(Also available on PS4)
Another game I thought I'd check out through Xbox Gamepass. I felt short on cash, so the subscription was the perfect excuse to give the newly released sequel to the hidden gem Psychonauts a try. The game takes place right after the vr game and you're dropped into the mind of the antagonist of the last couple of games, who's revealed to be nothing more than a pawn in a conspiracy. After that, you're tasked with finding out who is behind the events of the last two games while proving your place as a Psychonaut. As entertaining as the writing is, I can feel similar story beats taken from the first one. Also, some characters are all over the place. Either they're charming in design or too ugly for their own good, even for Tim Burton standards. Or they're as memorable as Boyd Cooper the Milkman conspiracy theorist or just some stock character. So far the sequel holds up to the first game and succeeds. A lot of the collectables are back and more are added, either to the game's benefit or detriment. I say detriment though because I'm worried it's just the game's way of padding, even if all the ones I found are optional and don't progress the game in any way. Despite that, I still enjoy finding the figments, bag tags and vaults. Combat has been finetuned to allow Raz to maneuver more efficiently and put more emphasis on such. Despite being more loose, the devs decided it was a good idea to add falling damage when the last game did not. Might be fair since they removed the lives feature, along with adding other things to make the game easier. Continuing the whole comparing the sequel to predecessor, the graphics and animation are astounding! The first game had its charm, but the scenery is jawdropping and as loopy as the first game and the animation is even more zany. I love it! It's not everyday you play a modern game with a triple a budget that has the fluidity of a Looney Tunes cartoon. So far, as someone who got on the hypetrain late, I'm glad this game exists and will be playing more soon.
One complaint I have though that's beyond the devs control is that with all these indie games getting physical releases, this self funded triple a game didn't (unless you backed it on the Fig campaign.) I mean, it has Microsoft as its publisher for crying out loud. Oh wait, after the crap they pulled with Gears 5 and Cuphead, that explains a lot. Oh well, once I get the money, I'll probably buy it on Steam or at least the soundtrack.