Psychonauts 2

Moderate overall intensity
Highest flag: Dark themes — intense
AdventureFantasyPlatformer

What's in it

Substances depicted
Moderate

A character's mindscape centers on alcoholism, with beer bottles used as set pieces; alcohol and tobacco use are shown in the surrounding cast and world.

Dark themes intense
Moderate

Levels dramatize serious mental-health struggles including addiction, trauma, anxiety, grief, and psychological breakdown.

Language moderate
Moderate

Mild exclamations and light profanity in dialogue.

Violence cartoon/stylized
Low

Cartoon melee and psychic-power combat against surreal manifestations of the mind (Censors, Regrets, Enablers) rather than people; no blood or gore.

Horror & psychological spooky
Low

A few mindscapes are eerie or unsettling with distorted, nightmarish imagery, but stay whimsical rather than scary.

Who can reach your kid

What it is

Psychonauts 2 is a single-player, third-person platformer in which you play Raz, a ten-year-old psychic recruit who dives into the minds of various characters to solve a mystery within a spy agency. Gameplay centers on acrobatic jumping, exploration, puzzle-solving, and light combat using psychic powers against cartoonish creatures that personify anxieties and regrets. The content is stylized and non-graphic, but the writing engages seriously with heavy subject matter: mental illness, addiction, grief, and trauma. Notable levels include one built around a character's alcoholism (with beer bottles as scenery) and one depicting a gambling addiction as a distorted casino, alongside occasional mild language and some mildly eerie imagery.

How it's framed

The game frames mental struggles with empathy and care, treating characters' addictions, fears, and traumas as things to understand and heal rather than mock; combat is metaphorical, with 'enemies' representing internal emotional forces, and the overall tone is compassionate and hopeful even when the subject matter is dark.

Details

Developer
Double Fine Productions
Publisher
Xbox Game Studios
Released
2021-08-25
Metacritic 87critic score (third-party) · out of 100

Similar games

We built this because we needed it

Balanced Play pools your kids' game time into one budget across Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and more. We're taking 100 founding families — free for life.

Claim a founding spot →

Free for life for the first 100. No card, no spam.