Recent reviews by Degnar

Absolutely a great game. It somehow manages to provide bite-sized tactical challenges with increasing complexity and difficulty without constraining the player to a single "best" solution. From the begging to the very end the game manages to keep this feeling of constant improvisation and adaptation, providing multiple options to get through the levels. It just feels great to play. And the story keeps up, with witty and playful writing, fun characters and simple but satisfying plot.

It's one of those games that really knows what it wants to be and whose every little part fit together seamlessly.

This is a great example of how you should made sequels. They expanded the scope, the narrative, gameplay mechanics and managed to do all that without loosing the magic of the first game. You can clearly see that the dev team really understands what makes Talos Principle good.

The difficulty of puzzles hits right in the sweet spot between being boring and frustrating. Some of them really made me scratch my head for a while but I was never stuck and solutions didn't feel overly complicated or tricky. Bonus points for having (again) clues system built in-game.

I also loved the narrative, it's still a simple story with light philosophical musings in-between, but it's just so well written (and acted) that I always wanted to hear more. Personally I also liked what the game tried to say, it feels like a sort of love letter to humanity and our existence and our progress, but still an honest one, with flaws and all.

Overall, amazing game and I can't wait to play whatever is next.

It feels like a game that shouldn't be as good as it is. Character models aren't great, movement mechanics feel weird and way too fast for the setting, enemy animations are wonky, the UI is extremely basic - so many things that seem to scream 'low quality' somehow click into an amazing experience.

All the areas are beautiful, levels are designed thoughtfully, being both easy to navigate but also not too constrained, combat is satisfying (the slingshot sound effects, omg), interesting mechanics are introduced throughout the entire game and the writing doesn't take itself too seriously while still avoiding being too silly.

All of this (bundled with amazing music) creates that weird dream-like atmosphere which sucks you in and compels to play more and more. Wonderful game and a great example of how creativity and vision can shine without high budget.

Also, beware, there may be some spider enemies in the game.

Despite being almost 30-year old, System Shock design and mechanics really do hold up.

I'd suggest taking some notes though, might save you a random search through the entire media log at some points.

I think I'm loving this way more than I should.

Make no mistake, this isn't a "game" game, you don't have specific goals, quests to finish, story to discover, you're simply a bird flying. But there is a lot of beauty in this simplicity. All that matters is the feeling of being here and now, of wind rushing through your feathers and of pretty sights of the world around you.

Also works great on Steam Deck.

Would definitely recommend.

Nice concept but in the end it's extremely shallow and unexplored.

Tinkering with the time-loop could have been really interesting if only there were any cause-effect systems to interact with, however it's only limited to simple scripted events such as "press button X so that character Y will show up later in Z".

Gameplay itself is fine but also not really engaging due to low difficulty - beside PvP invasion, nothing in this game is even close to posing a challenge for the player, so multiple powers/weapons don't really change anything and are mostly unnecessary. Also, entire stealth mechanic is really underdeveloped, luckily you don't really need stealth at any point.

It's the same story with the... story. Interesting concepts are quickly dropped, none of the characters are fleshed out and mysteries never get resolved.

All in all, it feels more like a game trying to be something but without actually putting in the work and risking anything.

Amazing game and truly a unique experience as far as gaming go. Exploring this alien world, discovering its rules and using them to overcome seemingly unbeatable challenges and enemies is extremely satisfying and just... feels amazing. Honestly - the less you know about this game before playing, the better.

A word of warning though - it's a tough game that has to be approached with tons patience and curiosity, at moments it will be a slog. But that what it's is all about.