The Talos Principle 2 Reviews

I love this game, it's challenging and fun. Some puzzles can be hard to solve, but all of them are fun. The levels design is brilliant. The story is very interesting and thought provocative. I definitely recommend.

TL;DR Overall good quality, but the long dragged out story/world building and open hub/world makes playing a drag. If you can get past that, or enjoy slow story telling, then you're in for a good time. The Good Visuals: Awesome, much more grand scale and things look very pretty. The puzzles themselves are pretty self-contained (except for world/hub puzzles) and pretty intuitive. The UI and map to travel to different areas are pretty straight forward, making it easy to know what you're missing. Gameplay: The puzzles themselves are good, though they mostly felt easier than the first game. There are some old mechanics and of course new ones that add variety to the puzzles themselves. The characters in the game provide some story and dialogue options, making it more immersive. The Bad: Gameplay: I haven't gotten reached the "star/golden" (difficult) puzzles yet, so maybe those will scratch the puzzle itch better, but it just takes so long to get there... There are mini puzzles like in the first one, like the tetromino placement, but honestly all of them are super simple and provide no challenge... it simply felt tedious. Not to mention the world is generally huge with empty space, making you run and run to the next puzzle. I don't mind the world building, but I wish they had the option to just select the puzzles, at least for the main progression ones. This is just a personal preference, but I hate scavenger hunts, so most of the world/hub puzzles were not for me. Not that they were that interesting to begin with, but walking/running around looking for a specific statue/object is not fun with how little other interactables are in the world/hub. Overall Rant I really want to recommend this game, but at the time of the review, it feels like a chore trying to get through the game compared to the amount of fun I was getting. If you want more down to earth puzzle games, Zachtronic games or Enter the Cryptic's Sudokus are much more enjoyable. If this game was going to be more story based, it would've been better being linear like Portal. The closest comparison for this game might be The Witness, but that world was much smaller and that world had so much more environmental puzzles, though it was definitely more difficult and finicky at times.

Poorly optimized game. Runs at 15 fps with occasional stutters and its a not very good looking game for that.

A sequel to what was already an outstanding game, yet this is better. It takes the fundamentals and extrapolates on them in a lot of really fun and interesting ways. There are a lot of really great new puzzle additions in this game that are drip fed just enough to make it really interesting and challenging all the way to the end. The added story and characters provided a good narrative that was yet another carrot on a stick to motivate you through the game, although the puzzles are so strong that they could have even stood on their own, which really attests to the amount of value this game delivers. As a side note, if you haven't played the first game I would highly recommend doing so before playing this, as I feel like if you play through this and then want to play through the first one after to keep the good puzzle times rolling it will not be as enjoyable. All in all, super into it and loved as much if not more than the first one. Got all the extras and did pretty much everything I could in the main game until I was sick of it. Excited to dig into the DLC here soon.

An engaging, sprawling puzzle game that really makes you think. Hmmmmm. Serious Sam even makes an appearance in an Easter egg.

Please OPTIMIZE! I played part 1 and it ran great on my PC. This part is barely playable even with bare minimum settings. And even if it were playable, the ugliness of the picture and weird movement animation on low settings is unbearable and hurts your eyes. (Surprisingly, the worst part are the story-videos, where I'd have like 0.3 FPS) I believe it looks amazing on a fast PC, but come on, 77 GB for a puzzle game, that's a bit of an overkill. PLEASE MAKE PLAYABLE AND BEARABLE FOR THE MODEST PC's OUT THERE (like the 1st part was)

game has a ton of unlikable characters that never go away with constant, constant dialogue. this game does build upon the story of the first decently but man, it was much better as a strange mystery rather than relentless forced exposition.

TLDR: 4/5. Excellent game, it would be a masterpiece if they didn't drag it for a little too long. The game is overall extremely polished, with graphics that are astounding and still maintain the original identity from the previous iteration. You don't really need to have played the first game to get on this, but it adds to the weight of the lore at the start, and I highly recommend that you do for a full experience. Gameplay wise it does a great job of improving on the past game puzzles. Now, if you played Talos 1 you may think the puzzles are a little too easy on this one, but they are actually balanced, getting harder as the game progresses and you get better at it, finally giving you great challenges with the gate puzzles and the DLC content. Talos 2 also continues to add the little secrets and easter eggs, taking them to a whole new level with a semi-open world concept that really gives you a Myst vibe. The downside is that they make it last a little too long. It's hard to say this, but there are actually too many zones to play. At about 70% the game starts to drag on and feel a little like a grind, specially if you decide to do the "full" ending with the gate puzzles. If it had just a couple less zones, I believe this game would have been on the polishing level of Portal 2. If you can't get enough of the puzzles, however, than that's a bonus for you. Overall awesome experience, highly recommend.

Very visually stunning game. Unfortunately that's the only positive comment I have. Pick it up on discount when you can. To echo some of the other negative reviews, the minimum system requirements aren't accurate. I had to upgrade my system to properly play it. Regarding the gameplay, the story is slow as molasses and hindered by the massive open world feel. While they are satisfying to complete, the puzzles are insultingly simple. One of the things I loved about the philosphy presented in the first game is that it made me think and question my understanding of the world. In part two, half the time I feel like I'm scrolling through r/im14andthisisdeep and the other half it feels like the devs are just throwing quotes at you.

A masterpiece. Compared to the first : huge maps, monumentally detailed architecture, breathtaking landscapes, more developped characters, a city to visit, hours of dialogues, impeccable voice acting, somewhat even better built puzzles, a slew of easter eggs. Should be played after finishing the first one.