The Talos Principle

I thought I would enjoy it. The Greco-roman ruin aesthetics are my favourite.

It's a shame most puzzles fall under two categories; too easy or too frustrating. I sure enjoy having to be very precise or I'll be blown up and have to restart again and again.

The lore does not interest me at all either.

And then there's the star puzzles. The first one I solved was phenomenal! I had to look for some missing detail, I had to use my phone to scan a QR-code that wasn't auto translated, and it was incredibly satisfying. I was itching to get more of those puzzles! And then came the other star puzzles... The worst part by far. It was either a hunt for an obscure location through an entire map, or the same old "you have to bring a light from one room to another room" over and over again. My opinion quickly changed.

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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

Might not be as strong as Portal or The Witness among first-person puzzle games, The Talos Principle carved it's own special place. It has good quality puzzles, contemplative tone, which is enhanced by complementary music and visuals, as well as lore and thought provoking philosophy, touching on subjects of identity and intelligence.

Lasers and Philosophy
70 / 100

Very good puzzle game. Easy to pick up and put down as you like. Highly recommend.

An underrated fantastic provocative game. One of the most, if not the most profound game ever. Like a crash course in philosophy about the nature of consciousness. Even going as far as evaluating what it means to play. This game has truly rewired the way I think now. I also invite you in learning The Talos Principle

Incredible game! Gorgeous worlds and ingenious puzzles. I got about 37 hours of brain-tingling pleasure from it.

It's a game, alright.

The Gehenna DLC is also quite playable, even though some of its puzzles can be a bit of a slog to resolve.

Muy motivador, puzzles bastante complejos y entrincados juegos mentales, los escenarios son verdaderamente motivadores y muy relantes, un nivel de realismo que esta bastante conseguido, excelente sincronia entre tecnologia antigua y tecnologia moderna, el personaje es ejemplificante y muy actual en el orden actual, ya que es un robot azul que analogamente plasma la velocidad de la materia, es muy singular.

Very interesting topic and some challenging puzzles! If you enjoy philosophy and games like Portal, most probably you'll like this one too

When a friend of mine recommended me this game I just thought that it was a regular 3D puzzle game but man this game is much much deeper than that. As a puzzle game, this game is very good but the story is what makes this game a masterpiece imo, 10/10. The story may seem boring at first but trust me it gets so much better in the later parts.
Even if you don't care about the story there are other things to like about this game:
First of all it has a LOT of content and the Road to Gehenna DLC's cost is also justified for the amount of content it provides (and of course the story too).
Second: the game has a LOT of easter eggs to find, if you are into that.
Third: the soundtrack of this game is just excellent.
Fourth: the graphics are also really good.
Fifth: there are multiple endings one can unlock based on their choices/actions.

A love letter for those who enjoy puzzle games and reading, this game has some of the most interesting and thoughtful lore texts I've seen in a game. I'm a huge journal/codex/entry reader. I came for the puzzles and stayed for the rich lore I was not expecting to see.

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.

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!

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.

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 because i'm too stupid 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.

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.

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.

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.

It's a fun game to play with your family, especially young kids.

Wow. Just wow. This is one of the best games I have ever played, don’t even read the rest of this review, just do yourself a huge favor and buy it. Every single thing about this game is fantastic, the art style is consistent and nice to look at (even if it isn’t bleeding edge today, play the sequel for that) the gameplay is very refined first person puzzle solving, with great unique mechanics that don’t get old even though the game took me roughly thirty hours to beat, (for a game like this, that’s a massive runtime) they constantly find ways to spice up the puzzles and I never ran into a puzzle that didn’t innovate upon the game’s mechanics in some way. The story is phenomenal, the way you get information slowly drip fed to you over the course of the game is super well done and I genuinely cared to get all the secret stars to get the true ending (which is well worth it, it is awesome). It also plays perfectly on the Steam Deck, just set the graphics options to auto. Overall this is now one of my favorite games of all time, and I recommend it to anyone who is even slightly interested in puzzle games, and who can appreciate games as art. 10/10.

I would say I am a fan of puzzle games. Series like the Room, House of Da Vinci and Gordian Rooms are my cup of tea. I also very much like the Myst series, although I generally find them to have less focus on puzzles and more on the environment and story whereas I prefer more puzzle. The Talos Principle (and it's sequel) focuses very heavily on puzzles, the environment and the story. On top of this, the game is huge. I would have spent at least 30 hours to complete the game and I frequently looked at guides to solve a good number of the harder puzzles.

For a 2014 game, the graphics still hold up. I can see there is a remastered edition coming soon (Talos Principle: Reawakened) which I would recommend holding out for if the improved graphics are worth the extra money to you. The story is fine, but there is so much content to read on the terminals that I became fatigued and just clicked through it. It doesn't affect the gameplay, but the interaction with the terminals is important for several of the achievements.

I must admit that I became fatigued with the puzzles. At the start I was super engaged with the game and each puzzle was a joy and I couldn't stop thinking about the game when I wasn't playing the game. After about 2/3 of the main game I felt I was going through the motions. I probably should have taken a break and come back at this point, but my desire to complete a game got the better of me and I persisted. Generally the puzzles get harder until you reach a milestone and open a new section. The new section will introduce a new puzzle mechanic and the puzzles get fresh again, up to a point. I think many people found the playback puzzle mechanic frustrating, and I was certainly one of them. I won't go into specifics, but they were sometimes tedious and easy to stuff up which made them very time consuming, especially when they required some trial and error to nut out the solution. I was overjoyed when I found a keypress that allowed me to really speed up the playback which also served as a super sprint and made traversing the maps so much faster.

The game has multiple endings and you can finish the game without doing every puzzle the game has on offer. If you've had enough of the puzzles, you can walkaway right there and you would have got excellent value from the game. However, there are a bunch of bonus puzzles that you need to solve in order to fully complete the game, reach all of the endings and unlock all of the achievements. These were the hardest puzzles in the game. From memory, there were 9 of these "Star" puzzles. I solved the first 2, but followed solutions on YouTube for the rest as I just was no longer interested in slogging this game out. Come to think of it, collecting the stars throughout the game is also a challenge and I'm sure I looked up how to find many of them on YouTube. The game could easily take 40 hours if you didn't use any guides.

So, do I like the game or not? I absolutely loved it at the start, but was glad to finish it and walk away at the end. It's a big game best played in doses. You might find the puzzles samey, but they are truly satisfying to solve. So yes, I do recommend this game. It is excellent value for money that could potentially give you many hours of play. If you do not like puzzle games then this is definitely not for you.

NOTE: One final thing to mention is that some of the achievements are missable and to get them all in one playthrough, I highly advise following an achievement guide and referring to that guide very often. Even knowing this, I made a mistake with some of my responses to the dialogue which meant I missed the opportunity for one of the achievements. When I realised this I restarted the game and had to go through about 2/3 of the main puzzle line to correct the mistake.

good story, good puzzles, minimal frustration. definitely worth

Challenging puzzles. Some of the star puzzles were a little too obtuse. The philosophy got a bit tiresome after a while.

Great puzzle game where you gotta think your way through it. It's not as fast paced as something like Portal, but that makes this game more relaxed. So take your time, and combine those beams, to open the gates. And feel the pride and accomplishment, when you finally beat it!

Thought provoking, challenging, sadistic at times - this was a really great game. I dare you to complete it without peeking at solutions on youtube)

It's a game that's fun to play when you're looking for something casual and relaxing, yet engaging at the same time. It leaves you with a story that is vague enough to get you to want to finish the game. I'd definitely recommend!

As someone who struggled at baba is you (i didnt even beat that game), this game was an amazing breath of fresh air. The puzzles all have multiple solutions and are much more about spatial awareness. I consider myself pretty bad at puzzles but this game managed to be entertaining the entire way through. I'm not ashamed of admitting that I did spent an hour or two on some of the puzzles but it never felt irritating. Getting a lot of the optional stats was also a lot of fun.

The story/lore was absolutely amazing to read and the voice acting was on point as well. Really made you think even though I didn't understand all of it.
Overall just an amazing game and that's coming from someone who isn't used to puzzle games
The dlc is just as good as the main game.

Gonna buy the second game as soon as it goes on a big sale (money's tight)

The Talos Principle has an Incredibly unique story and themes for a video game. It really does capture the essence of the existential sci fi and philosophy I love. The story is given in pieces and obscured so you always feel like there's something more going on and that there's never a complete answer. The method the story is told even ties into it's themes of there not being a perfect answer for the many deep questions it proposes.

The puzzles are also great overall. Some I got stuck on and were frustrating but I never had to look anything up since I could always come back. By the end I was actually really comfortable and could solve puzzles easily. The game's difficulty progression is great. Every tool is used in combination with each other in unique ways.

The game is definitely aging so the environment design and graphics sometimes were a little rough but it still served the game well and didn't break too much immersion. The music is also repetitive but you can turn it off.

Overall a peak video game. One of the numerous shining gems of the puzzle genre.

This game is nothing short of extraordinary. It takes the notion of "puzzle games" up to a new level. With somewhat straightforward mechanics, it is astounding how complex the puzzle solutions can become! While the story is intriguing, and the worlds are stunning, the centrepiece of this game remains the increasing complexity of the puzzles as you progress through the worlds. Strongly recommend both the base game and the Road to Gehenna, the latter of which kicks up the puzzles up several notches. Enjoy!

Not going to lie, I wasn't sure what to think of this game when I got it. I think I got it for a few dollars and was rated highly, so I got it and played it a long while after the purchase.

I just started getting into the 1st person puzzle games, and this game got me very invested in it! This is a must buy for any 1st person puzzle gamers!!!

This is an incredible puzzle game. I originally bought it because I just wanted to have a game to play that made me feel smart, and while there are challenging puzzles here, I became engrossed in the philosophical narrative and it kept me playing until the very end

An absolute masterpiece of creative storytelling. Profoundly honest, urging us to reflect in the face of life’s mysteries. Stunningly beautiful and worth every minute spent. 10/10.

this game made me rethink everything ive ever believed in, gave me a whole new perspective in life. taught me not to be so ignorant. it requires you to be more open minded then any other game on the market, if you thought abt tryin, buy it.

If anyone ever says video games can't be art, show them this game. I'm only about 3 and a half hours into it, but I can confidently say it may be the best puzzle game ever made. And if the quality stays at the level of the first few hours, then this game is even better than portal 1 and 2

If you like puzzles and are at all interested in philosophy, then you NEED to play The Talos Principle

Gorgeous art design, interesting puzzles and challenging extras (stars) that give a real sense of accomplishment when found without looking up help. What an absurdly amazing game

Really impressive first outing for a croatian dev team that mostly makes FPS games. The philosophical/spiritual writing is what grabbed me the most - I think it beats most anything that comes out of Western films nowadays.

That said the engine is a little dated and the 'enemies'/obstacles can be frustrating to navigate in certain sections, and hunting for those elusive stars feels tedious.

Those are minor qualms though. It's a fantastic package overall and I'm looking forward to the DLC and the sequel.

TL;DR:

At it's best, this is a great puzzle game that can be an engaging and fun jumping off point on a journey of wide philosophical exploration.

At it's worst, this game presents a compelling story that (when left unquestioned) justifies a worldview of western domination and idolization of technology.

The experience for most is probably somewhere in between.

Shouts out to the creators, the game is a work of art.

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I have mostly great things to say about this game. The ambient landscape is beautiful, the mystery of the story is compelling from beginning to end, and the puzzles are for the most part engaging and fun to play. Many of the puzzles force you to think outside the box in ways that will make you very frustrated before you figure it out, and very satisfied once you do figure it out.

Players who like a genuine challenge and players who like story rich gaming alike will enjoy this game. If you love Portal, you will love this game and you'll get a head start in figuring it out (many of the mechanics are familiar). The middle of the game felt like a bit of a slog, but that feeling didn't last too long. Overall, I highly recommend this game!

However, I do have some words of caution for the player. This game is best played with an open, and critical, mind. If you are paying attention to the story, and especially if you are engaging with all of the content like the text files in the archive and the audio files scattered throughout the world, you will be confronted with many deep philosophical inquiries. It's an important and beautiful part of the game! Pay close attention to how it unfolds.

As you progress through this game, and particularly towards the end, there is a sense of finality to the philosophical statements being made by the characters. Especially with Alexandra Drennan's audio recordings, the way her character is built up in the canon of the game gives her a feeling of great authority when she speaks on these deep questions. I find it really beautiful the way her audio recordings play out, and I enjoyed going on that journey. I also found issue with many of the philosophical statements she made, noticing that there are a lot of assumptions present that are never approached or unpacked meaningfully.

I appreciated the dialogue with the Serpent (Milton) as a place to have a more choice-based way of exploring the philosophical ideas present, but I quickly realized that my choices weren't affecting the dialogue much and it felt very frustrating. I also felt very limited in those interactions by the dialogue choices I was given, and that made the game less fun in those moments. If you start to be more expansive in your view of consciousness during conversations with Milton, Milton becomes somewhat patronizing, and though Milton acquiesces to what you're saying in the end, Milton does so in a way that makes clear that those ideas are kind of wacky and far-fetched. The more you get in line with Milton's sort of nihilistic materialism, the more legitimate your responses are treated.

At the end of the day, I can't deny that a large part of my experience is that I just don't agree with a lot of the philosophical ideas that are core to this games narrative. But that is the purpose of philosophy - to question fundamental ideas. I think it is very important to realize and remember that the philosophical ideas being presented in this game are specific to certain schools of thought - namely, Western Materialism. Western materialism isn't a neutral philosophy either, let's remember that it formed the basis for the development of theories about race and "social evolution" that justified genocides and hostile takeovers around the world, not to mention the unbridled extraction of natural resources that has put us in the pickle we are in today. This game is a clever and creative way of introducing players to western materialism, and I hope that players can continue their philosophical exploration from there. If you're interested in that, here are some questions you could start with:

Can you identify the central philosophical questions that the game is dealing with? How would you word them?

Based on the aesthetics of the different "worlds" within the garden, what histories/places/cultures are informing the ideas in the game? What histories/places/cultures aren't represented, and what might they have to say about the games central philosophical questions? (hint: east asia, south asia, north america, central america, etc.)

Are there assumptions hidden within the central philosophical questions? Within this game? Within the philosophical traditions they are drawing from?

When Alexandra Drennan says "civilization", what does she mean by that? What kinds of ideas/structures/forms is she referring to? What can you infer from context, and what could that tell you about this characters background and worldview?

What kinds of things have to be present in the world of this game in order to enable something like the Institute of Applied Neomatics to exist? To enable a project of this scope to be undertaken? What kinds of resources? What may that have looked like within the context of the inferred disaster event that supposedly killed off humanity? In what ways could this project have been controversial in the world of the game at that time?

Do you think that the project led by Alexandra Drennen at IAN, within the context of the game, was worthwhile? Why or why not?

I used to think the Portal series was the best FPV puzzle games but I can say that The Talos Principle belongs in the same league as Portal. It's different type of puzzle but still so very good and more challenging.

nice puzzles, great graphics

Its a very good game with a great story. At the end it gets a bit tiring completing the levels because there are too many but overall its a great game to play.

juego de nicho, pero bastante bueno. Si te gustan los juegos de puzzle esta recomendado.

Great puzzles, thought provoking storyline. Too linear (choices barely matter).

Great game. A real brain tease with awesome puzzles that make you think outside the so called box.

Great puzzle game. Great music. Great atmosphere. Teaches philosophy while you have fun playing an awesome game.

This Game and Soma are some of my favorite simply because of the story. Not many games tell a story that cover such an important topic as humanity itself. The puzzles are fun and graphics feel like a 2014 game (in a good way)

would recommend. you should get this

Challenging puzzles and a great story, 10/10.

Great story, great puzzles, beautiful environments, and good performance. I was pleasantly surprised with everything this game has to offer. Especially the puzzles.

If you like collectibles and hidden messages then this game is for you. It's filled with collectibles and many of them are out of bounds. The only trouble is finding the way out.

Despite all that, one of the best reasons to play this game is to prepare yourself for the sequel, which turns everything up a notch. Don't miss out on these unforgettable games.

A great puzzle game that is quite unique, with a sort of sci-fi setting in ways.

Excellent, elegant game design. My only critique is that it doesn't allow you to go back to previous parts of the game once you've completed it (Talos 2 does allow it fortunately).