Psychonauts 2 Still Has Too Many Collectibles

The recently released Psychonauts 2 has a lot of good things going for it, ranging from a heartfelt story, plenty of humor, and great gameplay. But like the original game, Psychonauts 2 suffers from a case of way too many collectibles.

Collectible items in video games have seen a spike in the last several years as developers try to stuff more content into their games. For some studios, like Ubisoft, an abundance of collectible items have become almost a signature game trait. Games such as Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed are full of collectible items, ranging from armor to abilities to collectible masks. While it can be fun to track down items and clear a map, it can also be overwhelming when the number of collectibles is in the hundreds, especially when some games require players to backtrack later with new abilities to reach previously inaccessible items.

Psychonauts 2 brings back many trademark gameplay mechanics from the original Psychonauts, and that includes nearly every kind of collectible in the first game. The first few hours of Psychonauts 2 alone are full of revelations of more and more categories of collectibles to locate in levels. The sheer number of collectibles can be daunting; a level can easily contain dozens of Figments, along with rarer collectibles like Emotional Baggage, Half a Minds, Nuggets of Wisdom, Psi Cards, and more. The good news is that almost all of these collectibles help Raz level up one way or another, so a player isn’t tracking down these collectibles simply for the satisfaction of clearing a map. Unfortunately, some collectible items can only be reached when Raz has certain abilities, requiring players to come back to a level later to find the items.

Why Psychonauts 2’s Collectibles Hurt the Game

It’s easy to see how so many collectibles get added to games like Psychonauts 2. They can provide motivation for players to explore a vast area, and can be a reward for a fun puzzle platforming challenge where players have to figure out how to use their abilities to reach a tricky area. But too many collectibles also slows down the pacing of a game. Some players may choose to ignore the collectibles completely and simply stick to the main path quests, but since the collectibles are tied to Raz’s level up progression, there’s strong reason to find them. That means a player may enter a new area and spend an hour or two simply trying to find all the hidden items, rather than moving on to the next story mission. Combined with the backtracking in Psychonauts 2 with new abilities to reach previously inaccessible items, a game that could be a tight narrative suddenly finds several hours added to it simply by adding collectibles.

Collectible gameplay isn’t inherently wrong, and many players enjoy exploring a map and finding the secrets it has to offer. But by making players feel like collectibles are important to the gameplay, Psychonauts 2 takes some of the tension out of the pacing of the game. Raz is on the hunt to find a mole and stop a powerful enemy from returning from the dead, but that drive is lost when players find themselves distracted by looking for collectibles on every level of Psychonauts 2. It’s not the first game to suffer from this problem and probably won’t be the last, but a great game would have been even better if Psychonauts 2 had left some of the collectibles in the past.

Psychonauts 2 is on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 4/5.

About The Author

Caitlin Grieve
(198 Articles Published)

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Caitlin has been writing about video games and sci-fi/fantasy books since 2018. Her video game adventures began a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away as an Imperial pilot in Star Wars: TIE Fighter. When she’s not gaming, she’s reading, and when she’s not reading, she’s writing. But she is ALWAYS plotting her next D&D escapades.

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