Recent reviews by Nick

[100% review, about 22 hours of gameplay]

I think this game is fantastic. The Talos Principle was one of my favorite puzzle games of all time, and I think this one might beat it out, slightly.

The game's atmosphere is phenomenal. The soundtrack and environments are absolutely gorgeous and were a joy to walk through most of the time (backtracking in some of them was fairly annoying, but I had some impatient streaks). The scale of the levels was honestly breathtaking at times, and the environmental storytelling and puzzles were top notch.

The story is more concrete than the first one, and while I enjoy the creepy abstractness of the first game, this one clicked with me a bit more. The characters in this game are great, your main crew is voice acted SUPERBLY, and you really get to know and like them. I always enjoyed hearing what they had to say.

Similar to the first game, the voice logs you find throughout the world were always awesome to listen to. I loved picking one up and starting the next puzzle while listening to Trevor, Straton, Lifthrasir, etc. The text logs kinda sucked, though. There were a few okay ones, but the presentation didn't hook me. So many of the texts are either too long or obfuscated in annoying ways, and they just didn't connect with me.

As far as the puzzles go, I had a lot of fun, but I think there are some pretty weak sections of the game, and pretty annoying ones too. Talos Principle 2 introduces some pretty great and interesting mechanics early on, and then just sorta forgets to expand on them or add new ones in its late game. South 3 was a particular stinker for me, especially in regards to the environmental puzzles there. I have no idea what the devs were thinking, and that awful pandora puzzle with the hidden door and the random blue input on the central spire really spoiled the last 3 levels for me. The Sphinx monuments were mostly duds, and the Prometheus monuments were only interesting when they went through puzzle areas. West 3 was especially baffling to me as it used zero new mechanics. It felt like what East 3 should've been, interesting twists and teasers on the basic mechanics.

Also I wish the game had more achievements for neat puzzle solutions. Getting those were some of my favorite moments of the game, it felt like trying to do the same puzzle handcuffed, it was awesome.

All that being said, for $30 this game is 100% worth it. You don't need to have played the first game to enjoy this, it's better than the first game, and it's just as good as Portal 2 if not better.

why are there annoying stealth sections in my language detective game


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Post 100% completion:

Man the ending of this game sucks.

The stealth sections are bad, and the amount of movement can get annoying, but holy hell this game falls on its face in its last hour. The "maze" chase sequence in the underground section with the campfires lighting up is so bad it feels like character assassination to the game. It forgoes the option to have a challenging puzzle gauntlet and instead opts for a thrown in Saturday-morning-cartoon villain and an on-rails ending sequence that, in terms of gameplay, is limited to you spam clicking the mouse to get it over with sooner. It's only saved by the neat connection at the end with the light at the top of the tower becoming a different part of each people's languages.

I'd still recommend it because I think the gameplay is unique, but this is like a B-tier game with A/S-tier ideas

I think this game is good, and I'm sure it took a great deal of work to create, but considering Outer Wilds is being sold for the same (or cheaper) price tag, I don't think this game is worth full price.

It has a decent amount of jank in the voice lines and in the animation, and is by all measures too short. I think my 4 hour blind run was about average; there were a few puzzles that I stumbled on but for the most part I think most people can beat it fairly quickly.

The story is fine, the voice acting is good, but I'm frankly a bit disappointed. If you were as hyped up by the trailers for this as I was, then I think you'll enjoy your experience with the game, but I think you'll also be disappointed.

Absolutely awesome. If you love puzzle games and city builders you will adore this game. It's a constant struggle of optimization and short-term strategy, totally brilliant.

Pretty good battle royale, gets same-y fairly quickly

The Talos Principle is a fantastic philisophical puzzle game, that makes you question a lot more than the Portal-esque labyrinths that are set before you.

From a puzzle perspective, this game is very much a cross between Myst and Portal. Each "level" has various areas with logic puzzles where you have to manipulate lasers, open doors, beware of turrets with red lasers, the works. What makes this game like Myst as well is there always seems to be a puzzle to solve outside of the independent areas, whether it be redirecting a laser from one puzzle to another, or leaving one puzzle in a particular state so that you can access some part of it from another location.

If you enjoy puzzles for the pure sake of doing puzzles, with no rhyme or reason, no matter the difficulty, then you'll love this game. But if you're anything like me, these puzzles will become slightly tedious, and you'll care more about the lore and getting to the end than solving every puzzle that the game puts in front of you (because, for the most satisfying endings, you need to solve just about every single one). Luckily, there's plenty of solutions and walkthroughs online if you can't will yourself to finish alone.

This is what makes this game phenomenal. The story and lore in this game is Witcher 3-level deep. I'm talking tons of audio logs, hundreds of text logs, QR codes on the walls, and a fantastic narrative to follow it. This game would be great as a visual novel, that alone should say something about how great this story is. It makes you question your place in the world and you fall in love with characters you don't even meet.

The music is nothing to rave about, but the tracks are very nice, giving a creepy ambiance to the game. The tracks also change based on the themes of the areas, which is nice.

While this game has a sort of horror ambiance, there's no real intentional jumpscares. The death animation is a bit jarring and there's one scene after the last puzzle in B1 that involves 'screaming', it's a bit jumpscare-y .

Overall, this game is fantastic. The environment, lore, and ambiance is fantastic alone, but paired with a difficult puzzler, it's a must buy.

Great minimalist puzzler.

If you like simple puzzle games that you can pick up any time and play, this is a perfect game for you. It's not too difficult, and the hint system is great.