During its E3 2019 presentation, Microsoft has announced its intentions to acquire Double Fine Productions, the studio behind games like Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Broken Age.
As part of the announcement, studio head Time Schaffer took to the stage to show a brand new Psychonauts 2 trailer. The reason? Microsoft has also struck a deal with Starbreeze to buy the publishing rights to the game.
Unlike the first trailer, which showed mostly cutscenes, the new one is all gameplay. We see Raz, now a fully-fledged Psychonaut, going on on his daily routine as a Psychonaut: exploring minds and blasting Censors. What’s interesting is the mind the trailer focuses on – that of Doctor Loboto.
Doctor Loboto was the main antagonist of the original Psychonauts. He is an insane dentist who enjoys removing “bad brains” like they were bad teeth. At the end of the first game, we cure Loboto of his insanity, but he seems to have issues still.
Most of them have to do with a mysterious new villain, who Loboto is extremely afraid of from what we can see. Whoever he or she is, they seem to have control over water – Raz’s biggest weakness. Facing them in the final game should be challenging.
We can also see a few new enemies we’ll have to deal with. Alongside the familiar Censors, we see shapeless blobs of goo with red eyes, and some sort of fly holding a weight. No idea what they’re supposed to represent, but they do look like they belong to the Psychonauts’ mental universe.
Psychonauts 2 will launch on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2019, and will be available as part of Xbox Game Pass. Yes, even though Microsoft is now publishing the game, it will still be available on PlayStation 4. Double Fine’s next games probably won’t.
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