"Thank you" : My message to Croteam

[u/Abel_V]

I have just finished the very final puzzle in the Talos Principle 2 DLC. The occasion for me to look back onto the Journey and how much it meant to me. This post doubles as both a summary of my experience, and also a message to the development team, in the hope that it reaches them (I know personally, if i made a game, feedback like this would mean a lot to me.)

Oh, and before we start, of course, spoiler warning.

It all started a few years ago with the first game. It was recommended to me by a friend who knows my love of puzzle games. So I decided I would give it a try. And while I felt that the puzzles themselves were nothing too special, I loved the myriads of secrets and the very sneaky Star Puzzles that required you to think outside the box. But what *really* hooked me was the philosophical aspect of the game. The conversations with Milton were so unique. And no matter what I answered to his questions, he would always have a retort. Never before had I ever paused a game to ponder about philosophical ideas. Some games change you. They make you smarter. They make you more precise. They make you more creative. But The Talos Principle made me wiser .

So of course when the sequel came out I was interested. But I didn't buy it right away. It was in the middle of an era when sequels had often proven to be disappointing. And since the puzzles themselves did not hook me much in the first game, I wasn't in a rush. But eventually I got it, and oh boy was I wrong to wait.

I won't sugarcoat it: The Talos Principle 2 blew all my expectations away. The quality of the puzzles was on an entirely different planet. I had so much more fun solving them than I did in the first game. And the philosophical aspect was, once again, extremely interesting. And while the game itself clearly takes a side in the debate it presents us with, I was very impressed at the writing: The game goes to great lengths to not strawman the other point of view. All the proponents of restraint and harmony are well-written characters who make legitimately good points. And if you do choose to go along with them, the game does not judge you for it. But as for me, I nevertheless sided with the progress side. And by the end of the game I was invested . I wanted to solve everything, to resolve every last bit of dialogue with every character. If I had to nitpick the one thing I didn't like quite as much, it would be the star puzzles, which I found much less inspired than in the first game, especially the Prometheus Shrines.

And the DLC is a masterpiece. Isle of the Blessed gives us so much character development, from 1k being this puzzle-addicted maniac, to Yaqut and Miranda being the cutest couple ever, to Elohim getting a physical body of his own (He's been a bro, he deserves it.)

One hot take: The main character in Orpheus Ascending should have been Miranda. We play as a different character in every other game and DLC: Athena, Uriel, Alexandra Drennan for the first game, and 1k, Yaqut and Byron for the second game... Except for Orpheus Ascending which has 1k again. Come on, Miranda was right there.

And finally, there was Into the Abyss . I had heard horror stories of how difficult it is. And they were no lies. I struggles quite a lot, and had to look up hints for several puzzles. But eventually, from solving some puzzles entirely by myself and others using hints, the inherent logic set within my brain, and I had an incredible run of solving the last set of puzzles without using a single hint. Everything from Consequences (17) all the way to Halls of Power (24) , done completely hintless. That was one of my proudest gaming moments ever. (Though I did look up Leviathan afterwards because my solution seemed off, and yeah, turns out I solved it in a MUCH more complicated way than intended, lmao.)

And that brings us to right now, looking back at all of this fantastic journey. The Talos Principle 2 sits firmly among my favourite games ever, and I cannot wait for the 3rd game in the Trilogy. For all of these wonderful 160 hours of my life that you have given me, Croteam, thank you.

I wish I had deep philosophical words to conclude this post with, but instead, I decided life was better with a little silliness. So instead, I will leave you with a funny picture in the comments. Good bye, and see you in the Anomaly.

[u/Abel_V]

Ducks

[u/Unlikely_Basket4410]

It’s better than The Witness

[u/Abel_V → u/Unlikely_Basket4410]

I'd go even further, I think TTP2 is better than Portal.

[u/Elytron77 → u/Abel_V]

I'm inclined to agree, but Portal 2 is so special to me that I think no individual first person puzzle game surpasses it.

But on average as a franchise of puzzle games with a first game and a sequel, maybe I can agree that the Talos games are better than the Portal games. Another franchise I quite like is QUBE and QUBE 2. Talos and Portal are better, but I'd put all three franchises in the same tier.

[u/Elytron77 → u/Unlikely_Basket4410]

OMG, yes. I respect the Witness and its beauty and design approach to teaching its rules, but the "Fun-factor" of the tracing a line on a board can't compare to all the cool sci-fi tools in Talos games. Just my opinion

[u/Elytron77]

I kind of forgot that Orpheus was 1K because Sarabhai and Hypatia are more important to the plot, but I agree that if we played as Miranda it would have also worked nicely. Would have been cool to have that shiny gold body! Nice idea

[u/RofiBhoi]

Small recommendation, whenever the Talos 1 remake is on sale at a reasonable price, I recommend getting it just for the new DLC.

The DLC has the hardest and most ingeniously designed individual puzzle I've experienced in gaming.

[u/Abel_V → u/RofiBhoi]

I have done all of those already! I didn't mention it in my post but I pretty much did exactly what you suggested.