The Talos Principle Reviews
Much like Portal, The Talos Principle makes you feel smart just by playing it, as the bulk of the puzzles hit that sweet spot between too easy and near-impossible.
The Talos Principle has made an effective jump from PC to PlayStation 4, thanks to the addition of expansion levels and a presentation that really makes use of the hardware at hand. While it's not quite a perfect transition, it remains a very applicable one, as the level design and snowballing level design continue to keep their momentum. Even if you're not entirely a fan of first-person games, Talos is worth a look, if only for the story alone.
A puzzle worth brooding over
With its relaxing atmosphere, pretty environments and interesting theological dilemma, The Talos Principle is PS4's best puzzler to date.
The Talos Principle has some important things to say, but more thoughtfully, it wants the player to have important things to say as well. Even those who do not bother to think about the philosophical topics can find a smart, sometimes frustratingly difficult puzzler here. It really shines for those open to both.
The Talos Principle plays like a marriage between Portal and a game from the 'walking simulator' genre, complete with an intriguing narrative and challenging puzzles.
The feeling of accomplishment from solving The Talos Principle's puzzles is almost like a high, and the game does a mostly great job of guiding you in the beginning and then letting you figure things out for yourself. Some hiccups near the end drastically change the pace of problem solving for the worse, but it's a game that will seriously challenge you to think and to reason.
The Talos Principle may be one of the best puzzle games of the year. Sure, it starts out pretty slowly, the first dozen or so of the game's 120+ puzzles are laughably easy, and the controls may be a little awkward, but these are minor flaws in the bigger scheme of things. There's an entertaining and thoughtful story about not just humanity, but what it means to be alive. If you want to flex your brain and start thinking about time in a Echoshift/Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time way, as well as wax philosophical with a computer terminal, The Talos Principle will keep you entertained for quite some time.
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.
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.
Review in Polish | Read full review
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.
Varied and effective puzzle game, which ends up being victim of its own ambition. Too long and somewhat presumptuous, it will work for fans of the genre.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Great puzzle design combined with an ambitious story
The core gameplay of Talos feels like a distant cousin to the Portal series. While the game is absolutely beautiful and challenging, it will feel like there is a lot to accomplish at first. But once you start progressing through the game, you will pick up on the aspect that it is not as open as you originally perceived. The emotion the game creates is fantastic, but you might not like or understand the story.
The real problem is that Talos suffers in comparisons. While Portal was just a series of connected puzzle chambers it always felt that a developer was leading you through it. The Talos Principle feels like boxes within boxes, left by the developer for you to play in.
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.
The philosophical side of the game won't be for everyone, and you can largely leave it alone or skim the texts if you really don't get on with it. I really enjoyed digging into the archives so I'd recommend giving it a good go, but ultimately it shouldn't get in the way of enjoying the excellent puzzle side of things.
The Talos Principle is rarely capable of answering the questions for which it makes you want answers. But in leaving enough space to wonder, it lets players name the questions in their own terms, a freedom that only leads back into a cell, dependent on language from long-forgotten generations, like computer code we're no longer conscious of running but can't seem to escape.