When you think of the original Psychonauts, what comes to mind? The wacky characters? The bonkers story? For many, the 2005 title is so beloved because of its use of colorful and distinct brain levels to keep the world feeling fresh and interesting. Everything we’ve seen thus far of Psychonauts 2 paints a familiar picture for fans of the franchise, with developer Double Fine putting Raz smack-dab into some of the wildest minds we’ve seen yet. Here’s an exclusive look at one of the new levels fans will be playing through when we finally get our hands on the game later this year!
In Psychonauts 2, Raz enters the mind of Hollis Forsythe, second-in-command of the Psychonauts, to fix a mistake he created in his professor’s mind. The psychic organization is starting to go bankrupt and Forsythe believes gambling could be the way to save them all after Raz inadvertently uses his Mental Connection ability to connect the two ideas.
But when Raz enters the psychic portal to Hollis’ mind, he finds there’s more going on in here than the spinning of a few roulette wheels. Hollis has connected the casino theme with the past trauma of her days working at a hospital and there’s a lot of damage Raz needs to work his way through. In a first for the series, Raz will explore Hollis’ brain in a 2.5D section as he relives the days when Hollis’ hospital superior stole her life’s work and claimed it for his own.
The hospital meets high roller theme isn’t only reserved to the storytelling, though. As you traverse Forsythe’s cranium, players will observe skeletons walking the casino floors, medically-themed artwork hanging from the walls, and more.
But what’s a good casino without games to play, right? In a bizarre morgue mini-hub world, Raz will have his choice on where he’ll want to explore. Today we’re going into the Pharmacy section to play Pillinko to get one step further towards saving his teacher’s mind. In this pachinko-inspired mini-game, Raz’s goal is to ride the pill down into the stomach to win the cash prize. But as you can see, his way is blocked off and he’ll have to further traverse the casino-meets-hospital if he wants to prevail over his mistakes.
To do that though, Raz will need to use the power that got him into this mess to escape this neon-soaked nightmare. Using the new psi-power Mental Connection, Raz will be able to partake in the parlous platforming found deep within Hollis’ mind. Zipping from platform to platform by connecting new ideas and nodes allows our hero to fly above the play space and hopefully do enough to get the Psychonauts’ second-in-command back on track.
If you enjoyed this look at Psychonauts 2, be sure to click the content hub below where we have tons of amazing content featuring Raz and the good devs at Double Fine!
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