Preview: Psychonauts 2 is shaping up to be GOTY material

It's rare in 2021 that a game can come along and show you something truly new.

Psychonauts is a cult classic Xbox exclusive from all the way back in 2005. Made by Tim Schafer and the legendary team at Double Fine Productions, Psychonauts is an action platformer that follows a boy named Razputin on his quest to become a fully-fledged psychic agent.

Set in a government-backed psychic summer camp called Whispering Rock, which is set up to help youngsters train and sharpen their psychic abilitie, the ultimate goal is to join an organization charged with defending the population from psy-terrorists, essentially. In this world of psychics, Razputin, or 'Raz' for short, helps the camp's quirky counselors and his fellow telekinetic teens train up and solve mysteries.

The game combined the best of Double Fine's Hollywood-grade writing and world-building with warped mindscapes, thoughtfully inspired by real-world psychological science and theory. In many ways Psychonauts was way ahead of ...