Ever since I played through The Talos Principle 1 back in 2016, close to 8 years ago at this point, it has held fast as my favorite game of all time without breaking a sweat. I am genuinely overjoyed to say that this is a complete improvement, and a more-than-worthy successor to the original game. The amount of times that I became stupidly giddy at any random thing in this game is absurd, and a little embarrassing, in retrospect. The dialogue, the characters, the worlds, the puzzles and mechanics, the environments, god, the environments alone.. I can't say enough good about this game. The number of hours that I pored over each text, decoding the hidden messages, or staring at the puzzles as I dramatically sit back in my chair and sigh at every roadblock puzzle. I wouldn't take back any of those hours. And I know for a fact that that will not be my last playthrough. The ideas that this game put in my head are going to stay with me for a long time yet, which is something I'm thankful for. I'll probably have to read through the texts a couple more times to fully understand what each conveys, and I can't wait.
Lets talk more materially, and with less gushing. I'm going to get all of my gripes out of the way:
I stand by what I said about the gameplay being a straight upgrade. Completely and with confidence. There are a few things I noticed in comparison to the first game, however none are severe enough to knock off even 1 point for. The first being that softlocks are much more common. Puzzles tend to have lose-states that cannot be recovered from without resetting the area, which can be a pain if you were working on a Star puzzle in the background. Where TTP1 would alert you of a puzzle softlock (which were fairly rare) by prompting you to reset with a HUD pop-up, TTP2 relies on the player to realize their own mistake, and take the initiative to reset themselves. The higher a puzzle's complexity, the higher the chance of creating a softlock is. Some of the Golden Puzzles were quite easy to accidentally break. Besides that, I did notice the removal of some minor control conveniences. The removal of the FFW bind was a somewhat understandable decision, considering how much rarer timing-based puzzles are in TTP2, however I did miss it occasionally. Thirdly, and finally, I encountered a particularly nasty game break near the last 10 minutes of the game where a lead-up puzzle became naturally softlocked, and failed to reset correctly, causing a hardlock where progression was impossible. However, the people over on the Discord were able to quickly and effectively assess and solve my problem, as they are aware of it. (This section of the review will be amended once this bug is patched.)
And... That's it. Those are the only 3 complaints that I can even fathom. I'm going to cover some specifics and 'quick points' that I think are worth covering and pointing out, now that we've cleared the air and acknowledged that nothing is absolutely perfect:
-Music is phenomenal. If you loved the OST to TTP1, TTP2 delivers in spades with wonderful music that continues to build on what TTP1 started.
-The inclusion of real and true dialogue between the player and other characters is a phenomenal change, and a new unexpected direction for TTP which works out BEAUTIFULLY for its' narrative.
-Speaking of characters, each character, major and minor, feels meaningful and potent in their identity. By the end of the game I could identify several minor characters walking around town, and I genuinely feel like I knew them from how they briefly interacted with the player throughout their many small appearances. I remember a particularly funny moment when I had to do a double take when I read a citizen's nametag while walking by, because I remembered just recently having an argument with them over Talos Twitter.
-The main cast is endlessly likable, each one of them bringing a wholly unique spin to the story, and they are just as capable of influencing the player as you are of influencing them, which is truly an incredible testament to, again, their wonderful writing.
I'm not going to touch the story side of things much, because it should truly be protected as a purely personal experience, but I want to include an experience that I had in the fourth act. Imagine striving for something so hard, and believing in it so fervently that you think it's truly the only way forward, and anything else is just ridiculous. You're telling everyone else that 'this is the way it ought to be!'. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, they start listening. Things are changing. They're changing fast; nearly to the point of a 180°, but you can't feel accomplishment. The only thing that you can feel.. is fear. Is this going too fast? What if we just rebound all the way to the other side of the extreme? Why does it feel like this is a slippery slope that I can't climb my way back up from? A veritable freefall. Are things moving too fast? Could I have been... Wrong?
These are the kinds of thoughts I had at one point, and it was the first time in a very long time that I had felt scared at a result that I had caused. I thank the writers for reminding me what that can be like, and commend them for being able to pull something like that off, intentional or not.
I was worried that this review would turn out a mile long, and scare off anyone from reading it, so I thought in my head before starting: "I'm gonna make a short review this time, so people will actually read it! This time, I'll surely be able to!!"
...
I suppose I shouldn't lie to myself like that. For better or worse, I'm utterly incapable of shutting up when it comes to something that I love. But in the end, I don't really mind whether or not anyone reads this review to the end. I want to see this game flourish, and to that end, I ought to make that positive rating go up as much as I can, even if it's just by 1, right?
If you enjoyed Talos Principle 1, play Talos 2. If you enjoy puzzlers of any kind, play Talos 2. If you enjoy having some thoughts being challenged, and being asked questions that you would probably never ask yourself, give it a shot. This is my Game of the Year, no contest.
Lets talk more materially, and with less gushing. I'm going to get all of my gripes out of the way:
I stand by what I said about the gameplay being a straight upgrade. Completely and with confidence. There are a few things I noticed in comparison to the first game, however none are severe enough to knock off even 1 point for. The first being that softlocks are much more common. Puzzles tend to have lose-states that cannot be recovered from without resetting the area, which can be a pain if you were working on a Star puzzle in the background. Where TTP1 would alert you of a puzzle softlock (which were fairly rare) by prompting you to reset with a HUD pop-up, TTP2 relies on the player to realize their own mistake, and take the initiative to reset themselves. The higher a puzzle's complexity, the higher the chance of creating a softlock is. Some of the Golden Puzzles were quite easy to accidentally break. Besides that, I did notice the removal of some minor control conveniences. The removal of the FFW bind was a somewhat understandable decision, considering how much rarer timing-based puzzles are in TTP2, however I did miss it occasionally. Thirdly, and finally, I encountered a particularly nasty game break near the last 10 minutes of the game where a lead-up puzzle became naturally softlocked, and failed to reset correctly, causing a hardlock where progression was impossible. However, the people over on the Discord were able to quickly and effectively assess and solve my problem, as they are aware of it. (This section of the review will be amended once this bug is patched.)
And... That's it. Those are the only 3 complaints that I can even fathom. I'm going to cover some specifics and 'quick points' that I think are worth covering and pointing out, now that we've cleared the air and acknowledged that nothing is absolutely perfect:
-Music is phenomenal. If you loved the OST to TTP1, TTP2 delivers in spades with wonderful music that continues to build on what TTP1 started.
-The inclusion of real and true dialogue between the player and other characters is a phenomenal change, and a new unexpected direction for TTP which works out BEAUTIFULLY for its' narrative.
-Speaking of characters, each character, major and minor, feels meaningful and potent in their identity. By the end of the game I could identify several minor characters walking around town, and I genuinely feel like I knew them from how they briefly interacted with the player throughout their many small appearances. I remember a particularly funny moment when I had to do a double take when I read a citizen's nametag while walking by, because I remembered just recently having an argument with them over Talos Twitter.
-The main cast is endlessly likable, each one of them bringing a wholly unique spin to the story, and they are just as capable of influencing the player as you are of influencing them, which is truly an incredible testament to, again, their wonderful writing.
I'm not going to touch the story side of things much, because it should truly be protected as a purely personal experience, but I want to include an experience that I had in the fourth act. Imagine striving for something so hard, and believing in it so fervently that you think it's truly the only way forward, and anything else is just ridiculous. You're telling everyone else that 'this is the way it ought to be!'. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, they start listening. Things are changing. They're changing fast; nearly to the point of a 180°, but you can't feel accomplishment. The only thing that you can feel.. is fear. Is this going too fast? What if we just rebound all the way to the other side of the extreme? Why does it feel like this is a slippery slope that I can't climb my way back up from? A veritable freefall. Are things moving too fast? Could I have been... Wrong?
These are the kinds of thoughts I had at one point, and it was the first time in a very long time that I had felt scared at a result that I had caused. I thank the writers for reminding me what that can be like, and commend them for being able to pull something like that off, intentional or not.
I was worried that this review would turn out a mile long, and scare off anyone from reading it, so I thought in my head before starting: "I'm gonna make a short review this time, so people will actually read it! This time, I'll surely be able to!!"
...
I suppose I shouldn't lie to myself like that. For better or worse, I'm utterly incapable of shutting up when it comes to something that I love. But in the end, I don't really mind whether or not anyone reads this review to the end. I want to see this game flourish, and to that end, I ought to make that positive rating go up as much as I can, even if it's just by 1, right?
If you enjoyed Talos Principle 1, play Talos 2. If you enjoy puzzlers of any kind, play Talos 2. If you enjoy having some thoughts being challenged, and being asked questions that you would probably never ask yourself, give it a shot. This is my Game of the Year, no contest.
Frick
7 months ago