This is easily in the top-25 best games I have ever played. TLDR: Every single gameplay-related problem I had with The Talos Principle was corrected, and the story was just as, if not more engaging this time around. The pacing is perfected, the characters add so much to the world and the story, and the environments are beyond jaw-dropping. For the love of God, get both this game and the original Talos Principle when they go on sale and prepare yourself for some of the greatest puzzle-story games you've ever played.

THE REVIEW:

I would be lying if I didn't say that I was absolutely sick of the puzzles by the end of The Talos Principle. As fun as they were, they had overstayed their welcome since you pretty much see every new mechanic the game is going to throw at you by the 2/3rds marker. It was the story of TTP that kept me hooked, particularly in the way it unfolds and how unassuming it is. I casually skimmed through the philosophical text logs on the computers, stopping to read one or two that caught my eye, but something amazing starts to happen that you don't expect. The computer terminal starts to question you directly about what you read... It contradicts you, evolving into full on arguments and accusations. By the end of the game, it's the puzzles that become the afterthought as you actively seek out the computer terminals to argue your stance on philosophy and the world.

Talos Principle 2 does not do this, nor does it have any of these problems the original faced. Thanks to a tighter focus on pacing and variety, Talos Principle 2 TRULY outshines the original much like I'd hoped it would. The biggest change Talos 2 brings to the table is that it is COMPLETELY transparent with all of its secrets. Each sub-world has exactly the same number puzzles to solve (10), bonus stars to find, and new gameplay twists to discover. You're also now equipped with a compass that will point directly to each puzzle in a set area or some secret to find represented by a ? mark. Furthermore, original Talos Principle had colored puzzle tiers to denote difficulty levels, whereas Talos 2 is much more natural about ramping difficulty to puzzle number 8, where your first two puzzles are essentially tutorials for a new puzzle mechanic. On top of this, Talos 2 rewards exploratory players with special tokens that allow players to "skip" particularly hard puzzles that stump them. You can always go back in to solve those skipped puzzles and redeem your skip token though, which is just absolute genius. All of these elements combine for a massively less hair-pulling experience and one that keeps your attention throughout the entire runtime. I was eagerly rushing away from work to jump back into the game.

Part of the reason for that excitement is the incredible expansion of the world. It's MASSIVE. Aside from some strange low-res cloud textures and odd looking geometry here and there, Talos 2 is an absolute looker. Gigantic statues, sunsets in the desert, frozen mountaintops that look straight from Halo, it's all here. Unsurprisingly, it runs much worse than Talos Principle performance wise, but there are enough graphics settings to tinker with that it really wasn't that big of a deal. Lower-framerates aren't a problem for slow, contemplative puzzle games like this.

As a final thought, I'll briefly mention the story because that's the best part and it should not be spoiled in any regard. Just know this, it's fantastic. I understand where some people are coming from when they prefer the first game's story and how they appreciate the lonely atmosphere more. This story is not about the "me," it's about the "us," and I'll leave it at that. It asks you all the right philosophical questions and crucially, all of your choices are acknowledged by the game and actually matter. There's no point in having 7 different dialogue responses for every single question if the game is going to end the same way, and thankfully, the devs understand this. You will read the extra text dialogues carefully, listen to others' opinions, and make your own choices carefully because they actually do matter here.

Croteam should be proud of The Talos Principle and Talos 2. This has been an unbelievable adventure, and I cannot WAIT to get involved with the DLC stories.