The Talos Principle: Reawakened

[h1] Elohim commanded me to write this review [/h1] It has taken me a minimum of two years before I decided to take a leap of faith in myself and step my toes into the complicated territory of The Talos Principle. For a very long time, my hesitancy to take on this puzzle game originated from its perceived difficulty and a lack of self-confidence, but luckily, my fears were proven unwarranted. I jumped in knowing parts of the narrative already, yet I still wholeheartedly enjoyed the philosophical, historical and religious elements of this thought-provoking journey. The mechanics of The Talos Principle: Reawakened had me hooked right from the start. The joy of repurposing old tools and the satisfaction of collecting sigils has been made so rewarding and addictive that I struggled to put the game down. The puzzles needed to complete the main storyline are balanced in terms of challenge, but some of the optional star puzzles both in the main campaign as well as in the DLCs can border on brain-numblingly obtuse or clever, depending on your perspective. The environment is a very picturesque copy-paste of old assets that takes you through three different historical timelines, complemented by a moving soundtrack and breathtaking visuals. There are no simple answers, but the take-home message for me is that we are all being influenced by something, which poses serious problems to our free will. It is rare that I need this much time to process the compelling ideas I was presented with by a video game, but as someone who's studied philosophy, I feel reverence for the depth of The Talos Principle. This is a definite must-play for everyone who likes kicking their neurons into overdrive or has any intrigue towards abstract concepts! [b]Graphics[/b] ☑ Stunning ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Jumble of pixels [b]Gameplay[/b] ☑ Super fun ☐ Enjoyable ☐ Normal ☐ Boring ☐ Don’t fall asleep [b]Audio[/b] ☑ Eargasm ☐ Amazing ☐ Good ☐ Not horrible ☐ Better without headphones [b]PC Requirements[/b] ☐ Potato ☐ Medium ☑ Fast ☐ Ask NASA for a spare computer [b]Difficulty[/b] ☐ Piece of cake ☐ Easy ☐ Average ☑ Difficult ☐ Very difficult [b]Story[/b] ☐ No story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Masterpiece [b]Length[/b] ☐ Super short (0-2 h) ☐ Short (2-6 h) ☐ Average (6-10 h) ☑ Long (10+) ☐ Endless [b]Price[/b] ☐ Free ☑ Worth the price ☐ Buy it on sale ☐ If you have extra money ☐ Not recommended [b]Bugs[/b] ☑ No ☐ Minor ☐ Annoying ☐ Too much ☐ The game itself is a bug [b]Replayability[/b] ☐ No replay value ☐ Maybe once ☑ Multiple times ☐ Infinite replayability [h1]9.5/10[/h1]

Unfortunately, much more performance hungry than the original.

I played the original Talos Principle over 10 years ago, just long enough to have forgotten all the puzzles, many of which my brain-rotted 20 year old self shamelessly cheated on/looked up to complete. So, I was happy to do another playthrough of this prior to starting Talos Principle 2, in my older and wiser 30s. While I definitely enjoyed it back then, I don't think I appreciated it fully. This is an astounding experience, both as a puzzle game and as a meditative journey on mankind's holistic attitude toward its inevitable death. That sounds so grim in text, but I think the game's approach, aesthetic, and overall [i]vibe[/i] is so delightfully optimistic, even as its pontificating on mankind's thorough and complete death. The depiction of AI not as some dystopian conqueror but as a successor, as a child we have knowingly and unknowingly nurtured over centuries through the cultivation of both knowledge and machines, is unique. Given modern political climates around AI, I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's prescient, but it's probably the most thorough investigation of AI and its implications on sentience and consciousness in gaming. Talos Principle is also one of the few games that couches its puzzle-solving in the narrative. You're solving the puzzles from a human perspective and answering Milton's questions as a human would, in the body of a machine. The thought processes you employ as a player are arguably no different from that of a machine's, especially a machine made in the body of man. And that makes Milton and Elohim's position as antagonists so much more powerful. They're simply nascent creatures trying to understand their place in the world, and succeeding requires you using an intrepid, investigative approach to carving out your own understanding. I think this is one of the few games that I do not mind including somewhat illusory dialogue choices in. At the very least, they get you to think. There's a hefty amount of reading to understand the plot, but most of its in quick spurts and very naturally written, with an equal amount of voiceovers to balance it out. And the puzzles are awesome too! 20 year old me was stupid. If you stick to the main puzzles, they're a perfect level of difficulty, slowly scaling throughout the game without becoming inscrutable. Many are quite intuitive, and above all else, they make you feel smart for accomplishing them. The game never holds your hand in explaining what an item does; it assumes you will fiddle and play with things. The items themselves are so flexible that no two puzzles feel the same, even if you employ many of the same tactics throughout. For those that crave a really hardcore challenge, you can search for all the stars and complete the hidden puzzles, which are considerably harder. This isn't required to really enjoy the game, though. As far as how this works as a remaster, it's... fine. I don't think the original game is a standout in visuals. Aesthetically it's great, which the remaster retains, but the remaster does have the UE5 visual flattening issue that many modern games do. I do not think this was a necessary remaster, but as an introduction to Talos Principle for those that never played the original, it's worth the 40 dollar price tag. However, if you think you'll have performance problems (neither this nor the original are well-optimized), consider buying the original instead. I'm more lenient on this remaster as I think it important to get more thoughtful games, like this, in the hands of as many people as possible. As human-computer interaction becomes more and more an inescapable part of our daily lives, using it to think alongside play is more and more important.

Incredible puzzle game, and so much replayability with the steam workshop. If you like solving all kinds of different puzzles, you won't regret buying this.

这个游戏对于现在ai发展的社会里有一点启示作用，主题还是蛮深奥的，很多地方有西方的宗教色彩以及古神话。解谜也太难了，我在网上都搜不到相关教程。。。推荐给大神，期待一下真正的大佬能出教程

I played Talos 1 like 10 years ago, and I am know replaying this after Talos Principle 2. The graphics look nice, and controls are a bit smoother, with some quality of live features, and some atted content. Also there is a game wide fast forward button, which I use to traverse the big areas quickly, speed up elevator rides, listen to developper commentary at 2x or speed up some puzzles which involve specific timing. Great new feature. I bought it mainly to support the devs, because the original version is better value for the lower price, with most of the puzzles already there. But a nice experience. The game runs well on my old CPU. 1440p DLSS balanced Framegen it get 100-120FPS. And better than Talos 2, I have not noticed traversal stutter.

Ein Kunstwerk - knifflig an diversen Ecken und mit einer philosophischen Tiefe, die man selten in anderen Spielen heutzutage sieht.