The first few hours felt abrupt and overwhelming compared to the first Psychonauts, but the game reveals its greatness soon after. It's just that the tutorial level tries to continue the story from where the first game left off in a bit of a sudden way, without taking any time to reintroduce the characters. They also give you most of the PSI powers right from the start. That is a good thing for the rest of the game though, as it means you won't be retreading old ground. It also means the first game is still very much worth playing, as you won't know how Raz learned all those powers or how he got to where he is if you haven't played it. This is definitely one of those sequels that you can't fully appreciate unless you've played the first one.
Once the game stops drowning you in tutorial pop-ups (my advice: don't bother reading the explanations, just skip that and collect whatever shiny things you can find and you'll figure it out later), that's when things start to become really good.
Characters and Story
Psychonauts is a series full of creativity and charm, and a lot of that comes from the fact that you're exploring the minds of other characters. The worlds you explore are wildly imaginative specifically because the human subconscious is bonkers. As you explore these levels, you'll sort out that character's mental and emotional state, and learn something new about their past. The writing generally tries to be light-hearted, but even with how zany things can get, the tone is often grounded in reality. It might not seem this way, but there are a lot of important messages and life lessons in this game.
However, I will say this: there are also many times throughout the game when the writing feels way too random to be relatable, at least for me. It does eventually have a point, but there's so much screen time dedicated to characters or plot lines that aren't really that interesting or likeable, such as the grandma being the focus of the second half of the game. I would have liked more time with the new interns, maybe a bit more of the Questionable Area summer camp vibes, more outright funny levels like the hospital casino and the game show (my two favorite levels), more time with Sasha and Milla, more time with Raz's family, etc.
That said, this game is such a feast for the senses that even when it felt random or unrelatable, it was still fun to play and experience.
I love the interns and how they pick on Raz at first for being the new kid, they feel realistic. Some of the levels are truly amazing, though my favorite ones are mostly from the first half of the game. Still, I like that the game moves from idea to idea rather quickly and really takes you on a wild ride where you have no idea what to expect next. It's like being on an unpredictable rollercoaster ride.
I like when you can chat with characters and they give you dialogue options; it makes it feel more like a conversation rather than a cutscene, which is nice. Some of these conversations are fun, while some are more philosophical or emotional. These conversations flesh out the world, the characters and their stories in a way that feels convincing despite all the craziness.
Gameplay Pt. 1: Movement
Platforming and moving around feels nice and fluid, nothing wrong there. I always liked using the ball power to go faster and bounce around. I do think the main movement mechanics are a bit basic, though. There aren't really any advanced tricks you can do, despite all the powers at your disposal. You eventually unlock a dive, but it's a very static dive; you don't really gain any momentum from it. But that's alright, this game isn't Mario 64 / Sunshine or A Hat in Time, and triumphs in other ways: the exploration is more interesting, the story is better, it's more consistently funny, and the worlds are overflowing with creativity.
Gameplay Pt. 2: Combat
The combat is pretty hectic and fun, but... even I have to admit, it's kind of unrefined and it grows tiresome towards the second half of the game. You do have a lot of moves at your disposal to be stylish, for example you could grapple an enemy towards you, melee them, dodge away, get on your ball and shoot lasers at them while moving around, maybe catch a projectile with Telekinesis and throw it right back at them.
It's just, other than shooting lasers while moving around on your ball, these powers don't really mix together in a natural way. Melee attacks never feel good, I'll just say it. I wouldn't say the combat is bad, for a 3D platformer it's okay. But it's just not great. Also, some common enemies later on force you to switch PSI powers in a way that feels tacky. Bad Moods, especially.
Gameplay Pt. 3: Upgrades
There are two separate kinds of upgrades; there are Pins that you can buy, and spell points you get from ranking up, which you can use to upgrade PSI powers of your choice.
It's an okay system that feels rewarding early on, but it's also really limited. You can only equip 3 pins at a time, and because the combat eventually grows tiresome, you'll want to use damage buff pins to make fights end faster. So then, since there's not much room for customization, the system ends up feeling kinda forced. At least it doesn't hurt the pacing, because of the way the game is built; you'll always eventually return to the Motherlobe hub where you can buy new pins. Still, there's some missed potential here.
Maybe the pins could've been for cosmetics only, with no limits to how many you can equip at once. And then maybe instead of having pins that improve your combat spells, they could have just.. made the combat more fun to begin with.
I think the cooldowns on PSI powers are too slow. It's probably meant to force you to use melee attacks, but those never feel good to use because of their rigid animations. The combat just isn't very satisfying, and an upgrade system doesn't solve that.
Also, some of the upgrades, like the Mental Connection one that allows you to connect to dark thoughts, or the one that allows you to do a charged jump on your ball, feel like abilities that should've been tied to story progression and unlocked naturally (instead of through an upgrade system), since they allow you to get to places you couldn't before. It's not a big deal, but it's kinda strange.
Music
The music is... I want to say it's good, but truthfully, it's a bit of a mixed bag. There are some really great tracks in there, but then, some other levels have annoying or forgettable music. One of the first tracks after the game really starts (when Raz gets locked into storage) sounded like a callback to the Whispering Rock psychic summer camp music from the first game, which was a nice touch. There's great vibes in the overworld, and the diegetic music (coming from an in-game radio / jukebox) actually sounds good and fits the location and context it plays in really well.
Visuals
Graphically, this is a surprisingly beautiful game. The animation in cutscenes actually feels like watching a big budget 3D animation movie a lot of the time, and the overall look of the game is nice, it has great lighting as well. The faces looked a bit uncanny to me at first, but I got used to the new graphics and it became normal. The graphical jump from the first game is really nice to see, I like all the details everywhere.
Conclusion
This game is insane. It is a trip. It's hard to describe just how crazy of a trip this game is. It has so many different varieties of vibes and visuals, it's impossible not to be impressed by the sheer creativity on display here. You kinda have to play it to get what I mean. I recommend both Psychonauts games because you really don't see games like these very often.