Psychonauts 2

Content Rating

Rated PEGI 7 for Fear and Violence. Characters can be punched, hit with objects or attacked using various psychic abilities. Reactions to violence are unrealistic: impacts often result in flashes and stars appearing above characters, without any blood or injury detail. When enemies are defeated, they disappear, sometimes in clouds of smoke. In one comic scene, a watermelon slices runs around inside a blender, before being turned into a smoothie. Some scenes may be scary to younger children, including one in which the main character is kidnapped by a giant enemy and dropped into a vortex. He panics for a while until he realises that his levitation powers will allow him to escape. In one sequence, the central character enters the mind of another. This takes the form of a hospital which has been distorted into a casino. Although characters are seen at gambling tables and machines, the player does not take part in any gambling and the sequence does not glamorise gambling or offer any specific instruction in gambling. There is some very mild comic innuendo and the occasional sight of characters holding cigarettes or cigars.

In addition to the official ratings it's worth noting, there is a scene in a betting shop where you have to place bets with the right odds to win the currency you need. We contacted the VSC Rating Board for clarification as this sometimes has a PEGI 18 rating.

"Psychonauts 2 does not meet the criteria for either teaching or glamorising gambling. There is nothing of any real-world value taught about gambling in the game. Indeed, the player is not invited to participate in gambling in any conventional sense. Rather, the player is tasked with various platforming-style challenges that have the specific objective of undermining what are shown to be both rigged and highly fantastical gambling set-ups. Crucially, the skills being deployed by the player are conventional gaming skills, rather than gambling skills, and there is nothing taught about gambling beyond the fact that it is possible to place bets on uncertain outcomes, which is merely the definition of gambling."

"There is a strong emphasis throughout, in comments made by the main character and by others, including gambling staff and customers, that gambling can be a harmful activity, that odds can look better than they are, and that making unrealistic assumptions about success is foolish. This is the opposite of glamorisation."