Double Fine Productions surprised everyone when it announced a VR spin-off for its Psychonauts series late last year, and now it’s got the first footage of it to show off too.
Before we go any further, we just want to warn that both the nine minute gameplay demo below and the rest of our story will have spoilers for the original cult classic. With that said, take a look at the video below, which is the first time we’ve seen new gameplay from this franchise in some 11 years. The game is called Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin and it’s exclusively on its way to the PlayStation VR HMD, bridging the gap between the first game and the anticipated sequel, also announced last year.
The game picks off right from the end of the original, once more putting players in the shoes of protagonist Raz. This time the action plays out in first-person as players undertake a mission to save the head of the Psychonauts, a group of international psychic agents. To do this, you’re given a number of powers to play with, some of which you can see in the video above. They include the power to take control of other characters, which results in a unique form of locomotion in which you essentially hop from body to body.
In the Rhombus of Ruin will also feature telekinesis and pyrokinesis, allowing you to move things with your mind and set fire to them. The footage is only in a pre-alpha state, but it’s already looking pretty striking, bringing Double Fine’s wonderfully weird creation to VR for the first time. The game is due to launch later this year, hoping to tide fans over until the arrival of the true Psychonauts 2 at some point in 2018. It doesn’t appear that that release will be supporting VR right now.
PlayStation VR itself is due to launch on October 13th. That’s a simultaneous launch across the world, which marks something of a first for Sony.
