the mechanics of a game by trying to navigate the mind of a bizarre mad dentist. I felt exactly as I did with the original exploring the hub world, collecting every little knick-knack and making mental notes of those areas that I could not access yet that I could return to later when I was sufficiently powered up. The story was once again integrated with the main levels expertly and the creativity on display was staggering: Hospital casinos, winning cookery gameshows to please demanding handpuppets, exploring a large library by jumping between the pages of novels and my absolute favourite, helping someone figure out their identity by reuniting the senses for a big band reunion. While I enjoy the standard platform tropes of grass, lava and snow worlds when they are done well, seeing such unique level ideas like the ones in Psychonauts 2 really made me appreciate the incredible synergy between level design and narrative that Double Fine crafted here. One of my favourite things to do was chatting with the many bizarre characters and choose from a selection of equally strange dialogue options. All of this being complemented by brilliant voice acting and charming writing.

While there were certain platforming sections that were a bit troublesome to get through, nothing approached the frustration of the Meat Circus in the original game. In fact, my only real complaints were that the loading times were a little on the long side and that the frame rate could hiccup every now and then. But besides that, I really felt this was a more than worthy follow up to one of the most unorthodox 3D platformers out there and it honestly exceeded my expectations. If you want a fun world to play through with a diverse moveset, a compelling story with a weird cast of characters and originality galore then I absolutely recommend Psychonauts 2 and am more than happy that it finally got to be made after all these years.

TWR: Worth the wait
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sheeldz
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by sheeldz »

This should have been a slam dunk - a 3D platformer with inspired design and story is like catnip to me, but this just didn't land at all. In all fairness, I've never played the first game in the series, but I found the controls to be obtuse and difficult to get to grips with, and borderline unusable in many of the overlong combat sections.

The platforming concepts were very neat and clever, I'll give the game that - and the over all presentation blew my mind in many places, especially in the inventiveness of the enemies and the "baggage" collectables. That was all but drowned out by the controls during combat, which left me feeling quite underwhelmed and was my main barrier.

I found the management of the "attacks" and the "abilities" to be down right impossible to nail down even after hours of playing, and whilst I understood what I was being asked to do the game felt like it was doing everything in it's power to prevent me from just getting on with it. One battle, early on - and I mean early on, as it involves the entrance to a hospital - was a tangle of me fighting the camera and the controls to translate on screen what I was intending to achieve, whilst also figuring out how to batter each of the enemies - with what felt like little in the way of visual and auditory feedback as to which was actually doing anything.

I get that this is a me problem, for the most part, but also I feel that if a game that sits so expectantly in my sights such as an acclaimed 3D platformer and for the Trigger/Button layout to be such a high barrier - I replay Sonic Adventure regularly, so I'm up for shambolic controls and camera - this feels a little bit of a game issue, too.

I appreciated what was being presented to me, but it didn't click at all.
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ColinAlonso
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by ColinAlonso »

I'd stay away from the first game then sheeldz, the first game's controls/camera is definitely worse than this.

I'll only contribute this TWR: Needs more Sam!
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Hyperdeath84
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by Hyperdeath84 »

As with the first game, I like this game more as an idea than in practice. The thought of jumping into people’s minds and their personalities defining their mental landscape is such a cool idea, but actually playing through them is never quite as fun as it could be. The figments which litter every level are a novel idea in principle but in practice they clutter what could be more expressive levels with ugly 2D sprites that remind you that there’s lots of collecting to be done in a game that I think would be better off without it. This was slightly more forgivable in the original game due to the time of its release but adhering so strictly to that aesthetic and structure with this sequel hurts the visual design overall and stuffs the levels with unappealing collectathon aspects that I think detract from the idiosyncratic nature of each level. If each level is such a distinct and whacky expression of someone’s psyche then why are they all filled with the same visually unappealing collectibles?

It’s still a fun romp that dabbles with the moral consequences of jumping into and influencing other people’s minds but never really deals with it in a satisfying way. I had fun with it but I didn’t love it.

3 word review:
Too many figments
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MattL
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by MattL »

I've never played Psychonauts 2 and have only briefly tried 1, so I don't have much to add to this conversation as to specifics, but more of a general question for the rest of the forum. Does anyone else struggle to enjoy games like the Psychnoaut series that are marketed as being "funny?"

Whenever Tim Schafer's names comes up, people immediately talk about how funny his games are. I tried a few, but never got the humor, so I thought maybe Tim's sense of humor and my own were different, but I keep having this same experience. For example, the Borderlands series. Whenever the "funny" dialog starts, I can't wait for the obnoxious, unbelievable characters to shut up and let me get back to focusing on the gameplay. But at the same time, I have laughed at games before when they make jokes. For example, the Mass Effect series, which took itself fairly seriously, but had moments of levity that hit for me or the obscure visual gags of the Dark Souls series, like finding out the elevators of the rotten, collapsing Blight Town are powered by dogs running on treadmills. As I type this, I think the difference is I bought into the worlds of Mass Effect and Dark Souls as real places with real people and I had a reason for being there, whereas Psychonauts and Borderlands just scream to me "We're wacky! We're crazy! Look at us! Aren't we funny?!" and I'm immediately thrown out of the experience, kind of like the differences between Ghostbusters 1984 and Ghostbusters 2016.

Does anyone else struggle with comedic games? Does anyone else feel the medium of gaming and the genre of comedy not blend? Or are my expectations being set too high by marketing teams and super fans of certain creators?
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Alex79
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by Alex79 »

MattL wrote: July 8th, 2022, 4:31 pmDoes anyone else struggle with comedic games? Does anyone else feel the medium of gaming and the genre of comedy not blend? Or are my expectations being set too high by marketing teams and super fans of certain creators?
Yeah I didn't find what I played of Psychonauts 2 particularly funny, or indeed much of Tim Schafer's stuff. But I do think it's possible to have funny games - there were several times in South Park: The Stick Of Truth I laughed out loud, for example. But of course, comedy is highly subjective, and one man's Daniel Kitson might be another mans Jim Davidson.

(And for what it's worth, I'm not sure anyone thinks the Borderlands games are funny).
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markfm007
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Re: 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by markfm007 »

I know what you mean, video game comedy can be obnoxious. I didn't find Psychonauts too bad, but I wouldn't call the game hilarious, more just enjoyable and mildly amusing. Some games I would add that I find genuinely funny are the Portal games, Undertale and the Stanley Parable. And David Cage games, although I'm not sure he's doing it on purpose...

But overall I'd agree that I find the funniest games to be ones where the gameplay generates humour, or where the humour is a diversion rather than a constant thing. Even in my examples, I think those games do well to balance the jokes with other elements, and to not outstay their welcome, and they can still be a bit grating.
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Rhaegyr
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Re: Our next podcast recording (16.7.22) - 528: Psychonauts 2

Post by Rhaegyr »

I really enjoyed it - it felt very similar to the first game but tighter and more polished in just about every area. It didn't nail everything and combat is a bit scrappy but it's just so refreshing to see a AAA title (and a 3D platformer to boot) with this much imagination, humour and creativity.
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