Psychonauts 2
Double Fine Productions · 3D Platformer, Adventure
Overview
Combining quirky missions and mysterious conspiracies, Psychonauts 2 is a platform-adventure game with cinematic style and tons of customizable psychic powers.
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Razputin “Raz” Aquato, trained acrobat and powerful young psychic, has realized his lifelong dream of joining the international psychic espionage organization known as the Psychonauts! But these psychic super spies are in trouble. Their leader hasn't been the same since he was rescued from a kidnapping, and what's worse, there's a mole hiding in headquarters.
Combining quirky missions and mysterious conspiracies, Psychonauts 2 is a platform-adventure game with cinematic style and tons of customizable psychic powers. Psychonauts 2 serves up danger, excitement and laughs in equal measure as players guide Raz on a journey through the minds of friends and foes on a quest to defeat a murderous psychic villain.
Experience an imaginative, cinematic story that mixes humor and intrigue, brought to you by legendary game designer Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango, Brütal Legend, Broken Age).
Explore unique environments using Raz’s ability to dive into people’s brains to battle their inner demons, unlock hidden memories, and resolve their emotional baggage.
Leap acrobatically through the air, traversing tightropes and trapezes in a varied, challenging, and joyful platforming experience.
Wield a powerful array of psychic powers to blast, burn and levitate things, or even slow down time itself to solve environmental puzzles and battle strange enemies.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,960 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Steam rates Psychonauts 2 Overwhelmingly Positive, and 96.8% of these reviews recommend it. Players praise writing that mixes silly jokes with a sincere look at trauma, addiction and grief, and mind levels that turn each character's inner life into a place to explore: an office overgrown with teeth, a hospital that becomes a casino, a televised cooking contest, Jack Black's psychedelic concert. Fans who waited 16 years since the 2005 original mostly say the wait paid off, and they describe the sequel as smoother to control and more polished than that game.
Some longtime fans also think it plays it safer than the original, with gentler humour, more linear levels and fewer puzzles. The other complaints are specific: bugs and crashes (a few still reported years after launch), fiddly jumps and camera, swapping powers through four slots, a structure that has you gather three of everything, frequent cutscenes and hints, and the hunt for the last figments. Combat, the price and the new cast of interns split opinion.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Writing, humour and a story with heartHigh
The story widens out from the first game into the history of the Psychonauts and Raz's family, and reviewers like its twists and the side conversations worth hunting down; one notes that NPCs have extra lines you only hear after the main story. The returning voice cast gets credit, including Richard Horvitz as Raz, along with newcomers Jack Black and Elijah Wood, and one reviewer sums up the draw with "Also, Jack Black plays a brain in a jar." Another describes the tone as "Like if a PBS show got picked up by an SNL exec who's obsessed with his therapist." Not everyone laughs as much as they did at the first game, and the interns divide people; both points sit with the split themes below.
Mind levels full of inventionHigh
Reviewers describe minds built as metaphors for the people inside them: Loboto's office overgrown with teeth, Hollis's hospital that turns into a casino after Raz plants a bad idea, a cooking show with vomiting goat puppets, a germ city you bowl your way across, a library crossed on the pages of its books, a theme-park ride through a family history, and the PSI King's psychedelic concert, with Jack Black as a brain in a jar. One fan writes "Hollis' Hot Streak is insanely clever", and a few praise how smoothly the game moves between scenes and minds. Others reach for Pixar or Tim Burton comparisons, as in "It's like you're playing a Pixar movie. A good Pixar movie." Fans who prefer the first game's minds find these prettier but more linear, a point covered in the comparison below.
A sequel worth the 16-year waitMedium
Reviews that bring up the long wait for this sequel mostly say it paid off, some in the exact words "worth the 16 year wait", and most of them were written in 2021. Some come from players who backed the 2015 crowdfunding campaign. They list what improved: tighter controls with a wall jump and a dodge, powers that each have a use in combat and exploration, more enemy types, figments that are easier to spot, and a post-game that lets you return everywhere to finish collecting. As one puts it, "Everything the first game did poorly is done right this time." Game of the year picks come mostly from 2021 reviews as well.
A polished throwback to PS2-era platformersMedium
Some reviewers praise how polished and complete it felt at release, and others compare it with the collectathon platformers of the PS2 and N64 years, naming Ratchet & Clank, Jak and Daxter, Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro and Sly Cooper. A few point out that it shipped with no microtransactions or season pass, and one sums it up as "an actually finished game released in 2021 what da heck?" Another puts it as "Gameplay circa 2000-2005, but plenty enough polish to where it doesn't detract." A few call the same throwback design dated, and not every copy ran cleanly (see the bugs theme below).
A kind, careful take on mental healthMedium
Reviewers describe a game that handles alcoholism, panic attacks and grief with care while staying funny. They mention the content warning at the start, and one mentions the support page in the pause menu. Several single out how Doubts, Regrets and Panic Attacks become enemies you answer with the right power (a Panic Attack has to be slowed down before you can hit it). A few who live with anxiety, depression or other mental health struggles say the game helped them understand themselves, and a therapist praises its respect for consent, trauma and phobias. One reviewer calls it "an incredibly sad game pretending that it's not by wearing a silly hat". Some find the message heavy-handed, as in "Linear platformer and collectathon with a sappy and cliche story about overcoming mental health issues."
MusicMedium
Most music mentions are short praise. The ones that go into detail single out Peter McConnell's score, the remixes of themes from the first game, Jack Black's song in the PSI King's level and the Grulovia ride's song, which some can't get out of their heads and a few find grating. A couple note that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recorded the score, and a longtime fan writes "And Peter McConnell did a stupendous job as always". A few are lukewarm: "Music is kinda meh."
Accessibility optionsLow
Players who mention the assist settings (invincibility, no fall damage and an easier narrative combat mode) mostly welcome them, especially those who struggle with platformers or with motor control: "I also love that it has accessibility features like invincibility mode and narrative combat". A few colour-blind players miss a colour-blind filter, since figments can be hard to spot without one.
Runs well on Linux and Steam DeckLow
Steam Deck and Linux owners mostly report smooth play, through Proton or the native Linux build, down to a one-line review that reads "60fps on Steam Deck". The exceptions are small bugs and stutter on the native Linux build, heavy battery drain on the Deck, and an Intel Mac build that would not start, covered under PC extras below.
Where players are split
Measuring up to the first gameHigh
34.6% of the reviews bring up the original Psychonauts, and reviews saying the sequel beats or improves on it outnumber those saying it falls short several times over. The dissent comes mostly from longtime fans. They find the humour safer ("the humor here just feels so safe by comparison"), the minds closer to linear platforming runs with few of the first game's adventure-style puzzles ("Psychonauts 2 is a platformer pretending to be an adventure game."), and no level to match the first game's Milkman Conspiracy. A negative review puts it this way: "This is a sequel which equals or betters its predecessor in nearly every area, except the most important: charm." A fan who recommends it offers another angle: "It's not as good as the Psychonauts 1 you remember, but it is as good as Psychonauts 1 if you replayed it today." Newcomers say the opening recap was enough to follow the story, while others advise playing the first game, and the VR spin-off Rhombus of Ruin, beforehand, since the sequel picks up right where they end.
Price and lengthMedium
One camp says to wait for a sale ("Good but buy on sale.") or that $60, A$100 or €60 is too much for the hours on offer ("Should've been a $30 game"). The other insists it earns full price, in lines like "this is the best $60 I've ever spent". Reviewers who give a length mostly put the story at around 20 hours and everything at roughly 25 to 30. Some of the remarks about it being short come from people who completed everything and wanted more.
CombatMedium
Comments on the combat lean slightly positive. Fans like that each enemy type calls for a particular power and that the bosses are creative: "Panic Attacks are probably my favorite". Critics, most of whom still recommend the game, call it the weakest part: spammy fights against spongy enemies, little hit feedback, dodges that leave you exposed and constant trips to the power menu. "Combat is clunky and annoying." says one negative review, and a fan writes "My only complaints are that combat can still be a bit clunky with the lack of hitstun on enemies". A third: "The combat is satisfactory at best, and something of a mess."
The interns and a crowded castMedium
Reviewers who dislike Raz's fellow interns say they haze him early, mostly vanish until the finale, and never earn the friendship the ending gives them: "Sam is the only one with any kind of likable character." Sam Boole is the usual exception, and when reviewers compare the interns with the first game's campers, the campers usually come out ahead. Others wanted more time with Sasha, Milla and Lili, or felt the story introduced more people than it could develop: "there's a lot of new characters that don't really get much room to breathe". A few longtime fans also find Raz more of a pushover than he was in the first game.
DifficultyMedium
Reviewers who comment on the difficulty mostly call it too easy. They mention healing items they never needed, bosses that fall quickly and a final boss that asks little: "wish it had options to increase combat difficulty". Some try the Glass Cannon pin, which doubles the damage you deal and take, though one says the combat stayed forgiving even with it on. Others value how forgiving it is, with generous checkpoints, and a few found specific stretches hard going, such as the Monkey Ball-style rolling-ball sections on mouse and keyboard.
What frustrates players
Bugs, crashes and soft-locksMedium
Bugs, crashes or stutter come up in 11.5% of the negative reviews. Launch-period reports include a freeze when clicking items in the inventory or shop menus with a mouse ("Game freeze when using the mouse on inventory items."), shader stutter on PC, and progression blocks that early patches fixed; one reviewer switched to a positive review once their bug was resolved. Individual reviews from 2024 and 2025 still describe the Strike City ball-shiner soft-lock ("Ran into game breaking bug. Apparently this bug has been known for a year and nothing has been done."), LowLevelFatalError crashes ("There is no fix for the low level fatal error.") and a save that refused to load, and a 2026 review carries the headline "Still Has Multiple Game Breaking Bugs". Support gets some credit: one player stuck on a bug was sent a repaired save file, "which was really cool of them."
Fiddly jumps, camera and invisible wallsMedium
Platforming complaints describe jumps that are hard to judge, ledges and poles that do not catch, a camera that hides the landing spot, and invisible walls that block creative routes. "If you make a 3rd person 3D platformer you have to solve the DEPTH PERCEPTION problem" says one negative reviewer; a fan who recommends the game blames "invisible-wall-itis", where landing on a ledge the designers didn't intend sends you sliding off. The rail, trapeze and pole sections and the rolling-ball stretches come up by name.
Swapping powers through four slotsMedium
Only four powers fit on buttons at once, and Levitation usually takes one of them (one reviewer points out a setting that triggers it from the jump button instead), so busy late-game fights mean pausing to swap through a menu: "Limited slots for powers led to tons of quick pauses to slot new powers" and "kind of wished there was some way to hot-swap without using the selection wheel". Related gripes: cosmetic pins compete with useful ones for the three pin slots ("a separate slot for cosmetic pins would have been nice"), and the Levitation float now runs out after a moment, which longtime fans miss ("They more or less ruined the Levitation power.").
A repetitive structure and a rushed last actMedium
Several minds ask you to find three items or clear three areas before a boss, and bosses tend to take three rounds, which some players find tedious by the second half: "Everything you do in this game you'll be doing three times". The last stretch draws complaints about pacing, with minds arriving one after another, a theme-park ride built around story exposition, and a final boss that goes down easily: "The end feels very rushed" and, from a fan, "Aside from clear pacing issues in the endgame".
Cutscenes and constant hintsMedium
Complaints about cutscenes, chatter or hand-holding appear in 11.8% of the negative reviews. They describe a few steps of play between cutscenes, especially in the opening hours, and Raz or another character calling out a puzzle's solution before they have tried it. "IT TALKS TOO MUCH" writes one reviewer who still recommends it; others write "Raz will remind you every 20 seconds about what you should be doing" and "I like to PLAY the game not to WATCH IT." Cutscene complaints also became more common in later years' reviews (see the player conversation below).
Hunting the last figmentsMedium
Completionists complain about finding the last few figments or other collectibles in large minds: "Getting the last couple of figments in massive levels was a lesson in patience and practice in Where's Waldo." Most of these complaints were written in 2021. A November 2021 update added completion marks for each area and a post-game camera filter that helps spot figments, which players credit: "Before the Quality of Life patch, it was a great game, with the patch, it is amazing." Requests for a proper figment finder mostly predate that patch, though a few later reviews still find the camera filter clunky, and one player lost collectibles to a timed section: "I was a late on the time limit on Compton level and now the last baggage tag is locked forever."
No manual saves or New Game+Low
The game only autosaves ("No manual saves, only autosaves"), and finished minds keep their collectibles but not their bosses or story moments, so replaying those means a new save: "my only complaint is that i cant replay the story. or that there is no new game plus." At least one achievement can be missed for good early on.
PC extras, Mac and languagesLow
Requests for platform fixes and features include HDR, which the PC version lacks ("No HDR support on PC."), patches that re-download the whole game ("every update I have to download the whole game 30 GB"), controller rumble, which one 2021 review found missing, an Intel Mac build that would not start ("Did not run on Intel Mac despite stated compatibility.") and more languages, mostly Russian in 2021 reviews ("Great game, but PLEASE ADD RUSSIAN LANGUAGE").
Bright flashes, teeth and vomitLow
A few reviews warn about comfort. The PSI King's level and the bright-white loading transitions strain some players' eyes ("Although the PSI King Levels are a real strain on the eye."), and the teeth-filled opening level and the vomiting goat puppets in the cooking-show boss put off people with those phobias ("A quick warning for those who suffer from odontophobia or motion sickness, some of the content could put you off.").
3. The player conversation
Many reviews are short endorsements such as "Worth the wait" or "If you liked the first one, you'll love this one". Reviews written in 2021 lean on relief that the sequel exists at all, and most of the talk about the long wait, along with most game of the year picks, comes from that year.
Longtime fans of the 2005 game do most of the weighing up against the original, the Milkman Conspiracy and the first game's darker jokes. Completionists raise figments, missable achievements and the missing New Game+. Negative reviews from people who stopped within the first couple of hours give reasons that include the talky, cutscene-heavy opening, the controls, stutter and crashes, and a sense that the game feels dated.
The positive share of game-focused reviews slipped a little every year, from 98.3% of those written in 2021 to 93.5% of those written in 2026. Later reviews bring up the long wait far less often and complain more about pacing and challenge: cutscene complaints rose from 0.4% of reviews written in 2021 to 2.5% of those written in 2026, and too-easy remarks from 1.1% to 2.1%.
4. What the developers could do
- Fix the remaining soft-locks and crash errors. Bugs, crashes and stutter appear in 11.5% of negative reviews, and individual reviews from 2024 and 2025 still report the Strike City ball-shiner soft-lock, LowLevelFatalError crashes and a save that would not load.
- Trim cutscene interruptions and add an option to turn off spoken hints. Complaints about cutscenes, chatter and solutions being called out appear in 11.8% of negative reviews, and complaints about cutscenes alone became more common in later years.
- Make jumps easier to read, with clearer depth cues and consistent ledge grabs. Reviewers struggle to judge distances, catch ledges and poles, or get past invisible walls, and one asks the team to solve "the DEPTH PERCEPTION problem".
- Let players bind more powers or save power loadouts. Reviewers object to pausing mid-fight to swap powers through four slots, and some also ask for a separate slot for cosmetic pins.
- Give combat more feedback. Reviews that criticise the combat describe spongy enemies, little hit-stun and dodges that do not get them clear.
- Add a figment finder and make timed collectibles recoverable. Most last-figment complaints predate the November 2021 patch, but a few later reviews still find its camera filter clunky, and one player lost a collectible to the cooking show's timer for good.
- Offer a harder mode and a way to replay bosses or start a New Game+. Reviewers who find the game too easy ask for more challenge, and others want to replay bosses and story moments without starting over.
- Bring the PC version up to date with HDR, smaller patches, a working Intel Mac build and more languages. The reviews that raise these name each one specifically, with Russian the most requested language.
