The Talos Principle Reviews

Mainly fun, but some puzzles are impossible to do unless you are thinking exactly like the devs did. I find myself getting motion sick after a while of playtime, even with very high FPS. I can appreciate trying to add story to a puzzle game, but it definitely was not needed, I lost interest in the story quickly.

An enjoyable experience moment to moment, but the journey was more satisfying than the destination. The banter reminded me alot of Umineko, and I enjoyed the basic puzzle solving and environments at first, but the puzzles became more and more a test of reflexes than actual understanding of the mechanics of the game. I get that a theme is "thinking outside of the box", but I found myself toeing the line of said box than getting much fresh air. The jank needed to acquire stars didn't go nearly far enough to justify the time spent on acquiring them. I'd accidentally launch myself off 200 yards off the map to solve problems that only required a minimum of outside-of-the-box thinking. This game is first-person in camera perspective only. I'd recommend it for the general puzzle solving, but some sections are broken in a way that prevents you from completing a star puzzle, and with the promotional app defunct, your best bet at getting every ending for the main game is to google what cannot be acquired from just playing the game. [spoiler] If you have an iPhone, the QR Code that gives you a hint for the Zone A Level 3 star puzzle will be seen as broken by an iPhone camera app. Using an android camera or a QR Code app on an iPhone apparently solves this issue. [/spoiler] As much as I wanted to see the full game through, once I started the DLC, I had a hard time not reaching for my phone as soon as the game loaded up. I'm sorry, but personally I'm gonna have to go with a no on this one.

Very enjoyable. Reminiscent of Portal, with plenty of hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Still unsure if I have grasped the full extent of the story. Highly recommend if you like philosophical science fiction.

I don't know what I expected, but this surpassed my expectations by a lot. It's so fun? So interesting? There's lore? The puzzles are just the right amount of challenging? I really like it. I should play it again sometime.

from puzzles easy enough to insult your intellect, to puzzles hard enough, you feel embarassed to feel that dumb. great game. can't wait to play the sequel to feel like an idiot, like a genius, like an idiot and like a genius again, in the same rythm you took to read this.

What a great puzzle game!!! Amazing soundtrack that will stick in your head while solving puzzles throughout the different and beautiful scenery. Great graphics, great addition of philosophy inquiries that will make you think and reflect outside of the puzzles themselves. Fun and diverse variety of mechanics that only get harder and harder as the game progresses, eventually you will have to find a couple on your own, or at random on the harder puzzles! Do not stop playing Talos principle on its first ending, and prove your worth and TRY to beat all the the puzzles in this game, including the ones in the DLC, every single part of this game feels truly rewarding. Search, memorize, and do some critical thinking to become a messenger, and trascend beyond the reality that you have been given! Amazing game!

Atmospheric puzzle game with very well made puzzles. Easily beats every other puzzle game I've ever played in terms of puzzle design except for Baba Is You, and is on par with the Myst series for story/atmosphere.

really good puzzles. brings up thought provoking philosophical questions. multi layered story. smooth enough movement. has multiple endings. it's over a decade old but really holds up well.

What I did: completed the game and the DLC, only thing I didn't do was gathering the stars. I'm going to start the review writing the conclusion of it: The Talos Principle feels like a true classic of the puzzle genre. After playing Lorelei and the Laser Eyes and The Witness (clearly two games which took inspiration from Talos), the puzzle game itch in me was still strong so I decided to finally pick up a game I was actually planning to play since release, which to my surprise was 10 (!) years ago. I'm talking subjectively here but I think the most important aspects in a puzzle game are probably the puzzles quality (having a solid and fun puzzle concept), the puzzle variety (to keep things fresh as much as possible) and finally a mysterious setting that keeps you going. After all, when the difficulty level rises up lategame it's not rare finding yourself stuck for more than 1 hour on a single puzzle and having that extra incentive to see what's next really helps. If you enjoy doing the puzzles regardless you're the type of player who can like things like the aforementioned The Witness (which has a mysterious setting, yeah, but does not give the players much info to get invested in it) but I'm not one of them and I'm glad The Talos Principle gave me a enigmatic setting to dive myself in. You'll explore a couple of fairly big maps and, as long as you're interested in reading terminals with philosophical texts, ancient logs and... QR codes scattered outside, there's plenty of things to read and think about. The story itself is very peculiar and I think it does a good job for the most part, including the ending. I think the game clears the puzzle quality and variety matters as well. The puzzles utilize a couple of different tools, which will play a part together with the environment, and are set in somewhat big open rooms. Position and timing will be key in most of them so if you fear puzzle games because there may be math or a need for external knowledge you can rest assured there will be none here. The difficulty felt especially balanced to me (though the puzzles using the "double" feature really damaged my brain multiple times), it goes up nicely as you proceed forward and doesn't really get impossible or too cryptic at any point. The puzzles are also mostly "short", meaning that can be completed within 1-2 minutes at most, you don't have to do lots of complicated maneuvers for like 5 or 10 minutes. Being a somewhat old game there are some QoL problems. To mention the biggest issue, you'll likely get stuck (like literally, not for the solution) in a puzzle sometime and to get out your only option is to reset the room entirely (they're addressing this in the soon to be released remake). Another issue is the hint system, because the hints aren't really helpful at all. Speaking about difficulty again, I didn't bother with them [strike]because i'm too stupid[/strike] but trying to get the stars seems like a big challenge and will appeal to those players who find the regular puzzles a tad too easy. If you want more content the dlc is as good as the base game, just be careful because all the puzzles you find there are hard.

It can be said that this game draws inspiration from Portal although at the same time it provides a unique feeling with its aesthetics and its philosophical themes which can be traced in the story. I had a good time and there is no doubt some puzzles constituted a grave challenge and needed a lot of thinking. Nevertheless i strongly believe it should be shorter and more compact with less areas and puzzles, though it would still be enjoyable. Apart from its long duration which make it somehow tiresome, i have no complains.