There are cases of Sequelitis, where the original was good enough that people are scared to see a sequel that wasn't required in the first place. Other times, you'd ask yourself that if the sequel even came out good as it should be, would you play it?
Nobody I know talks about Talos Principle, and that kind of bugged me. It's one of those rare ones which tackles subject matters in a more graceful way, regarding philosophical questions about today's subject matter; A.I. What a time to release something like this in today's climate.
Talos Principle 2 supersedes, in almost every aspect. This game not only opens itself up and expands further to the player, but nudges its way into seriously deeper fundamental questions modern age just hasn't gotten to. Stark contrast to all the nonsense seeing in X, Reddit, etc. The writing process to create a world with endearing characters, and amazing gameplay here is rare.
I don't know why I never got around to playing the original, that's a missed opportunity since it was co-written by the genius behind Driver: San Francisco, FTL, and Subnautica. What this game brings to the front is nothing short of wonder and curiousity.
As soon as I wake up, I hear a calming, reassuring voice who happens to be my mentor, and calls me one of his children. Nice. As he reveals so much more about the place, I run around thinking "ok, what's the next cutscene?" only there wasn't one. There were locked doors.
They need sigils to be rearranged, and fully cover the slots. To do that, I have to complete a series of puzzles, vey intricate yet brain crunching types. You know that TV show, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? It's that but trying to reach ChatGPT's 4.0 and above standard.
Each puzzle has a room, with an apt name that hints what they're about. It's basically sandbox type, involving object interaction, and placing some of them on places need be. All it takes is getting them to align well, before unlocking some path to one of the sigil pieces and picking them up. Clearing that room puzzle, and moving to the other.
You know, I thought I was the smarter one in the family, till I started doing some of these, and the indignity ensued. But I was humbled, I checked the internet for guides, and though I felt like an idiot, respect where it was due. The puzzles were challenging enough to get me out of my comfort zone.
If I had to guess, this is some sort of an initiation phase. Because the guardian of this digital realm, Elohim is trying to prepare me for what's coming next after all this. All of this being single-handedly one of the most straining puzzles section I've done. My brain started to hurt.
FYI, this game was made by Croteam, the guys who made Serious Sam. I was shocked before, and now am even more shocked they've managed to make this a visually appealing game. Including the parts where I am just rushing puzzle rooms, and for some reason, some of the columns started glitching in a split-second. In an UE5 game, that looks really creepy.
Also, I never explained how the puzzles work here. I will, just be sure to keep up what I'll say next. You don't need an advance degree to know how they work, just a hyper-functional brain that stresses your thinking capacity in current post-pandemic situation.
As I've reached the tail end and finished up the last rooms, I finally woke up somehow out of the simulation, and was greeted by a fellow robot. Basically giving a TL;DP and background story for those who didn't play the original Talos.
Humanity doomed itself, permafrost virus killed them, and what's left are the remaining remnants of human civilization after a last-call project of creating A.I. that would continue in their place. But I also have to ask, who is this guy, what is the number 33, and why does he sound more human and personalized than everybody else I've met recently IRL? Does this mean A.I. will win?
A floating blue particle summons the digital god, Prometheus, who speaking of, is one of those mythical allegories that is used a lot in the game's narrative and world-building. Short-lived introduction later, the robots of New Jerusalem, including me, no. 1000 goes to seek answers.
This part of the game introduces itself well into its ethos, and all the puzzle-solving fresh in my brain took a backseat, because I was bewildered by the visual spectacle infront of me. It wasn't all there for show either, I can explore the place, talk to other robots like me, be involved as a citizen.
And the writing for this game is criminally good, I mean, wow, how did they pull this off? I became a recipient for change through a voting election, I helped someone deal with his identity issues, and it's not like "oh the main characters get the best dialogue, everybody else is passive". I seriously wish the writing here matches the same with most AAA games out there now.
So I finished up exploring, and went with the investigation team; them being Yaqut, Alcatrez, Byron, Melville, and me. Notice I didn't have a name yet, that's not fair. Upon arriving the sight, after having some robot dream with cryptic foreshadowing, we arrive at a monument.
And as before, I was told to explore the area, search for areas of interest while sharing our thoughts through comms. Each and every one of us had opinions, and I was given multiple choices to express what I thought about it. And I wasn't sure if they any impact in my playthrough.
But I would sort of get to see that, after I arrive at the next puzzle section. So, here I go, explaining how they exactly work. The first few were easy, they're refreshers of course. But that's the first wave to get access into the main hub of theirs. The flying purple thing I saw before comes back here to tell me how many I've done, as I need to do 7/8 of them to get access.
To put it this way, light needs to enter input points from outputs. In order to divert that, I have to use receivers, you know, WiFi lingo. That can divert each light, bypass structural blocks or laser gates. Newer stuff comes along like RGB converters, and that's where it gets tricky.
Take this particular puzzle for example; two color outputs, red and blue both are blocked. The laser gate opens when stepping at the pedals. So I have 3 objects to use, a block, receiver, and RGB converter to emit green light to open the last door and finish it.
There's no game over, just that some takes so much time to do. And each time it gets weirder, difficult, and sometimes outright confusing even. My eyes, and my brain was starting to hurt, but ah, I sure feel a lot smarter. More curious I guess. There's more to do like finding audio recordings of humans before, data files, monuments with interesting limericks, and so on.
I had to ask, really what was the point of doing all these puzzles? Do they lead me to think about so many profound things? Yeah, they actually do. It's here where many interesting questions are raised, and the story opens up to new areas with newer characters to find.
There was a point after finishing up that section, and opening a vault that I talked to another Greek god simulation. And she went full questionnaire, asking me what I think about society, how people approaches things, gets more profound. Though I can see if no one wants to pontificate these days.
Least play it because of the characters, an audio recording literally makes fun of animals, even going far as to mentioning that they don't make a Beatles album, John Carpenter's movie, or Cheeseburgers even. The voice acting, line delivery, among others really nail this scene. At the same time am enjoying the view, a deer runs in circles, so I chase it, no reason, it just looked cool.
Later on, the puzzles that some like to hate gets crazier when they introduce Wall Drillers. I haven't gotten to the bottom of all this, yet I know am close. I am going to go back playing, and see what else surprises me.
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