If you like Psychonauts, make sure not to overlook this underrated title. It doesn't have the extravagance of a full Psychonauts game, and it's linear enough to be nearly as fun to watch as to play, but for a two hour stationary VR Psychonauts experience made in 2017, it's hard to imagine it being any better. I wouldn't say no to another VR Psychonauts in 2033, if they want to make one.

This game starts almost immediately after the events of Psychonauts 1. As Raz, you're jetting off to save the head of the Psychonauts, but an unfortunate turn of events endangers the rest of your team, too. This opens the door for some more opportunities to nose around in your new friends' heads. The game's not long enough for you to explore any fully-fledged mental worlds, but via a hallucination-inducing psychic field, you do get more insight into some of your new colleagues. Raz's circus skills won't appear here - this is a stationary VR experience so the writers come up with good reasons for him to be stuck in a chair in-game - but what card-carrying Psychonaut would let that stop them? Some psi-powers from the first game re-appear, and are surprisingly fluid to use, though
the gameplay departs from that of the mainline games. The core gameplay is about looking around in each scene for interactable objects and figuring out which power to use on them, in order to break each character out of their hallucination, making it more like a VR point-and-click adventure. The best players of these kinds of games are endlessly curious, and though level design is much more limited than usual, there are a couple of secret interactions you can look for in each scene. The Steam achievements can guide you towards them but you know you're a true Psychonaut if you can get them all in one playthrough without ever looking.

If you're worried the 2005 graphics are returning there's nothing to fear. Thanks to Unreal Engine lighting and updated models (shown off in the staple VR way of having characters talk right into your face), this game looks great for 2017. The developers once again let loose with uniquely bizarre environments. There's even a shift into stop-motion animation for one moving sequence; I'd love to see things like that in future titles. The game isn't shy about playing with scale for maximum spectacle either. Basically, Psychonauts once again brings you sights quite unlike anything else in video games. The great sound quality in today's headsets hammers home the strength of Psychonauts' sound and music too. This and nearly everything else I compliment in this review is exemplified by a brilliant Bond-style title sequence in VR - if you see that and like it, you'll probably enjoy the rest of the game too.

Another signature aspect of Psychonauts is its comedy. Rhombus of Ruin has its fair share of funny moments, but in VR it can trip itself up. As is tradition in Tim Schafer's games, interacting with objects rewards the player with funny voice lines. However, between the narrative voice lines in your mind, the speech of characters outside your mind, voice lines triggered by interacting with an object AND voice lines triggered by accident, such as by looking at something, the voice lines often talk over each other and you're not clear what anyone's said. Enabling subtitles is recommended if you don't want to miss anything and don't mind a slight loss of immersion.

The game ends with a full-length performance of the hilarious title theme - maybe the best I've heard in a video game. After that is the most thrilling sentence possible for those who loved Psychonauts since playing it in 2005: "Raz will return in Psychonauts 2". I would recommend playing or at least watching this as a fun interlude between the two games, rather than the teasing non-sequel it used to be. Clever simile coming up to tie things together: much like Raz escaping the confines of his chairs, Double Fine have shown that the constraints of VR can't stop them delivering a quality experience worthy of their other games. I hope to one day see their bottomless creativity applied to the increasingly bold VR medium again.

If you like Psychonauts, make sure not to overlook this underrated title. It doesn't have the extravagance of a full Psychonauts game, and it's linear enough to be nearly as fun to watch as to play, but for a two hour stationary VR Psychonauts experience made in 2017, it's hard to imagine it being any better. I wouldn't say no to another VR Psychonauts in 2033, if they want to make one. This game starts almost immediately after the events of Psychonauts 1. As Raz, you're jetting off to save the head of the Psychonauts, but an unfortunate turn of events endangers the rest of your team, too. This opens the door for some more opportunities to nose around in your new friends' heads. The game's not long enough for you to explore any fully-fledged mental worlds, but via a hallucination-inducing psychic field, you do get more insight into some of your new colleagues. Raz's circus skills won't appear here - this is a stationary VR experience so the writers come up with good reasons for him to be stuck in a chair in-game - but what card-carrying Psychonaut would let that stop them? Some psi-powers from the first game re-appear, and are surprisingly fluid to use, though the gameplay departs from that of the mainline games. The core gameplay is about looking around in each scene for interactable objects and figuring out which power to use on them, in order to break each character out of their hallucination, making it more like a VR point-and-click adventure. The best players of these kinds of games are endlessly curious, and though level design is much more limited than usual, there are a couple of secret interactions you can look for in each scene. The Steam achievements can guide you towards them but you know you're a true Psychonaut if you can get them all in one playthrough without ever looking. If you're worried the 2005 graphics are returning there's nothing to fear. Thanks to Unreal Engine lighting and updated models (shown off in the staple VR way of having characters talk right into your face), this game looks great for 2017. The developers once again let loose with uniquely bizarre environments. There's even a shift into stop-motion animation for one moving sequence; I'd love to see things like that in future titles. The game isn't shy about playing with scale for maximum spectacle either. Basically, Psychonauts once again brings you sights quite unlike anything else in video games. The great sound quality in today's headsets hammers home the strength of Psychonauts' sound and music too. This and nearly everything else I compliment in this review is exemplified by a brilliant Bond-style title sequence in VR - if you see that and like it, you'll probably enjoy the rest of the game too. Another signature aspect of Psychonauts is its comedy. Rhombus of Ruin has its fair share of funny moments, but in VR it can trip itself up. As is tradition in Tim Schafer's games, interacting with objects rewards the player with funny voice lines. However, between the narrative voice lines in your mind, the speech of characters outside your mind, voice lines triggered by interacting with an object AND voice lines triggered by accident, such as by looking at something, the voice lines often talk over each other and you're not clear what anyone's said. Enabling subtitles is recommended if you don't want to miss anything and don't mind a slight loss of immersion. The game ends with a full-length performance of the hilarious title theme - maybe the best I've heard in a video game. After that is the most thrilling sentence possible for those who loved Psychonauts since playing it in 2005: "Raz will return in Psychonauts 2". I would recommend playing or at least watching this as a fun interlude between the two games, rather than the teasing non-sequel it used to be. Clever simile coming up to tie things together: much like Raz escaping the confines of his chairs, Double Fine have shown that the constraints of VR can't stop them delivering a quality experience worthy of their other games. I hope to one day see their bottomless creativity applied to the increasingly bold VR medium again.