I wish Steam had a grading system instead of "recommended/not recommended" (and also not erased my review the first time I typed it just because I had the audacity to open the chat, grr), because as a long time massive fan of the series who probably owes it his life (both games showed up when I was at my absolute lowest times in life and not only got me through them, but completely changed my outlook on life for the better), for the first time, I will give this 4/5 and not 5/5. And the sole reason for that is performance.

It was already bad enough that Croteam switched from their own brilliant Serious Engine to UE5 for TTP2. Performance massively suffered for a modest upgrade in visuals (or a straight up downgrade in terms of stability/clarity - I hate upscaling artifacts and blur!), and priced a big chunk of the audience out of enjoying it - I got people with office grade laptops who were barely gaming to run the original TTP1, but they'd never be able to run TTP2, or especially this remake of TTP1. Because somehow, even though you'd expect that by now Croteam would have learned to optimize UE5 better (and from what I've read, some of their approaches leave a lot to be desired), this remake runs even worse than TTP2! Especially in foliage-heavy areas (the difference between them and some other maps can be easily 100 fps). Frame generation helps, but it also makes the game very crash prone on the same foliage-heavy maps. At least the tweak from TTP2 to disable the ugly (and resource heavy) fog via Engine.ini still works, but the file must be made read-only, as the game will otherwise erase it on each startup - which tells me that not only Croteam has not listened to our feedback about performance, but has elected to actually take steps to make some performance tweaks harder. Do better, Croteam. :terminal: Please. You've captured lightning in a bottle twice, but you're letting the bottle get tarnished. I wouldn't say this if I didn't care about the franchise deeply.

Otherwise, it is the same brilliant game that the original TTP1 was. I LOVED the new DLC, we get to hear more from Alexandra (and other IAN scientists!) and the puzzles are really hardcore this time. I'm very excited for TTP3, but I still hope Croteam finds a way to give us a few more episodes like that in between.

On the gameplay side of things, everything is exactly the same, with one welcome change: the new mechanic that adds breakpoints to the recorder puzzles fixes the biggest flaw of the original game. Many people couldn't stand recorders because they essentially injected timed puzzles into what is otherwise a game about accessible step-by-step ones where reaction time and speed are not required at all, but with breakpoints, they finally actually feel fun to use.

The price is more than fair, especially for those who already own the original and TTP2. But I would still consider buying the original if this is your first entry to the franchise: it's cheaper, runs on a toaster with maxed out settings and triple digit framerates (while taking nearly 8 times less space on disk), and the new DLC exclusive to it anyway should only be played after TTP2 (despite being set before TTP1): it lands so much better with all that additional context and lore, and directly references things you will only learn about in TTP2.

P.S. I solved Daydream on my own. :qr:

I played Talos 1 through 4-5 times. That remake is worth every single cent! So up to another 2-3 runs...

The Talos Principle must be one of my favourite games. I first played it a few years after it came out and have replayed it multiple times since on different platforms. Everything about it is wonderful, the gameplay, the story and the the music (the soundtrack is magnificent, I listen to it all the time).

When I heard there was going to be a Talos Principle 2, I was counting down the days until the release date and bought a PS5 just so I could play that one game. That was amazing too, although I found it a bit too easy (the DLCs remedied that though!).

But there is something really special about the original, the whole atmosphere of being in the simulation on your own and discovering the history of why you are there is so poignant. The story that is revealed is both sad and hopeful at the same time, it feels like reading a great book. Taking time out to interact with the terminals and the audio logs also perfectly complements the puzzle solving. Collecting all the stars and easter eggs is also a lot of fun.

I first played 'Reawakened' on the PS5. 'In the beginning' was great, I managed to complete it all on my own apart from 'Daydream' for which I had to lookup the solution. I am now playing the community levels on the PC version which add a whole new dimension, although some are very challenging.

This remake is well worth it, even if you have already played the original. It is worth it just for 'In the beginning' and the ability to play the community levels. The developer commentary is also interesting.

Thank you Croteam for taking the time to do this remake and for doing it so respectfully. It could have been so easy to mess this up and create something that didn't have the same feel or had too many changes, but it retains everything from the original.

I hope Croteam recoup the cost of doing this remake (they deserve it) and then we can get Talos Principle 3!

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