Talos Principle 2 Review

[archcorenth]

I review all the games I finish, but I couldn't review Talos Principle 2 because I bought it on Epic and they don't allow reviews. Maybe that makes sense when they give away so many games a lot of people might be reviewing things when they aren't the intended audience. But regardless, I'd like to put my feelings somewhere, so I decided on this forum.

I LOVED the game. The way the story developed from the first two entries was really smart, and the characters were all very well-written and made me care about them and my choices. I ultimately sided with the mechanic whenever it matter. She seemed to have best head on her shoulders, but I liked Yaqut the best and felt a bit bad about disappointing him by deciding to use the device. I suppose you were supposed to. I was glad he got to meet Miranda in the final scene. I kind of felt like I lost him as a friend, but he was going to be alone. Speaking of the last scenes, my favorite was the after credits scene showing that some of the androids remembered Trevor and cared about him and his monument. It was touching.

I'm a bit more negative about how easy the puzzles were. Maybe I'm just really good at them after playing through the first two entries, but there was only a single one (West 2 gold puzzle) that I wasn't able to complete on my first pass and had to shut down the game and come back the next day, and that happened all the time during the first game. So, I think they were easier. I also think they were easier because several times in the first games, I solved puzzles in ways the designers seemed to not intend since I had left over pieces or realized I could outside of the playable area of the puzzle really easily from where I'd managed to position myself. I think always having a feel for what the designers intend means the puzzles are easier. So, that's kind of disappointing. But not enough to take many stars away from my review because I still enjoyed doing them regardless. (I will say that I cheated one time. On one of the Athena puzzles I knew I needed a drill, but just couldn't find it and called a friend to look it up and give me a vague hint about where to search. Otherwise, as I say, nothing ever really flummoxed me, and I suppose I would have found that drill if I'd have wasted hours looking for it, so I don't feel TOO bad about it.)

But yeah, the best parts are the story, lovable characters, and gorgeous environments. And I love the various monument puzzles that encourage you to really look around everywhere. 4/5 stars from me.

[archcorenth]

Oh, I'd also like to add how much I loved the creepy interiors of the monolith. Often they gave me vertigo when I almost walked off the edge of platforms, which was rather surprising when the game is 2-dimensional. I think if they ever ported this game to VR, I'd probably fall over.

[JanschD]

The puzzles felt easier to me too. I think, I came up with proper solutions to all of them, since I didn't use anything outside them nor did I sneak items out or through absurdly tiny gaps.

Part of the difficulty drop may be the absence of those annoying mines. The first game had them all over the place, not increasing the difficulty of the thinking part, but on the execution side.

The recorder is a similar thing. Not hard to get the idea, but easy to mess up the timing and get trapped. The new clones are a similar mechanic without the timing part. Unfortunately, the item cloning property goes with it as well, which made the recorder interesting.

[exe]

I feel the same, puzzles seem easier but I already played the first Talos Principle and maybe because the developers wanted to keep the game easier for people without puzzle skills? The recorder is replaced by the clones, and other new tools (RGB converter, inverter, gravity gun) with new mechanics that make new types of puzzles possible. I can't wait for DLC's and workshops, but let them crush the bugs first. :-)

[Dschinghis Pan]

Puzzles were to easy, can't wait for DLC or workshop!
I legit started doing puzzles in descending number-order just to avoid the easy learning curve xD

It makes sense for broader appeal and also to focus on single mechanics - let's wait and see what happens if several of them are thrown into the mix together.

[Bullpup]

Yeah human psychology totally permits people to come to in to difficulty discussions and say "erm, actually the puzzles were just right maybe a few were too hard". Spoiler alert - these types of players feel a bit ashamed/inadequate and stay off such discussions so it *looks* to an outside observer that the whole community is united in their view, and interestingly the devs take action.

I've lost so many of my beloved titles by the core players repeating "too easy!" until 5 patches later (or one sequel later) the game was no longer even installed let alone "beloved". Divinity Original Sin, X4 Foundations, Watchdogs 2 even Cossacks remaster (essentially) from 20 years ago (artillery nerf) and Baldur's Gate remaster (summons limit) etc etc.

Maybe the last of the regulars in each area could have had more tools and a bigger play area, and maybe the gold could have been harder but any move towards Road to Gehenna design and this becomes another no-go franchise to me.

[Dschinghis Pan]

Originally posted by Bullpup:

Yeah human psychology totally permits people to come to in to difficulty discussions and say "erm, actually the puzzles were just right maybe a few were too hard".

Having optional puzzles was a great way to handle that. Having something for hardcore puzzle-lovers without inhibiting others to progress the story.
That is until you get the gold puzzles which are required for a special story moment.

Like to be honest I skipped most stars in TTP1 and especially Gehenna because I didn't feel like it. Not even sure they do anything in Gehenna, though if I wanted to star-ending in TTP1 I'd take a guide because some of the stars to obscure and I'm never sure if there is a legit solution or some glitch involved...

[archcorenth]

I had 14 of those prometheus stars that let you skip puzzles at the end. So, it's not like players who didn't like puzzles couldn't complete the game. (But why target them any way?) My favorite puzzle games are Fish Fillets 2 and Enigma. And I haven't actually completed either of them because they just get harder and harder. That they include levels that are beyond my ability without hours of work makes me find them more valuable than ones I complete easily.

I did the puzzles in backward order sometimes, too, but it doesn't do anything to solve the problem, because maybe it increases the difficulty of the first puzzle you play in the area, but then there are still too many easy ones that way. I still found entering a puzzle to be a tedious waste of time. And I'd bought a puzzle game to play puzzles.

--that being said. I still liked the game as a story and exploration experience enough for my 4/5 rating.

[archcorenth]

You know, I was just thinking. Casual puzzle game players basically already have every single game ever made for android and iphone available to them. It's really not fair that there isn't anything available to the serious puzzlers. I think the last hard puzzle game to come out in my memory would be whatever the last DROD sequel was.

[Dschinghis Pan]

Originally posted by archcorenth:

You know, I was just thinking. Casual puzzle game players basically already have every single game ever made for android and iphone available to them. It's really not fair that there isn't anything available to the serious puzzlers. I think the last hard puzzle game to come out in my memory would be whatever the last DROD sequel was.

Did you play "Baba is you"? I generally enjoy puzzle games but that one knocked me out.

[archcorenth]

i'll take a look.

[Altbert]

I really love puzzle games, although I'm not very good at it. But I don't mind to put a lot of hours in it. I could recommend some puzzle games, although I think an experienced TTP games, would find the puzzles too easy: Aporia: Beyond the Valley, Firmament, Haven Moon, the Myst/Riven series, Obduction and XING: The Land Beyond.

[thefollowingcharacters]

I'll chime in with no shame. Puzzles mostly felt just right to me. I liked that I didn't have to spend an excessive amount of time on them or keep doing tons of steps like in the first game. They shouldn't make them any harder unless they're bonus puzzles.

[Focksbot]

Originally posted by thefollowingcharacters:

I'll chime in with no shame. Puzzles mostly felt just right to me. I liked that I didn't have to spend an excessive amount of time on them or keep doing tons of steps like in the first game. They shouldn't make them any harder unless they're bonus puzzles.

I'm happy with the puzzle difficulty too. A mixture of relaxing 3-5-minuters, ramping up to ones that take me nearly an hour. I'm surprised that the consensus on here is that TL2 is easier than TL1 -- seems about the same to me.

[games23]

ReThink 4 is a hard puzzle game, it broke my brain

[Alcator]

If you want a brutally hard puzzle game, enjoy this one:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147110/The_Long_Gate/

It's basically a crash course in Digital, Analog and Quantum computing, but unfortunately, without a degree in electrical engineering, you are bound to get stuck sooner, rather than later, and after that, it's either "Follow a guide without really knowing what's going on" or "Give up".