Sixteen years ago Psychonauts it did not have the success it deserved. It was the first official release of Double Fine, the video game studio led by Tim Shafer after successes in Lucas Arts thanks to masterpieces such as The Secret of Monkey Island e Grim Fandango. He was visionary and ancient at the same time, firmly rooted in a genre, that of platform adventures, which already at the beginning of the 2000s was starting to be considered a legacy of the past. Double Fine’s parable represented a cultural defeat and a flattening of this industry. Over time, the irony of the dialogues, the brilliant scripts, the care for history and the construction of artistically original worlds have become increasingly rare elements. Unfortunately.
Psyconauts 2 (available for PC, Playstation, Xbox and in the Xbox Game Pass catalog) takes us back to those parts. It yields nothing to the spirit of the times. Indeed, it is a product of Tim Shafer in all respects, without compromise. It starts with a smile from the minute and ends the 20 hours of play without changing expression. The game is pleasant and generational, to be recommended to those looking for something new and to those who miss the dawn of the videogame.
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What we liked.
Psychonauts are a team of psychic spies, secret agents capable of using mental powers to resolve trauma, depression and personality disorders. They move inside the corrupted psyche of bizarre and improbable characters. There is the playful, the phobic, the crazy dentist. You will discover the secrets of the Psychonauts and the origins of the protagonist Razputin. But what we liked the most is that feeling of being inside a light and surprising, artistically inspired imagery that will never make you bored.
What we didn’t like
The clashes are all a bit the same and you don’t expect anything new on the gameplay front. Pshyconauts 2 he does not invent anything, he is a time machine for a generation that feels the lack of games written to entertain. We will navigate in the “head” of Tim Shafer who will reveal the background and anecdotes of a piece of the videogame industry that has crystallized over time and that perhaps will never return.
