Psychonauts 2 - What We Know So Far

There's nothing quite like the memory of the summers you spent as a child. There's just something about the way the sun felt, the friends you made, the people whose psyches you freed of all baggage and self-delusion by decimating a city with a giant lungfish. Good times, indeed.

Ok, maybe that's just one particular child's summer. His name is Rasputin, the giant-headed boy whose adventures in psychic warfare one summer are the basis of one of the best platformers ever made. It's the game that catapulted Double Fine into the beloved critical darling it is today. 14 years, two console generations, and a whole lot of shenanigans involving Jack Black later, Raz is back, in a sequel that already feels like the magic of 2005 is still very much alive and well. It's been a rocky road getting here, but Psychonauts 2 is coming. We've got all the info to get everybody back to basic braining in no time.

The first genuine glimpse we got of Psychonauts 2 came after about three years of teasing, and it's a pretty wonderful one, showing that the same level of imagination, warped level design, and good humor from the first has definitely carried over here. Still, more than anything, it represents a shift. Rasputin's not in summer camp anymore, and while yes, it's all oohs and ahhs the first time you see a building shaped like a giant brain, it's the things running through that giant brain that Raz is going to have to be extra careful with.

There is also, however, a second trailer from around E3 2019, showing off some proper gameplay, and while it's another grand showcase of ingenious game design and humor, it's also a pretty strong reminder that there's a lot of squishy body part stuff in this series — the first game's New Game/Load screen has Raz walking on an actual giant brain, for cripe's sake — and the sequel's carrying on the tradition. Guaranteed, there's a German word for the creeping dread and disgust of living in a place made of giant teeth, and if there's not, somebody at Double Fine should get to name it.

For those who might need a quick primer, Psychonauts is the story of Raz, a young man raised by circus folk who discovers he has psychic powers. When his father forbids him to seek training, Raz runs away from home and ends up at Whispering Rock, a government-run training program for psychic children dressed up like a summer camp. He's caught immediately, of course, but noting Raz's power, the camp's quirky counselors — the actual Psychonauts, government agents using their psychic powers to protect the world — allow him to stay until his parents come pick him up. 

Along the way, Raz makes a few friends, makes a few enemies, and makes a few horrifying discoveries when he finds out one of the camp counselors, Coach Oleander, is working with a maniacal scientist, Dr. Loboto, to steal psychic childrens' brains for their own personal psychic death squad. By infiltrating their psyches, however, Raz is able to help Oleander and Loboto work through their respective daddy issues, and with an assist from his own dad — who, big surprise, has been psychic all along — and Truman Zanotto — head Psychonaut, and, gulp, his girlfriend Lili's dad — he earns his stripes as a full-fledged Psychonaut in the process.

Granted, we've only gotten a tiny look at Psychonauts 2's gameplay, but so far, the order of the day appears to be "stay the course, but at higher resolution." So, a lot of running, jumping, climbing, and no small amount of acrobatics. Raz is a circus kid after all. Of course, there's the psychic powers, and while we haven't seen much of that yet, it's a safe bet Double Fine wouldn't go messing with a set of gameplay mechanics so innately satisfying as summoning a giant psychic hand to smack enemies around with. Still, it's hard to remember, but one of the reasons the original Psychonauts was so lauded was because platformers at the time had become extremely safe collect-a-thons with fun protagonists but, ironically, no character. Things are a bit different now, in a post-Mario Odyssey world especially, but Psychonauts was no one trick lungfish.

The twists are where the first game really became something special. Besides the coolness of being able to burn things with his mind, the real genius is being able to invade someone's mind and traipse around levels built around the subject's personal mindset. Considering the sequel has you surrounded by some of the most powerful psychics in the world, expect to deal with some real messed up minds along the way.

Of course, there's also an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed. A big green-and-black elephant. Microsoft has been steadily arming itself to rebuild the Xbox brand after getting thoroughly smacked around by Sony and Nintendo this gen, and one of the ways in which they plan to win back hearts and minds is by buying studios, turning their traditionally weaksauce first party into an unstoppable juggernaut. One of the studios now living under Microsoft's wing is Double Fine. 

Where does that leave Psychonauts 2, especially given that one of the crowdfunding promises was that the game would be releasing on just about everything? Thankfully, the answer is, "Exactly where it was when they announced it." Double Fine has gone on record that despite the fact that Xbox Game Studios is ultimately publishing the game, it's still set to debut on every platform that was promised: Xbox, PS4, PC — and no, they're not going Epic exclusive, either — Mac, and Linux. Of course, it's now a different story for all their games going forward, but good of MS to give their new bride one last fling before locking them down forever.