A few critiques of Psychonauts 2(Major Spoilers)

[Sea Prince Gillywix]

So first of all. I want to say that is an absolutely amazing game. It deserves all the praise it has got and I have almost entirely good things to say about it. I think about rare and how they said they would not make Banjo Kazooie 3 because they don't think there is demand for platformers anymore. This game absolutely proves that wrong. There is a demand for good 3D platformers. I only have a few critiques about the game. Not meant to trash the game in any way, but suggestions to keep in mind if ever doing Psychonauts 3. As follows:

1. Figments are especially hard to find in PSI Kings Sensorium.

PSI Kings Sensorium is easily one of the best levels in the game, but because of the colorful nature of level figments blend in easy. My suggestion for this would be in levels like this make the figments bigger and so that they don't match the same color of their background. I am also aware that you can use Otto's camera filter to better find figments, but you don't get that till you beat the game and at that point there isn't much need for the remaining powers.

2. The idea that Gristol Malik could infiltrate the Psychonauts to be a bit hard to believe.

Gristol Malik doesn't have any psychic powers and he is in an organization where people could enter people's minds to find out who the mole is. Now it could be argued the security and company rules is why this wasn't done. However another thing is that Gristol despite being a very selfish and elitist person was willing to work as a lowly mailman for a long time just to infiltrate the Psychonauts. My suggestion would providing some more indicators or clues that he could be capable or willing to do this, but its not that big of deal. The story is still incredible and well written. Just something to keep in mind.

3. Limitless is basically useless once you get it.

You cannot get limitless until you have done literally everything in the game. The only use I could see it having is if you want to return to some old levels and just steamroll enemies for fun. My suggestion would be to do either one of the following.

1. It cuts all cooldowns in half and you can get it at level 60 or 70.

2. You get it at level 50, but you can invest more points into it so it gradually reduces cooldowns till level 102 were cooldowns are completely eliminated.

4. Cosmetic items should not count towards badge slots.

Since cosmetic stuff has no effect on game balance, cosmetic stuff I think should just be able to be equipped and unequipped.

5. Higher poly model option settings.

For some models you can see the polygons. This is especially noticeable in cutscenes. Of course this could increase file size. So what I would suggest is an downloadable addon on the store page that has higher poly models people can optionally download and work in the game.

6. Nona's mind was an unfortunately short length.

When I get to the part that was this world of quilt and fabric, I absolutely loved that part. However I think that her mind should have had the expansiveness of levels like Hollis Hotstreak and Psi Kings Sensorium. That fabric world has such an amazing design.

7. Dark thoughts had potential to be interesting lore devices.

In the game you can eventually learn to grapple with dark thoughts. However you can't learn much about these dark thoughts are. No obviously you don't want to make something too dark or something inappropriate for T rated game, but there could be some interesting ways to make this work if we could jump to dark thoughts that had things to say. Which speaking of..

8. Mental Connection after Hollis Forscythe's level could have been a mental jump.

In Hollis's levels you have the ability to enter thought bubbles and see thoughts. This can be an interesting lore device. After this you don't see these thought bubbles again. I am aware this is because Raz learns not to make mental connections so as not to mess up people's minds. Which is perfectly valid. However what if he was just jumping to different thoughts and not connecting them? This also could have been used in conjunction with dark thoughts for some more interesting storytelling devices.

9. The ability to replay bosses and add combat/platforming challenges.

I realize it may not be the most lore friendly thing, but some bosses were pretty fun. I also think having an area you can just go into an area and fight a bunch of enemies of varying degrees of difficulty with maybe some challenges and achieves could have been a pretty fun option. You could also add special platforming challenges.

Overall I still consider this game to be an S tier platforming experience. These are just a few suggestions that I think could have made it even better. Feel free to share thoughts and opinions.

[tripbillie]

Originally posted by Sea Prince Gillywix:

3. Limitless is basically useless once you get it.

Agreed.

After the game initally released, Double Fine added a post-game psychoseismometer (one of those things you go into on a side quest for one of the other interns) that you can re-enter as much as you want to go put the smack down on enemies. It's located in Otto's lab if I remember correctly, but it's not something that has been that interesting to me. That might count as that combat challenge that you were looking for.

[Sea Prince Gillywix]

Originally posted by tripbillie:

Originally posted by Sea Prince Gillywix:

3. Limitless is basically useless once you get it.

Agreed.

After the game initally released, Double Fine added a post-game psychoseismometer (one of those things you go into on a side quest for one of the other interns) that you can re-enter as much as you want to go put the smack down on enemies. It's located in Otto's lab if I remember correctly, but it's not something that has been that interesting to me. That might count as that combat challenge that you were looking for.

The issue with those things is that once you do them, then you cannot do them again and there is only just a few. But yea. Limitless is kinda like what getting Ho-oh in Pokemon Colosseum is like. On its own it may be powerful, but since you can only get it once beating literally everything in the game at most its only use is to play around with a bit.

[Sea Prince Gillywix]

Another critique to add. I think the archetype ability is received too late in the game to really get some good mileage out of it. I think it would have been nice if we could have got it earlier, but then later received special upgrades for it. At the point its obtained there is maybe only 3-4 levels left in the game and you can't go back to the main area till defeating Maligula.

[E-Commerce Meatualization Inc]

I also loved this game but it was way too easy imo. In a hypothetical future where psychonauts 3 exists, i'd love for it to be challenging.

[Sea Prince Gillywix]

Originally posted by Bean Bag Chairist:

I also loved this game but it was way too easy imo. In a hypothetical future where psychonauts 3 exists, i'd love for it to be challenging.

Oh yea. Thats another thing. Some people have also said that the hints shouldn't be automatic. However for me the biggest contributor to this game being easy is the psi pops, dream pluffs and half a minds. However all of this is at least in ones control. This game can be made much harder by avoiding that stuff.