Recent reviews by Ray tracing is faster

The Talos Principle 2 is a very rare sequel - it follows up on a masterpiece, adds significant ambition on top of it, and it actually pulled it off.

Like the first game, it is a story-driven, very philosophical puzzle game, going as far as inventing fictional Greek philosophers and citing this alongside established Greek philosophy. (Spoiler alert) While the first game primarily explored what it means to be human and centered this around AI, this sequel leaves that theme behind and asks very big questions about the fundamentals of civilization and culture, the dangers of technological prowess, humanity's wastefulness and destruction.

The writing ambition surpasses that of every other game I've played, but some of the core technological plot devices leave a bit desired. This diminishes very little though - the end result is nonetheless a brilliant sequel, its powerful writing once again bolstered by an immensely powerful soundtrack like in the first game.

As a puzzle game, The Talos Principle 2 is far larger than the first game resulting in more running around and exploring. This is not the most thoughtfully designed exploration, with some exploits even (i.e. it is possible to get into one of the locked golden puzzles early, but then you can't solve it since you're not allowed to do it out of order).

Like the first game, its puzzle design is extremely logical - every puzzle is solved with a finite amount of tools, with the tool count surpassing that of the first game by more than double. Despite this, it's an overall easier puzzle game than the first, and thus infinitely easier than Road to Gehenna. This game has all these different puzzle tools, but never comes close to providing complex enough puzzles that involve using all of them (or even most). Hopefully the expansion does just this.

Thumbs down until they add dedicated servers.

This is a flawed remake, but it does allow you to play through the THPS 1-2 campaigns with mechanics from the later games (double tapping for more advanced tricks like double/triple kickflips, transfers, reverts, some others but you can't get off your board), with improved skater customization combined with a more thorough leveling system, with multiplayer, with an improved park editor, and with most but not all of the original soundtrack (Ollie the bum was revoiced though sadly).

It also adds new objectives to THPS 1 levels, which will stand out even to an attentive newcomer as the levels clearly weren't designed for them, but it's a refreshing change. These are also the most difficult objectives by far. The art design is updated and looks great, like how Mall really looks abandoned now. You'll see new surfaces, new graffiti, they didn't try to give us a time machine, and I suspect the few real locations take after how they now or last looked. If a remake of something other than a sports game does this, its original fans get deeply triggered, but it's nice to see more open minds from this game's fans.

For those who never played the THPS games (I grew up with them), they are arcadey skateboarding games with a series of levels that each have some common challenges, like high/pro/sick scores, high combo, collecting S-K-A-T-E letters, and more. These games are not open world and have none of the realism of the Skate games, but there's a lot of cleverness to the level design and secrets.

There are immense downsides to THPS 1+2 however, namely:

- Always requires an internet connection
- Shader compilation stutter like every damn game nowadays (it's on the more demanding levels like Downtown and Burnside)
- Missing tricks from the first two games, especially the first. Including special tricks. Even iconic ones like the Kickflip McTwist. WHY?
- Missing levels from THPS 2x (Tampa skate park/competition, construction site, club, subway station, Detroit skylines, also no Hoffman factory from THPS 2)
- Doesn't have the old behind the scenes FMVs, or if it does I missed them
- One of the best lines in Skatestreet Ventura is no longer feasible
- There are still some notable bugs, like how I was able to clip through maps a few times
- The UI is way too busy
- My game randomly minimizes sometimes, even though I'm using fullscreen mode and not hitting Alt+Tab
- The secret tape on venice beach is now acquired by ollying from the table beneath it, rather than the rooftop ramp that was clearly designed for it
- I actually miss the big drop mechanic from THPS 2, in which the landing stat affects your ability to land from tall heights. This game still has stats so it makes sense, but this is hardly a loss.

The studio that made this no longer exists, so don't expect an official THPS 3+4. However, a 3+4 mod is being made and is already playable, so be sure to get that.

Like Portal with RTX, this remaster released slightly unstable but it is much better now. I had never played Portal Prelude before so I jumped at the opportunity to play it with the most cutting edge real time rendering there is: ReSTIR path tracing.

Portal with RTX already spoiled me as far as graphics fidelity goes (and remember: ray tracing can seriously improve gameplay, albeit in these games it does not), and Prelude is even more impressive. Some of the environments showcase the power of path tracing more than ever, making this the new graphics king - dethroning Portal with RTX. Yes, Cyberpunk with RT Overdrive still doesn't quite approach these, outside of character models.

As for performance: most people are simply ignorant about this subject, but it is incredible. Real time path tracing was thought to be decades away just a few years ago, yet it's already here - first in Quake II/Minecraft, but then it increased exponentially with the technology on display here. This is because of ReSTIR - the algorithm powering the direct and indirect illumination - along with the advanced denoisers. Without this, we'd be stuck with Quake II/Minecraft path tracing which is far less accurate with not nearly as many dynamic light sources or bounces.

https://d1qx31qr3h6wln.cloudfront.net/publications/ReSTIR%20GI.pdf

With anything below an RTX 4070, you can honestly hold off on playing path traced games because DLSS 3 frame generation is pretty much a necessity.

But most of the negative reviews seem to be aimed at the mod's puzzle design. I understand that to some degree. This mod is a significant step up in puzzle difficulty, and some of the puzzles require very precise movements, or thinking in ways that exploit the portal gun mechanics and physics. This puzzle design feels less fun to me as well (and it's not purely a difficulty thing - The Talos Principle Road to Gehenna is much harder and more fun for me) but the challenge does make them rewarding.

This is a very faithful remake, which makes it the second best Shock series game (including Arkane's Prey) behind its sequel, but the gap there is huge. This game is good but not great, and I give it a recommendation but not a glowing one.

Strengths
- Very good weapon design and diversity, far surpassing most modern games
- Weapon upgrade system isn’t great, but it does improve the gameplay slightly
- Very high enemy diversity except for an extremely similar, oversimplified AI being used across the vast majority of them
-Works well (but not brilliantly well) as a survival horror game when using the optional 10 hour time limit (mission difficulty 3)
- Grenade cooking
- Cyberspace is cool and creative, overall well done except for the final boss fight cyberspace portion
- Very granular difficulty options that are well explained, although still missing some important features like limited saving
- Above average level design with a respectable amount of depth and many secrets on every level except Research
- Great surround sound spatialization
- Overall very good sound quality with a few exceptions
- Some nice details in art design, such as every level looking unique (addressing a weakness of System Shock 2)

Weaknesses
- Some stuttering when loading new areas on a level, e.g. opening a door. PSO caching was not performed as recommended by Epic Games and Microsoft.
- Underperforms for the given graphics fidelity, unsurprising for a low budget UE4 game though.
- UI bugs in the media menu
- Clipping issues, some of which can get you killed
- If you explore with your turbo motion boots, you can find some non-solid ground
- Physics bugs – jumping can result in you getting flung to your death.
- Part of the UI is unusable for me and I play on fullscreen on a 16:9 resolution, so it’s not like I have a bizarre setup
- The game can crash – I had one in one playthrough. Still more stable than Arkane’s Prey though.
- Completely ruined Cyborg Assassin AI compared to the demos
- Ruined Cyborg Mantis AI compared to the demos
- Cortex Reavers are helpless if you have cover
- Cyborg Drone AI is too simple and needs to actually work together, learning from the AI in games like Half-Life 2
- Cyborg Enforcer path finding is broken, so they too are no threat.
- Avian Mutant AI needs a complete rework
- Cyborg Enforcers, Cyborg Warriors, Cyborg Elite Guards, and Mutated Cyborgs are underutilized, only appearing in force on the last three levels except for the Elite Guards who only appear on the final level and are by far the most interesting enemy to fight. The game needs not only a huge AI rework but it needs more mixed, savage encounters like System Shock 2 has.
- Assassins like to blow themselves up with proximity mines, Enforcers like to disable themselves with their own EMP grenades. Elite Guards can also frag themselves.
- No enemy can enter crawl spaces, except for one scripted encounter. Even though some enemies would fit and some of them are supposed to, such as the scorpion-like maintenance bot.
- AI is ultimately too simple and repetitive – every enemy besides Reavers just slowly approach you like Terminators, whereas System Shock 2 has a variety of different AI for different enemies. There’s no high threat enemy outside of Cyberspace.
- Excessive ammo quantity (including battery packs) on the hardest difficulty modes for a survival horror game. It needs an equivalent to System Shock 2’s Impossible difficulty mode for proper low resource survival horror.
- Melee mechanics aren’t as bad as some people claim, but they do need work. The laser rapier needs more visual feedback when striking an enemy.
- Remains over-animated – every time you pick up an audio log, it’s animated which takes control away from the character, removing you from the game in anti “immersive sim” fashion. Also, picking up an audio log makes you move very slowly which makes you vulnerable.
- Turbo motion boots are cool but a bit clunky because you can get stuck on any little crevice in the floor
- Non-junk items being labeled as junk is bad design
- This one is a minor missed opportunity, but the assault rifle and rail gun should have had cool, sci-fi picture-in-picture scopes. The Skorpion should’ve had a Half-Life: Alyx style truly holographic sight upgrade.
- Final Cyberspace section is weak with infinite retries and no high stakes. Actually a much weaker ending segment than System Shock 2’s.
- No optional limited save system
- Very limited moddability and the game really needs a big overhaul like System Shock 2’s Rebalanced Skills and Disciplines mod and Scary Monsters AI mod

Hellish Quart can appeal to anyone who is a fan of fighting games, which I'm not. I've never liked the genre. But it can also appeal to anyone interested in historical combat, especially practitioners, since this game is basically a HEMA simulator (Historical European Martial Arts). Not medieval period like some say, but Italian Renaissance period (17th century).

Like any fighting game, it has a roster of unique characters with a unique moveset. But all the animations are based on historical techniques, so if you want to see what real sword fighting would be like in a game, this is it. Yes, the only weapons are swords of various kinds: sabers, rapiers, longswords, a basket-hilted "broadsword" or the original "claymore". More to come, but no "greatswords" since the creator believes it'd be overpowered. The whole roster is unarmored, so fights often end very quickly, sometimes with both characters falling.

Like any fighting game, it has a side facing perspective. However, there's a first person perspective, and it even supports VR (experimental, not worth using right now). Also, even in the side facing view, it has lateral movement unlike other fighting games. This is a necessity for its realistic combat.

Hellish Quart supports various single player modes vs AI including survival (how many rounds/fights can you survive), an arcade mode that's like a preview of the campaign, and online play. Looks like split screen too but I haven't tried. You can play with blunt or wooden weapons too. It features a great historical soundtrack as well.

The early access period is going great, with arcade mode being a recent 2023 addition. My complaints are as follows:

1. Objects can block the camera, this can't happen in a fighting game and I can't believe it still does.

2. The lighting on the stables level makes it difficult to see what's happening from some angles, also unacceptable for a fighting game. The lighting here needs to be rebaked with greater accuracy.

3. For some reason, opponents can randomly start the match already within range of you. Wtf?

4. Stamina is exaggerated, as if everyone is badly out of shape. You can turn it off but there's no middle ground.

5. Not every menu has a back button

Things I'd like to see in the future:
- A Germanic Langes Messer character
- A Landsknecht Katzbalger character
- A Kriegsmesser character
- A Tuck/Estoc/Panzerstecher character
- A separate pole weapon dueling mode, featuring spears, partisans, quarterstaffs, and whatever else is fitting. Greatswords can fit in here, and/or be their own mode.
- A separate armored roster, possibly a DLC featuring 2-3 pollaxe characters (one with an axe+hammer+top spike, the other with a bec de corbin and/or Lucerne hammer), several two-handed mace characters (a Flemish guy with a Goedendag, a two-handed flanged mace character, a two-handed Morgenstern character), and specialized armored dueling sword characters

I can't wait to see how the game develops from here, but the future is positive.

P.S.: Disregard my Steam play time, since most of it is in GOG. I bought it on both platforms because an indie game of such quality and ambition deserves it.

The overwhelming majority of negative reviews can be ignored; as you can see they're the result of people being upset that their PCs can't handle the game. There's nothing wrong with releasing a free update (and separate executable that doesn't break the original game) designed for the highest end graphics card and future hardware.

Some games of the past were designed with future hardware in mind too, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Crysis, and Serious Sam 3. It's actually a GOOD thing. Better to design for the future than for the past; fewer limitations this way.

In fact, this might be the best remaster ever made objectively. If we look at what a remaster is supposed to accomplish:

• Improve modern system compatibility - Portal didn't have problems here because Valve takes care of their games
  
  
• Improve the engine or port to a new one - Instead of doing this, RTX Remix was used to enhance the environments, and then it spawns a 64-bit process that hooks to the game to add the enhancements in. Genius.
  
  
• Improve the visuals without ruining the art design - Art design changes are permissible if the original is flawed. This applies to Portal, and this remaster fixes it by making it look less like a warehouse and more like the research lab that it is. See this comparison.[imgur.com] This remaster not only improves the artistic visuals, but it also updates the technical graphics to be years ahead of all other games overall.
  
  
• Fix problems - Portal didn't have any, this originally added some instability but it has been fixed at least for NVIDIA cards.

So at least for NVIDIA users, this remaster improves visuals with no real penalty. Win-win. For AMD users, this remaster had poor GPU utilization so it's a downgrade for them.

Indeed, you essentially need an RTX 4090 for this game, and even then it's not nearly enough to max it out at 4k > 60 FPS without DLSS 3 + frame generation.

But gamers today are ignorant enough to feel offended when they can't smoothly run a game on max settings, even though at the same time many of these entitled gamers with 7-10 year old GPUs dislike ray tracing which is an objective visual improvement (the biggest in 20+ years). They generally believe that all ray tracing is equal somehow... they think since they can run DOOM Eternal with ray tracing then this should run even faster.

Every other ray traced game is a hybrid using only some degree of ray traced lighting effects. DOOM Eternal uses just some, but not many, ray traced reflections. Hardly any per scene, hence the minimal performance impact. Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition uses hybrid ray traced DDGI, storing lighting data in raster light probes, along with some RT reflections. Portal with RTX has minimal compromise: full path traced rendering rather than a hybrid approach. This is why it looks so much better than everything else, and also why it's so hard to run.

Yet its optimization isn't poor, it is miraculous: without NVIDIA's ReSTIR DI and GI and denoisers, full path traced rendering wouldn't be playable even with an RTX 4090 + DLSS 3 frame gen. So the technology here is truly bleeding edge and it's a miracle that RTX Remix even works. This is why the likes of Digital Foundry correctly acknowledge just how much of a triumph this game is.

Crysis Remastered does pretty much everything wrong. Yes, they added back the deleted level eventually, and they did fix the worst of the performance issues, but this is still a technical mess with settings that break.

But the biggest problems are how this remaster completely ruins everything Crysis stood for. Go look at the official trailers and footage of Crysis, and you'll see how modding was one of its main features. This remaster is unmoddable, you can't even alter nanosuit parameters as the console commands don't do anything. This, combined with the slightly worse balance of the nanosuit, makes strength mode practically useless. Using strength mode to throw objects at enemies, or punch objects into enemies, was one of the most fun ways to kill people, and it's no longer valid here.

The movement is also dumbed down, inherited from Crysis 3 so you are pretty much immobile in the air now. Crysis and Crysis Warhead had many advanced nanosuit movements, especially in the air, which added a new dimension to its gameplay and increased the skill curve. Though this was mostly relevant to multiplayer rather than single player, which brings me to my next point.

The biggest mistake this remaster makes is not remastering the multiplayer, which was another major feature of Crysis (as much as single player was). Crysis and Crysis Wars were some of the best PvP shooters of all time, featuring one of the best ever and most strategic combined arms game modes called Power Struggle, having a bigger skill curve than most (more than Quake and UT, arguably more than CS), having tons of content, and again being super moddable.

Even though the original Crysis is broken on Windows 10 and 11, it's the better version to play. I recommend playing it with Tactical Expansion mod. Crysis Wars multiplayer is also still technically functional, you can join the Crysis Wars discord to organize matches.

Very cool tech stack - all voxels, ray traced direct illumination, shadows, reflections, and particles (but no global illumination sadly), and fully destructible with dynamic fire propagation. On top of that, very moddable.

If only it were updated to use the latest tech standards. Although the game has since been upgraded to DX12, it still game badly needs greater multithreading and GPU accelerated physics. Being a physics showcase, using all of our cores and threads would make an exponential difference for those with Ryzen 9s/Core i9s and above.

This, combined with the reduced overhead of using a mesh shader geometry pipeline could've resulted in hugely increased voxel count (geometry resolution) to make the game look less like Minecraft/legos.

The ray tracing also badly lacks global illumination and is of very low quality due to the renderer limitations. ReSTIR GI and DI would save the day.

In any case, the game also has a surprisingly decent campaign, although its mechanics do get repetitive since there is only one way to handle any security system (avoid triggering them as long as possible), resulting in repetitive mission tactics. Still, the game is an absolute blast.

I tentatively give this game a pass just because of its low price. This is basically a VR weapon customization and handling showcase and nothing more, 6 years into its early access phase (the norm for VR gaming unfortunately). It has various minigames but they provide very little in the way of lasting appeal. But for $20, getting to play with its assortment of weapons, with its mechanical realism, is justifiable. Not to mention it is a proper physics heavy VR game, the only kind worth playing.

As a mechanics showcase game, it's a shame that many of the mechanics still don't work reliably - inserting magazines into weapons is still quite clunky, and putting items into your "pouches" is problematic since the pouches have too small of a hitbox. Simple mechanics that other games like Pavlov VR perfected long ago, not to mention Pavlov VR has multiplayer unlike this. And for all its emphasis on realism it is lacking some important things like grenade launcher leaf sights (this one is easy) and critical weapon functionality like being able to stick G36 magazines to each other or attach spare G11 magazines to the gun.

If only we could get these mechanics (but more reliably functional) in a game loaded with substance - this is not a criticism of H3VR and its very small team, but a plea for bigger studios to take note.