Warm up your brains and get ready to get weird: Double Fine’s cult classic platforming franchise, Psychonauts, finally returns later this month.
The San Francisco-based company recently announced that Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin will be launching on PlayStation VR (PSVR) on February 21st. This isn’t the long-awaited sequel to the 2005 game (though that is on the way), but instead a VR-exclusive story set right after those events. Double Fine also has a new 3D 360 video screenshot for the game, which you can check out on PSVR itself using the YouTube app, or watch on a smartphone or browser.
One again players are cast as Raz, a young psychic that spent much of the first game building his powers as he worked through the ranks to become a Psychonaut. In Rhombus of Ruin, you’re sent on a mission to save the head of the Psychonauts, though Raz and his allies are quickly captured themselves. Immobilized throughout the game (a design trick to avoid VR simulation sickness, no doubt), you’ll use powers like Clairvoyance to see through walls, Pyrokinesis to set things alight, and Telekinesis to move things with your mind. It’s played with a DualShock 4 controller.
The game will lead directly into Psychonauts 2, which returns to classic platforming gameplay and will not require a VR headset.
Writing over on the PlayStation Blog, the developer’s James Spafford confirmed that the game will support Sony’s upgraded PS4 Pro with improved textures, a higher framerate, and some other improvements. It’s a digital release only for now, though Spafford did tease that a physical release could happen later down the line.
It looks like releases for PSVR are finally picking up again, then. After a slow start to the year, Resident Evil 7 [Review: 9/10] and Dexed [Review: 7/10] helped get the ball rolling, and now there’s more to look forward to this month.
