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The Talos Principle


spatular
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it's like an fps puzzle game, think portal, actually the game structure has a lot in common with portal. but the puzzling is a bit different, you use various items to open doors/activate/disable baddies/stuff, and lasers. lots of lasers. it's good. it's supposed to be really good, and it sort of is, but it outstayed its welcome a bit for me, steam says it took 17 hours, a lot of parts of puzzles are similar to other puzzles so it could have been cut down to a better length imo. i mean it's still really good, just a bit too long, i was really close to using a guide near the end but just managed to work out the last one i was stuck on before resorting to the guide. maybe there's more puzzles because of the extra puzzles to collect the stars which require

combining things from more than one puzzle

. i got a few stars but not loads - maybe they unlock a super secret ending or something.

the story is pretty cool too, maybe more so if you're into philosophy and stuff like that (which confused me a bit, but i think that's the point), although you sort of know what's happening at the end if you read the computer files.

found a few hidden secret bits that were pretty odd/funny too.

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  • 1 year later...

Really can't deal with the craziness of Yakuza 0 right now so I've spent the afternoon playing this without really knowing what to expect.

 

It's instantly grabbed me more than The Witness ever did (mentioning The Witness as both are in the same wheelhouse) but there seems to be a much more Portal-y feel to it.

 

The graphics are pretty simple, nothing has really wowed me but I'm quite enjoying the difference in environments. I'm not gonna lie, a few (about 10%) of the levels have stumped me and I have resorted to YouTube, but I really like all the different mechanics and puzzle elements, especially when a couple of types are combined.

 

I'm getting a lot more out of it then I expected, without looking at trailers I thought it was going to be The Witness meets The Unfinished Swan but it definitely takes more influence from Portal than either of these, and that's only going to be a good thing in my eyes!

 

Looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fuck me this game hurts my brain. Occasionally I'm really impressed with the logic the developers have used, other times I'm absolutely baffled. Full on brain melting episodes.

 

I'm liking the storyline though, it's good fun and it's pulling me through even when I'm getting infuriated and want to put my controller through the tv.

 

Currently on the third set of puzzles and I've used an axe a couple of times in the main hub. I just need to put a bit of effort in and start trying to find/collect stars - I've only got one up to now!

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I got around to finishing this the other day - well two of the endings anyway. I could have gone trophy hunting but didn't really want to revisit too many levels collecting stars for the secret parts. It's fine, I can live without that brainache. I did look at a couple of stars and how you get them, and they were pretty clever, so I'll give some dues to the devs for the inventive work you need to do.

 

I also plowed through the Road to Gehenna DLC - some fantastic puzzles in there, including one in an Egyptian setting that utterly stumped me, and a couple that were very familiar retreads on some from the main game. Again, I couldn't be bothered going back for the stars, although I'm much more tempted to go back and do it on that part of the game.

 

As for the philosophical debates - I followed most of it but didn't read the text files to get the full story. I honestly wasn't playing it for the plot, that was just a nice addition. I liked what I did pay attention to though, especially when I was arguing with the computer over what makes a person a person rather than a computer.

 

Anyway, I actually really enjoyed this (even if I did have to rely on YouTube more than I'd have liked) and I think I'd be tempted to pick up any extra DLC they come up with or a sequel if that was ever announced. Definitely one of the best games I've purchased on a whim.

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  • 4 years later...

Wow, this game blew me away. I downloaded it for our holiday over the last couple of weeks and couldn't put it down!
I've completed the basic game but not gotten all the stars yet, some of them seem insane!

 

I loved the threads of story that accompanied the puzzles, really smart and thoughtful.

The puzzles themselves are outstanding, some of the harder ones took me an hour or more, a few I had to sleep on and I definitely dreamt the solutions to at least two, it was wild! I woke up and knew exactly what I had to do :D

The satisfaction of completing a puzzle when it's been brewing for a while was immense. Then just marveling at the lattice of laser beams that you just made, love it.

 

This somehow lands the game in my top ten I'd say. I didn't even know it existed until I read an article on puzzle games somewhere! I wonder what else is out there still to discover...

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Hey @DisturbedSwan, I tried The Witness but got a bit lost I think. I seem to remember not knowing what to do next.
I also rarely boot up the PS4 as it's so much easier to turn on the Switch (with its insta-start). I ought to revisit it though as it's just sitting there, good call!

 

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5 hours ago, Pikman said:

I wonder what else is out there still to discover...

 

The developers of The Turing Test openly said that Talos Principle was a big influence and you can certainly see it. I'd recommend that one, the puzzles are really good and it's interwoven in an interesting narrative about the rationality of an AI and the morality of a human with just a slight hint of HAL in how said AI is portrayed. Really great stuff IMO and totally underappreciated.

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I've always found it hard to evaluate the difficulty levels of a puzzle game. Sometimes you breeze through a complex puzzle like it's nothing but the next day you're stuck forever at something really simple. I'd say Turing Test is comparable to the first Portal, in that you have to think a bit and mess around but will never get stuck for long periods of time.

 

...except for that one optional puzzle that involved boolean algebra, which I had to look up online because I never learned that stuff. Such a weird thing to include but I will never forget it.

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  • 1 year later...

I've been making really good progress, completed a couple of the zones, but there seems to be more & more unlocked. Really like how many of the solutions are quite simple, but require an element of lateral thinking to reach the conclusion.

 

Just hit a fantastic mechanism too -the one that looks like a 'Play' button - really clever !

 

I'm enjoying this more that The Witness - the issue I had with that game was that the puzzle sequences just progressed in to be increasingly harder & more complex versions of themselves - hence just got frustratingly repetitive - whilst here things feel fresher each time around.

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Just found a very weird 'Easter Egg'.

 

Spoiler

Went through a pink door on the 'Castle Level 2' and there's a guy throwing cash around saying "Money Money Money" - called Fork Parker.

 

I had no idea of the reference - he's from the Serious Sam games apparently.

 

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Think I'm just mopping up towards the end game now - I've unlocked 4 Floors of the Tower, and just need to nip back to some earlier areas to pick up a couple of missing red blocks to proceed (as there didn't seem a need to collect them at the time). I've picked up a few Stars, but not sure I'll bother trying to get them all.

 

It's been great.

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