The Talos Principle Reviews
A puzzle worth brooding over
The Talos Principle's philosophical puzzling is the closest anyone's ever come to recapturing what made Portal special.
It's an experience that truly stretched different parts of my mind in more satisfying way than Portal. Though the puzzles frustrate at times, most are put together thoughtfully and in a simple enough way that you can go away and figure it out on paper if you need to (I needed to, frequently).
The Talos Principle is a brilliant puzzle game with story and gameplay elements that blend remarkably well.
The Talos Principle is what it is, though, and inflexible puzzles don't dim the inquisitive light shining inside this game. Croteam has made something rewarding and ultimately knowable but also something that inspires reflection on what isn't.
As puzzlers come, The Talos Principle is certainly the cream of the crop and easily deserves any praise that can be laid at its doorstep. The puzzles can be tricky but are always intuitive, asking questions of you and driving you through the environment. Even the graphics, despite their seemingly conflicting styles, are good enough to draw you in. It's bizarre that the same team who brought us something like Serious Sam could deliver some so cerebral and philosophical, but the team has achieved here is the ultimate collection of logical conundrums.
At the core of The Talos Principle is the startling idea that man is not so different from machine, and that our truest purpose lies in the contributions we leave for our children, and our children's children. Though we die, our legacy remains through them, and through what our small actions help them accomplish, even in the face of total destruction.
Not content with merely being a fairly impressive piece of writing and first-person puzzle design, The Talos Principle sets out to expand your horizons, and will most likely succeed. Croteam's foray into territory beyond absurd, large-scale first-person shooters is not without faults, but it proves without a doubt that they aren't the one-trick pony you thought they were.
The Talos Principle can easily be called the next big puzzle game in the same vein as Portal. The story fosters some thoughtful discussion and sticks with you. The puzzles are clever and have a natural progression in difficulty, and the tools make them fun, even if none are completely new to the genre. The presentation is beautiful, and the game's overall length means you'll spend quite a bit of time on your initial playthrough. In a nutshell, you must pick up The Talos Principle.
The Talos Principle is a delightful puzzle experience that spurs the curiosity of players both in terms of solutions to the challenges and to the philosophical nature of our existence. It's certainly worth it to go through the game as there are just a few downsides, from the freezes to the slightly repetitive solutions or the jump scares caused by unnoticed obstacles.
This narrative distance and the slow difficulty curve both point to the same thing: an over-reluctance to lose or alienate an audience unwilling to engage with philosophical thought or difficult puzzles. But that belies the ideal audience for a philosophical puzzle game: an audience willing to try.
Few games have everything working in such synchronised harmony as The Talos Principle. The world, puzzles, narrative and music are all served to the player in small helpings, never overwhelming and allowing you to soak in and become one with the world. By the end of the game, it has challenged your mind in multiple ways. As a game The Talos Principle forces the player to reason through the mechanics of its puzzles, all the while tickling the philosophical parts of our minds with deeper questions.
This is a title for anyone who has ever looked at the ocean or the night sky and been stunned by the unfathomable vastness of the universe and the mystery of the human condition. Hopefully, that's everyone.
The Talos Principle is a great thought-provoking puzzler which deals with the existential questions of mankind while delivering an enjoyable and satisfying adventure. It may get cumbersome and tedious at times, but it's worth it just for being unlike anything else out there
EXCELLENT - Amazingly detailed Greek architecture world with intentional glitches, haunting music, and a brilliant story make up for one of the best puzzle games to ever grace the Switch or any system.
The Talos Principle, is a game which may bore some to tears, but will serve others with the necessary dose of peace and tranquillity, as the combination of the eerily empty yet beautifully charming locations with the peaceful and calming soundtrack, will surely serve most with exactly what they need when taking a break from the big AAA action games of today.
If you love and miss the Portal series, it's time to celebrate: The Talos Principle has all the first-person puzzles you've been craving, wrapped in an extremely thoughtful package. Don't be surprised if you feel legitimately smarter after reaching the end of its 100-plus puzzles.
The Talos Principle is a great puzzle game but number of puzzles, hubs, sub-hubs and sub-sub-hubs will make the game tedious pretty quickly.
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