Rating: 10/10. A goofy and occasionally dark 3D Metroidvania of exploring brains
First up, a content warning about the game (not this review):
I love the original Psychonauts, so I was jazzed for the sequel. I replayed Psychonauts just a few months ago and it's aged well. A solid platformer with some action combat and light RPG elements (A Metroidvania, I guess?) with a distinctive (and I think attractive) art style where you explore people's minds to save the world from a conspiracy. Tone is 95% goofy with some slightly goofily dark elements. Using minds are levels gives a lot of freedom for imaginative design and gameplay. There are three sets of collectibles scattered through the levels which help you level up, levels increasing your psychic powers. There is a bit of sexist stuff played for jokes that definitely didn't age well (the kid peeping on the girl's cabin was memorably iffy).
I haven't played Psychonauts: The Rhombus of Ruin as I lack a VR set. Someday...
So, Psychonauts 2: I finished the core game after about 30 hours and have spent 5 or so hours chasing the remaining collectibles. The style still looks good, although it took a bit to adapt to the cartoony character design appearing in crisp, high resolution. Gameplay continues to be great. There is a lot more variation in enemies to fight (and if I recall correctly, I was asked if I wanted a no/minimal combat game at the start). The platforming is the real core of the game and is fun, especially as your psychic powers expand your options. Combat is good; not great, but solid.
The plot is more nuanced. And I think the levels are, on the whole, better than the original. (I saw someone online say none of the P2 levels are as good as the original's "Milkman Conspiracy". Having replayed it recently, "The Milkman Conspiracy" is a good level, but not that good.) They're still highly imaginative, and they do a good job with not-terribly-subtle environmental storytelling.
One surprise is that it's still 95% goofy, but the remaining 5%... is dark. Kinda on the edge of what I'm comfortable with my little kids seeing. It's never graphic, but it's adult. The game relies on the very reasonable idea that people with psychic powers could seriously fuck up other people's minds or their lives. And since psychic powers in the game's universe are damn near magic... a psychic could easily engage in mass murder. If the game has a central theme, it's past sins returning. The protagonist copes with the mess the adults never cleaned up, and it's really bad mess.
I think it works, and it helps make the characters more three-dimensional. A number of the characters made incredibly bad choices in the backstory, but they're largely understandable. On more than one occasion I found myself wanting to yell, "CHARACTERNAME, why the hell did you think that was good idea?" while simultaneously understanding why they thought it was a good idea.
In a tribute to the writer, the late game plot twist generally surprised us. The intro sets up one of the problems: there is a mole in the Psychonauts. Relatively early on, my wife pegged who narrative structure said it had to be. (I had a slightly wider net, but there weren't a lot of options.) And when it was that person, it was satisfying if unsurprising. Then, the twist! It was exactly what I want from a twist: I had no idea it was coming, but once revealed, it was far more satisfying than what I expected. For me it was Knives Out levels of OMG.
The climax was a touch underwhelming. It logically followed, but a bit disappointing as some hints at a more nuanced ending were discarded. And the climax gameplay was just dull,but at least it was short.
Post game you’re free to wander around and get the remaining collectibles. In a nice touch, the other characters have moved to different locations and talk about what they plan to do next.
Overall, an absolutely great game. I could nitpick some details, but this is about as good as I can expect as game to be.