Lastly, the writing, as good as Schafer's ever been and vocal talent to match. And it's not always polished to a perfect sheen, but it some ways that just reminds you of the scrappy origins of this Microsoft-published title in a way that's heartwarming. And it doesn't always play perfectly, but if it did it would probably be ridiculously easy so I'm kind of okay with that. It doesn't always look pretty, but when it does it's a stunner. I only ever played the early camp demo of Psychonauts 1 (pretty sure it was featured in a Demo Derby while Drew was still around as well) a few times so I don't have the intense well of nostalgia for this, but I do have plenty of nostalgia for this sort of game and in that regard it's doing a lot of the right things for me. Compared to the news in the real world right now, it’s such a relief to life in this kinder, gentler world where trauma is still address, people are still flawed and imperfect, but it can be how they get better and learn and grow. Because that means I’m not in it anymore. I’m really not looking forward to beating this game. Maybe I’m a sap, or a softy, or a bleeding heart, but I have loved every good and bad joke, every voice performance and every hamboned attempt at a visual flourish (which hit as intended more than they don’t.) That even the parts that don’t hit were very much cared about, and the shortcomings are honestly come by due to limitations, not a lack of caring or creativity. You can tell that there was passion poured into it. The gameplay is oldschool and frankly dated (but not bad per se, just has some aspects that have been improved in ways that this game hasn’t used), and that’s fine and I don’t care, because every other part of this game is just so damned likable, even if, yes, there is a little bit of Meat Circus still in the DNA of this.Īnd the part that shines through is that it’s got heart, and it shows, front and center. Just got done with the “colorful” level (trying to not spoil, I think colorful is coded well enough to not spoil and still people know what level I mean) and it was honestly beautiful.