I admit I didn’t realize the sequel even came out yet, but it has an 88/9.0 on Metacritic. Overlooked maybe, but underrated?
His metric of underrated seems to be comparing the artistic quality of a game with its sales numbers, and I guess Talos II was a poor seller.
Bought it when it came out! Great game. The antialiasing is really funky, though. There’s a lot of ghosting no matter what antialiasing option you use. I suspect it’s probably a software bug. It does kind of detract from the visual quality aspect of its marketing.
Regardless, I don’t think puzzles sell well in general - bit of a niche genre
That’s our hated TAA for you. It’s always on. And its especially bad in this title unfortunately. As talos1 was really great and I asked for talos2 to the devs for not forced TAA.
Rather have jaggies than being blurred out.
I really want MSAA back in modern games, always looked great even though it costs some performance. I feel like Anti Aliasing really doesn’t cost that much as it used to do anyways
That’s “hidden gem” rather than “underrated.”
But I agree with others that are saying it’s just niche. It’s a pure puzzle game. There’s no exploration, crafting, combat, survival, etc. You have to really like puzzles to play a pure puzzle game.
I do, and I’ve still been struggling to make it all the way through. I’m just starting on the last of the first 12 sections, and some of them have kind of been a slog rather than a joy.
I can’t even give any particular complaint, though. Each puzzle really is different from the others, so they aren’t duplicated in any way that was obvious to me. It’s just a lot, I guess.
I honestly have no clue what it’s even about or what kind of game it is. I’ve seen it on steam regularly, but it never interested me to investigate.
Mechanically - both games are puzzle games in the same rough 3d-platform-puzzler vein as Portal. Instead of solving puzzles with teleportation however, you’ve got laser beams and force fields.
On a more metaphysical level, the first game is a philosophical investigation of what it means to be human - to be alive and an individual.
The sequel is a meditation on what makes societies succeed or die.
Both games are fun, the puzzles are just hard enough to be interesting with a sprinkling of well-hidden secrets. But the real reason to play The Talos Principle is if you’ve got an interest in philosophy - the storylines are deeply interested in asking some very big questions. … and they don’t provide answers either - the game poses questions and allows you to answer as you see fit.
Yeah, puzzle games usually don’t do too well, with notable exceptions like Portal, but the philosophy is really what both killed but also gave success to the series. It uses Christian symbolism in a way that could out some people off, and it really wants you to think, which some people may not want to do. If you don’t participate in that aspect it’s a somewhat mediocre puzzle game. With it though it’s one of my favorite puzzle series.
I don’t think it will very see large scale success, but I also don’t think it needs to or has ever aimed for that. It wants to do something and do it well. It wants to talk about philosophy with people actually interested in philosophy. If that isn’t for you then it’s going to leave you behind and that should be OK. Not every title needs to reach for mass appeal.
Also, if anyone’s wondering if you should play the first or just go to the second, it’s fine to start with 2, but I think 1 is the better game. The graphics are worse obviously, but I think it’s a better package. 2 doesn’t follow the same character and there’s not much story from 1 you need to know for 2, but 2 does use the mechanics for 1 and adds to it, so 1 may feel worse after. 1 takes the more limited mechanics further I think though. I never struggled with 2, even after 100%ing it, but 1 is more challenging, especially with the DLC which takes all the mechanics to their furthest reaches.
The first was amazing as well, but I always figured its niche type of problem solving and philosophical subjects didn’t really appeal to a wide audience. When the second one was announced I immediately wanted to play it, but I think once again a small target audience is its crutch for mainstream success.
Didn’t this come out like last year or something? How can it be “game of the last decade” already if it came out this decade?
I hate hyperbolic shit like that.
To play devil’s advocate last decade could mean the rolling decade e.g. 2014-2024.
OP is a clickbait fuck
It means in the last 10 years…
How could you fail to understand that?
“In the past decade” means “in the past 10 years from this point in time” so 2014 to now in this case.
It’s hilarious how you’ve become mad about something only because you’re so dumb you can’t comprehend super basic concepts.
The game is also only a few months old. Calling it “the most underrated game of the last decade” is still hyperbolic, and makes no sense.
It’s only a few months old, ffs.
Most logical thing said on this post in the last century.
This is the dumbest comment of the last decade.
⬆️ most underrated comment of the decade
Yeah I agree. Nothing wrong with how this was worded. “Of all the games which were released in the last 10 years, this one is the most underrated”
I got overloaded by the puzzles in the first game, so I didn’t even consider the second. Yes, it iterated on interesting ideas around the blocks, but just after resolving one, I’d feel exhausted from the enormous sequence of movements and actions I’d need to do to get through the exit - and just be thrown into another mess of them. I really preferred something like Portal, where it’s just small executions of simple ideas that may require one act of ingenuity to use them right.
I also can’t really bring myself to care much about story in any game that’s so far post-apocalypse.
That’s fair, I got a little puzzle fatigue myself in the first game. I did find the story to be quite compelling, maybe it’s worth a watch instead of a play? Though I think that misses out on all the messages between other AI’s and terminals in the game, which add significant world building.
This is a more complete story video. https://youtube.com/watch?v=sIsW7X7vDOw
Ooh, that looks quite comprehensive, good stuff! Thanks man :)
This is just my opinion and I don’t know if everyone will agree, but I found 2 significantly easier than 1. I 100%'d 2 and I think only one of the bonus puzzles really took me much time. I didn’t get the achievement for taking 20 or 30m, whatever it is, until one of the final bonus puzzles I was doing. You can play 2 without having completed 1 also, but knowing the story of 1 (and the DLC) does enrich 2. It might be worth a try.
(Your experience of 2 might be totally different. I love puzzle games and completed all of the bonus challenges of vanilla 1 and 2. I may have just thought 2 was easy from having experience or even that the puzzles clicked for me better. Just take any opinion of puzzle difficulties with a grain of salt. Everyone’s brain works differently.)
Both the original and this sequel are absolutely superb games. The first one has been in my top 5 games ever since it came out, and this sequel managed to go above and beyond my expectations! I did nothing but play it till I had completed everything and tried my hardest to find as many secrets etc. as I could with no looking up anything. Gonna do another run but let myself look up hints for secret things I couldn’t fully figure out the first time.
This sequel did the same that Portal 2 did, absolutely deliver well beyond any reasonable expectation.
I love this series. They are puzzle games, but I’d say the biggest draw (at least for me) is the philosophy. The puzzles give you something to do on your journey, but they aren’t the real thing you take away from the games when you’re done.
That said, I found 2 much easier than 1. If you want challenging puzzles, the DLC for 1 is really where you want to look. All of this series is worth playing though. My biggest disappointment is we probably won’t get a 3 if I had to guess. I do hope we get other games that ask the player to think outside of the game though. I love philosophy, and this series prompts the player to think about so many good topics.
I love 1, but dexterity based puzzles are the reason I never finished it
Definitely try 2 if you haven’t already. They’ve completely eliminated dexterity and timing puzzles
Always feel Talos Principle 1 and 2 deserve more praise than it gets.
Ignoring the complete insanity that this is from the Serious Sam developers: Talos Principle (1 in particular) is one of those rare puzzle games where things “make sense”. Mechanics are introduced and the vast majority (I want to say all, but it has been a minute) of interactions and “tools” come from that. Rather than “oh, but you see, if you had noticed the way this one picture on the wall looks you would have found the secret tool you needed” wanking.
And the story is interesting enough to motivate progress but not so vital that you feel bad about taking a day or two off before going back to the puzzle.
Baba Is You has some of the “ha, its a secret trick” nonsense but, by and large, is a similar vibe and approach to puzzle solving.
Any others you recommend? I enjoyed this and the witness, and love a story driven mystery game like obra dinn too but I really suck at physically using a controller so I can’t really do games where you have to have actual video game skills
The Witness is the other one that I’d compare then too. Other than this series and that game, nothing else of the same level comes to mind. There’s a DLC for TTP1 if you haven’t tried it. There’s also obviously the Portal series too.
Antichamber fits with these I think, and maybe Baba is You, though I only have like 15m in that so I can’t comment in how good it is. I think that’s pretty much it.
I agree, except for some of the bonus puzzles (particularly in 1) requires some out-of-the-box thinking, sometimes literally by breaking out of the puzzle you’re in taking puzzle pieces with you. All the basic puzzles I agree are straightforward, but some of the bonus tings require you to look for extra details that may not be part of the puzzle exactly. I think this is done particularly well in 1, as the story is about thinking for yourself so you have to start thinking about the puzzles in a different way. In 2 most of the bonus things are done exactly the same each level and you just need to figure out how to connect them to other things in the map. Usually they don’t require “breaking” the puzzles to complete, even though this is still possible and allows for other options to solve some puzzles.
Even those are generally “obvious” as level design makes it obvious there are interactables not inside a puzzle or that use tools that aren’t part of that specific puzzle. The narrative is what pushes you to think “… what if I take this out of the puzzle room?” but many puzzles outright teach you those skills with the kill fields.
As opposed to “You should have looked to the left while walking between these areas and realized that if you lined up the level geometry it would make an arrow”
I bought the first one on GOG, I’ll wait for the second one to show up there for now.
There’s a really challenging DLC for 1 too if you want to try that while you wait. Just a word of warning, it picks up the challenge from the end of 1 and takes things further. Some of the puzzles are really challenging.
Already played that one :)
