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Sequel to the original philosophical Portal-like The Talos Principle, Croteam has decided that “sequel” just means “bigger.” While this isn’t entirely wrong, there are times they take that ethos a bit too far. I’ll be up-front: The Talos Principle II gets a Tier Two – there are many moments it reaches into Tier One, but particularly when compared to the original it never quite stays there. Regardless, this is probably worth a look if you played the original and want “more” (though not necessarily “better”). Read more after the break, where I’ll keep any spoilers to a minimum.
Depending on how you count, there are about 200 puzzles in The Talos Principle II (TTP2) – about 50% more than the original – across 13 different areas, each with their own new mechanic(s) introduced. While each individual mechanic doesn’t ever really get a chance to shine, the puzzles do often build on each other and provide a diversity of difficulty across the playtime, and if there’s a mechanic you don’t particularly enjoy (there were a couple for me) it probably won’t feature in too many puzzles. Story-wise, there’s yet more solid philosophical conversations and debate set against some occasionally fantastic “big idea” sci-fi.
Sequels will, by their nature, draw comparison. In this case, there are four games which come to mind: Riven, Portal 2, Legend of Grimrock II, and – of course – the original Talos. Admittedly, Riven comes to mind mostly due to the presence of the monorail system to take you between islands, but I assume this must have been an intentional reference.
Both Portal 2 and Riven are good examples of the first issue I have with TTP2 – the expanded world, even in the presence of a greater number of puzzles, makes the world feel emptier. Truly, this was the most immediately frustrating part of TTP2: walking from puzzle to puzzle or across the map can take literal minutes, even while sprinting. When you’re trying to hunt down a hidden item or simply travel to the next location, this can become incredibly tedious. The original wasn’t entirely immune to this, but the spacing was much more reasonable.
When you arrive at a puzzle, things are usually good. The two exceptions to this are the bonus puzzles (but not the lost puzzles – those are fine) and the new tetromino puzzles. The bonus golden gate puzzles are quite difficult (at least for me), and you’re not allowed access to them until the very end of the game. This is only problematic because you go from solving puzzles at a variety of difficulties to being asked to complete 12 very difficult puzzles all at once, which quickly burned me out. I’m unsure if I’d call the reward “worthwhile,” but it is narratively important. The same cannot be said of the statue bonus puzzles.
The statue puzzles are equivalent to the “meta” puzzles from the previous game, but they can be largely categorized into three groups based on their associated mythic figure, all of which are terrible. The first are the classic inter-puzzle problems from Pandora, which made you feel clever in the first game but turn into a pixel-hunting adventure here due to the massively increased scale of TTP2. Eventually, I gave up and looked up the only external information I used during my playtime – not the solutions, but which puzzles were involved in the solutions because I tired of running from one end of the map to the other. The second group are what amount to map-reading or map-scouring puzzles from the Sphinx. Half of these required the difficult skill of reading a map and the other half required finding the random location on the over-large map which allows you to enter a code. Finally, Prometheus’ puzzles were the ones I found to be the worst offender: you scour the area for a black pixel flame-thing and then follow that black flame around the map until it reaches its destination. Yes, one of the puzzles of TTP2 is to press W while slightly higher tempo music plays. Your reward for suffering all of these so-called puzzles? A 20-second cutscene and four-ish lines of text, which did not quite live up to “breaking the chains of the simulation” from the original.
Finally, the original’s tetromino gates were a reasonable puzzle, if occasionally requiring a bit of brute-forcing. TTP2 uses a very different style of tetromino puzzle which is almost always faster to brute force and has none of the elegance of the original, instead relying on rules which feel far more arbitrary.
Thematically, TTP2 carries on an interesting and logical train of thought which follows readily from the original. At times, I was quite pleased with the ideas and twists being presented (even if I occasionally disagreed). But here, it draws comparison to the original (and this is biggest factor in my Tiering). There was a pleasing and cohesive reason for practically all that happens in the first game, and the philosophy, mechanics, limitations, and even the music all contributed to that. While the discussion and big ideas are probably on par, the experience just doesn’t quite have the same harmony – from the ridiculously oversized locations to the gamified world to the introduction of RPG elements (as in the Bioware style, not as in character levels). While the gamification of the world does have a quasi-reason behind it, it no longer makes sense given the setting as it did in the first game, and having multiple endings based on RPG choices in a puzzle game is a very confusing choice.
This brings me to the final comparison: Legend of Grimrock II. In particular, evaluating TTP2 as a sequel, not just a game. Here is where it fails the most. As I opened with, Croteam saw a sequel as larger. But while a larger game is practically a requirement for a sequel, it also needs evolution if it wishes to be something other than just a continuation of a story. But while the puzzles in TTP2 have more variety (and no one would say the game isn’t larger), there’s no deeper evolution of how you play the game. Sure, there is set dressing – the open world city, dialogue options, etc. – but none of this changes the core gameplay. You’re still solving puzzles which could just as easily have been in the original, and none of the ideas are developed further than the original.
The Talos Principle II is not a bad game; despite a few flaws, it’s actually fairly good – at times great – and a satisfying thematic continuation of the original. It deserves its high Tier Two and it shouldn’t be ashamed of it. It’s simply short on outdoing itself and persistent greatness.