Psychonauts 2

The upside of such a large cast is having more brains to probe – and some of them have multiple segments

We wonder if Tim Schafer has finally retired that Google Doc. Back in E349’s cover feature, he told us he’d been using it to collate notes ever since Psychonauts’ release: ideas that came to him over the intervening years, whether at random junctures or after meeting fascinating people who inspired him to imagine what their inner worlds might look like. Many ended up on note cards that were combined with others to form more solid concepts for the sequel’s brain spaces. By the time the credits have rolled, we’re convinced there can’t have been many left over.

Yes, Psychonauts 2’s cup runneth over with a giddy, go-for-broke energy. There is a palpable sense here of a developer seizing the unlikely opportunity it has been presented, and with the help of Microsoft’s money, going hog wild with it. This is, in every sense, a game that feels like it has been gestating in Schafer’s mind for that length of time. Occasionally that overburdens the story, not least in a lengthy recap that has to fill us in on both the events of the original and those of VR continuation Rhombus Of Ruin – a necessary evil, since the story picks up where that game left off. Even so, it could perhaps have been handled a little more elegantly.