You know, it must be rather intimidating to be the sort of person praised as an auteur for your string of numerous cult classics. (These are the sorts of things I suppose about, lacking any creativity or talent of my own.) These are the shoes that Tim Schafer finds himself in everytime he sits down to work on a project, and I can't help but wonder if that level of pressure ever gets to him. What I mean is, a great many creative folk that I've met are driven by their desire to perpetually improve and thus are bolstered by a figure who appears to be more successful, talented, driven.etc. than them. When you reach the sorts of pedestals that folk like Tim reach there has to be a degree of loss as you realise your competing against yourself, and that can really sink or float a lot of people. Then again, maybe Tim is just driven by the desire to, for once, receive the commercial success everyone seems to think he's been due all these years. (Seriously, him and Double Fine deserve a hit.)
Perhaps that game will be Psychonauts 2, it certainly has the sort of word of mouth to get a lot of people talking. (15 years of build-up since the last entry will do that for you) For it was at the Microsoft event that we got our only substantial showing of an exciting looking title in the gameplay trailer for this game. That's right, the game is real. It wasn't just that curious little VR title from a while back, no there's an actual honest-to-goodness game waiting for us somewhere down the line. (How exciting!) For those unfamiliar, Psychonauts is a platforming adventure game about an eponymous agency of telepathic agents who travel through people's minds in order to fix what's wrong with them. No, this isn't Persona 5, it's Psychonauts. No idea how you could get the two mixed up...
In the trailer footage alone you can already tell that this game isn't quite as... stereotypical as a lot of others from it's genre, these devs are just on a notably different wave length. Every single ounce of the trailer that we saw was absolutely dripping in surrealist creativity and it is quite honestly sublime to look at. Even re-watching it back I was struck once again by just the assault of psychedelia and the desensitising nature of it all, all heightened by the lovely singing cords of Jack Black giving his 60's tribute. That's right, Jack Black is in this game too. But what am I supposed to take from the trailer, what do I remember? Well, nothing and everything, if you know what I mean. The art of platforming has had interesting ups and downs over the past decade, but I can look upon Psychonauts 2 and see a game that seems to have learnt all the right lessons and discarded the bad-ones, all without losing itself. (Which is good because the original Psychonauts has not aged badly at all.)
As for specifics of the sort of environments the game will show us, well that's hard to say. What we saw from the trailer seemed to all take place in a single mind, and one that was dripping in spirituality at that. The very premise of a game like this allows for vastly different travelling environments as you explore the psyches of newer and ever more messed up folks, so it's hard to get a feel of the progression one might see in variety. But even with this one world in particular to look at there was so much going on. There were the kaleidoscopic drops, the relationship with colour and movement, the odd mess with perspective; there wasn't a single frame of this trailer that look dull or uninspired. Which either speaks to the talent of the marketing agency that cut the trailer or the quality of the minds and hands working on the game. (Maybe a little of both.) Seriously, if this is anything to go by then literally every mind that Raz and the team invade throughout the course of this game is going to be a bonafide work of art.
And know that I don't say this as another fan of the franchise who's desperate for their latest fix, no. I am just as new to all of this as the average man, in fact I'm almost virginal to Tim Schafer too. (To his work, I should specify unless that starts to sound any weirder than it already does.) True, I have played and completed Costume Quest 2 (and not the original) but I'll be honest, that didn't even really feel like a full game to me. I haven't joined Manny Calavera on his quest to upsell premium tickets to hell in 'Grim Fandango', (I think that's what he does) Nor have I slain hordes of demons in Jack Black-led rock RTS 'Brutal Legend'. I never got the chance to finish 'Broken Age' (Although I really should get back to that, I think I just hit the end of Act 1) I ain't never heard of 'Headlander' (Although maybe I should have, the reviews are nuts!) and I- Oh wait, I played the hell out of Massive Chalice- I didn't know they made that! That was an alright game, for the times when I was sick to death of X-com. (Although those times didn't come very often so I never actually completed a full campaign's worth of the game.) And, most importantly, I've never played Psychonauts 1, nor 'Rhombus of Ruin' (the VR prequel to this game), so all this insanity is mostly new to me too.
I say mostly new because, like I implied at the beginning, I've heard of it by reputation. I'd wager anyone who's spent anytime around the gaming news cycle has heard of a Tim Schafer game at least once. He's 'The king of cult' some might say. (Not 'the King of Cults', that's something else entirely) Thus it's due to this second-hand familiarity that I found myself interested in this game that doesn't really look like anything else in the modern market. With every game seeming to head to new horizons that push or evolve their genre to new categories, it's refreshing to have one title that is comfortable being in a familiar genre and merely pushing itself to excellence within that field. And as someone who used to play quite a lot of action adventure platformers back in the day, this does give me some of those old school vibes whilst still appealing to my modern sensibilities. (Making it the best of both worlds!)
There is a certain amount of undeniable anticipation revolving around this title, and not all of it is in the positive sense. There's always that fear you have when approaching these sorts of 'too many years in the making' style games when you find yourself wondering why exactly this took so long. Was it a matter of waiting until the exact right time to pull everything off, or did this turn into another 'Duke Nukem Forever' or 'Star Citizen', with an unclear vision that kept getting reiterated and added upon until it bloats like a drowned pig, then softens into sludge. Such games tend to become discussed and lionised anyway. Not for virtue, but for hype. Such is the way of marketing, I suppose. (God, my reference game is weird today.) Now I'm not saying the same fate will befall Psychonauts 2, besides I hear it only entered active development relatively recently, but one has to wonder; what exactly did all those publishers hear to make them turn this game down for all those years? Sure, Tim says that the game is too 'esoteric.' (okay, he didn't use that word but such was the gist) But what if it just plain wasn't a good idea and the whole concept will fall apart when it comes to launch? That's probably just my pessimism getting the better of me, though, I'm sure this game will be the great follow up all the fans have been waiting for. (Because no sequels ever disappoint afterall...)
There is something to be said about a team that can illicit this amount of devotion and support, and can construct a trailer that easily was the best of the entire event in which it sat. These guys are clearly some of the most talented folk sitting in Microsoft's stable right now, and it remain to be seen if Phil and the gang know how to get them the success that they deserve. Do I believe that Double Fine will be the Xbox answer to Suckerpunk or Naughty Dog, no, they're not that kind of studio, but what they are is a storied studio with a dedicated following, and if Psychonauts 2 continues to get front billing by Microsoft this arrangement could turn out great for all sides. As for me, I need to start getting on Psychonauts 1. (Which is on Steam for literal Peanuts, by-the-way. Don't muss out.)
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