Recent reviews by Luluwu

update 2:
yeah I really like it.

update:
It's a straight downgrade. Ranching balance has been totally broken, many elements are now locked behind a collectable grind. all QoL from travel has been removed.

none of the issues from the first game are addressed either.

I really really wish this was just a DLC map for the first game because the one good thing is exploration, but sadly that just can't carry this.

major balance pass is required to make this fun. if the dev reads this feel free to reach out and I'll give you lots and lots of detail.


Original review:
it's DLC.

the gameplay and game design are identical to the first game, just a new map.

if you go into it thinking of it as DLC, you'll be happy. If you're expecting a new game, you will be as disappointed as I am.

its the game nobody asked for.

it works fine now, but it just doesn't have anything unique or interesting.

there are no builds, no nuance, no depth. Nothing to draw in payday 2 players, nothing to draw in new players.

it's just a hoarde shooter.

that's why it's dead.

as some one who lived with a crippling fear of death, this game presented me with many questions I am familiar with. Questions and thoughts I have spent far more time than most people contemplating.
Normally, games which handle these issues, do so without elegance or grace.

Not so for Talos principle. not only does this game deal with philosophy in a way which won't make you cringe, it will actually make you think deeply and reflect.
In my case? overcome.

listening to Alexandria (lol we have the same name) explore her own mortality truly changed my life. I did not expect to have such profound realisations playing a video game, but one of her more incidental conclusions changed my entire perspective on life and death. And for that, I will always owe this game something which can not be measured. That's a sentence I never thought I'd write.

My personal emotional journey aside, the game is well written, full of personality and very well paced.
all of the dialogue really "fits", and the many interactions you have with one sarcastic little <redacted> are the icing on this already perfect cake.

this game is a masterpiece beyond measure, and I have not even commented on the gameplay.
(which is great, vert hard but manageable puzzles. they never feel "mean" and never force you to use tests of reflex. pretty much exactly what puzzle game design should be. gameplay is what portal could have been if the play-testers hadn't been idiots)

it is very rare I would call a game perfect, but I don't really know what could possibly have been done to improve this.

excellent game which firmly withstands the passage of time.

the gameplay is seemingly undated, as crisp and clean as any modern game in the genre.

it's hard, but not too hard, you can really feel yourself improving across the runs even if you don't get much further.

I find myself engaging with the chain system more and more (chasing high scores) despite my lack of overall progress. if I am going to die on level 3 every time, I might as well get good at level 2 and able to perfect clear stage 1.

it is a very rewarding game, as you learn the patterns you are able to kill things more effectively, but staying alive always requires being alert and you can not survive on autopilot.

10/10. a daily run has become part of my evening routine, and will remain so until I can clear it.

nostalgia disclaimer:
played this on the Gamecube as a kid, and loved it then, was good at it too. I am generally quite disappointed when I replay games from my childhood, but did not find that to be the case here, I feel there is a solid game regardless of nostalgia, and I would love it were I playing for the first time.

throws you in with almost no form of tutorial into a total onslaught of mechanics and information.

the tutorial is some text boxes. show don't tell.

no idea why this is part of a city building bundle, it's a puzzle game pretty clearly made for mobile devices.

it's two half-baked, unstable games combined.

firstly you get the "city builder" which is far too slow, with no time control and presents no form of challenge (the only fail state is the inevitable crash).
there is no concept of balance, no diversity to the modules and no real reason to build 80% of the stuff.

There's also a lot of modules which require to be a certain height and/or at the top of a stack, but there's not enough modules to form the tower underneath without mass redundancy.

you then end it with an unbearable clone of Kerbal Space without any of the grid placement or 3d navigation which makes KSP fun.

layer this with a ton of RNG, bugs and instability and you have a very disappointing game which wastes its potential.

sadly this is dated beyond playability.

simple QoL improvements you'd expect from a remaster are simply not present.

edit: also notice the vast majority of the positive reviews are nostalgia driven from people with almost no time logged.

if it was good, they would have played it.

so the graphic style may not be to everyone's taste and a little rocky at times but the gameplay is solid as a rock.

the community really rocks too (not as much as ram ranch but close). Everyone is really friendly and I am yet to encounter a single toxic player. In my hours of being ♥♥♥♥ and new, I got kicked _once_ and it was after we finished the mission and they carried my stone cold corpse back to the station.

it also appears that the developers never cease to rock on, with all the dlc being cosmetic, zero power creep, no desperate money grabs and relentless development. There are some hooks which would have microtransactions in other games (safes/drills in payday2 anyone?) which are just part of the game.

normally I find procedural generated maps are janky, but this system is yet to leave me stony.

the difficulty curve is really nice too, with the lower difficulties being accessible and haz 5 is rock hard.

an absolute masterpiece.
(bought on steam to support, played on a different platform thus low hours)

one of the most emotional games I've ever played and it achieves this without the need for any form of text or dialogue.
the art-style is (as you can see from the screen shots) spellbinding and refined, there isn't a single moment in this game you couldn't screen cap and make into a print.

the real gem in the crown is the TOTALLY MIND BLOWING soundtrack, which I listen to several times a week. Absolutely one of the best pieces of music written in the past 10 or so years. Berlinist sculpts this perfect tension and release, which delivers an underlying sense of anguish punctuated with hope. I feel you can experience the emotional journey of this game without even playing it (although of course you should) just because the soundtrack is so exceptional and worthy of praise in it's own right.

I'd say this is a strong contender for a "perfect" game. It truly bridges game and art.