Psychonauts 2

Psychonauts 2 came out sixteen years after the original, and it's almost startling how naturally it picks up the thread. Raz Aquato finally arrives at the headquarters of the secret psychic-agent organization, only to find, instead of a celebrated welcome, an internship, cleaning duty, and a conspiracy reaching deep into the founders' past. The core remains a platformer built around exploration and collecting, but the real attraction is the levels set inside human minds — each with its own visual language derived from what that particular person suffers from or is trying to suppress. The game loosely continues on from a short episode released between the two main entries, though newcomers won't miss anything essential.

Gameplay combines platforming movement with an arsenal of psychic abilities: telekinesis, pyrokinesis, time slow, a ball form for quick movement, or a mental link that pulls Raz along a thread of thought. The abilities can be chained together, and the game uses them both in combat and in puzzles. What matters most, though, is the tone — the story deals seriously and sensitively with anxiety, addiction, and trauma, while never ceasing to be funny and playful, a combination few games manage. The game is also unusually accommodating — it offers optional simplification of both combat and platforming sections, so it's reachable even for someone mainly interested in the story.

Visually it's one of the most imaginative games of its time; every world has its own palette and its own logic, from a cooking competition to a hospital environment assembled from fragments of memory. The music shifts just as much as the worlds do and, at key moments, brilliantly underscores the emotion. Reception was excellent; the game collected awards and is often mentioned among the best releases of its year. Today it can be recommended even to people who never played the first game — the story is sufficiently explained, and the craftsmanship is generations ahead of its predecessor. The voice acting is top-notch, and the dialogue often changes depending on who happens to be in your team.