When I came across Talos Principle I had no idea what the game would turn out to be. I bought it as a puzzle game, hearing many people compare it to Portal, but as I played I discovered it was about way more than just the puzzles. The game posed philosophical questions, ones that are very hard to answer, ones we might never find an answer to. Introspection about one's existence was the theme of the game and for a good reason. As we would find out sooner or later, we were solving puzzles in a simulation which was created by humans to create a self-conscious AI with human values. Those who managed to leave would wake up as the first robotic human in the real world - post apocalyptic Earth.
Talos Principle 2 takes us thousand years in the future after the first human's awakening. The player wakes up as the 1000th human robot and becomes a witness to a strange projection, calling himself Prometheus, making a speech to the robots. You can then embark on an expedition to where the source of the projection was found. That is where you will discover a mysterious pyramid and 12 areas with puzzles similar to those from the simulation you all went through.
Talos Principle 2 is still a puzzle game in its core with philosophical questions but this time there is a fully voiced narrative. From the moment you wake up you will be welcomed by another human robot. You will be able to explore the city the robots built and also talk to them if you choose to (the dialogues are of philosophical nature). Even after leaving on the expedition, you won't be truly alone, as you will be able to talk to the members of the expedition who have different opinions on what their civilization should strive for. That is also about what the story is and your actions will decide in which direction the civilization will go. The questions you will get to ponder about are about morality of a civilization, technological progress, evolution of species and their extinction. Apart from talking to the expedition members directly, you also have access to the city's social media platform. You can join the discussions there and voice your own opinion on the topics.
The puzzles are the main focus of the game. They will feel familiar if you played the first game. The basis is simple, you will be connecting specific color beams with the same color targets, overcoming obstacles to do so can range from easy to difficult. This time around there are no bombs (or turrets) which makes it a calmer experience for those that do not like timing in games. Each area has 8 numbered puzzles, two lost puzzles and a golden gate puzzle which are all very well marked. In order to progress in the story you will have to solve 8 puzzles from an area. Unlike in the first game where the puzzles were getting more and more difficult since the beginning of the game, here the difficulty gets only harder within each area which gives the game a steady pace of progression. Puzzle marked as 1 is the easiest, it is more of a tutorial for a new contraption you can use. There are various contraptions, some fairly easy to use, some that can give you a bit of a headache. For example there is a beam shifter that allows to combine red and blue beam into a green one. You will encounter a quantum tunneler which you can use to create a hole in a specific material walls and use it for light beams to go through. Another contraption can create anti-gravity beam allowing you to move items or your body in the direction of a new gravity. All these contraptions will aid you in connecting the beams and unlocking door where you can find a mysterious blue fire.
Talos Principle 2 also has star puzzles - outside of puzzle area puzzles. In the first game, you could encounter a star somewhere in the area outside of the closed puzzle areas. In order to get to it, you had to come up with a way how to reach it. This usually required certain contraptions you could find in puzzle areas. Getting these out was quite a head scratching task. In general, they were very difficult to solve. In Talos Principle 2, getting a star is much simpler, there are three different kinds of 'puzzles' and once you figure out the first of each type you won't have that much of a hard time to solve them.
Each area out of the 12 has different scenery. I'd buy this game even as a walking simulator as it would be worth the money for the scenery only. It is truly beautiful no matter where you find yourself - be it mountaintops covered in snow, an endless desert, or a forested area. When you find even more beautiful spot you can take a picture using the game's photo mode. While enjoying the environment you can encounter secret labs and different collectibles, be it memories from the founders of the first human-robot civilization, ancient human artifacts, statues or other items. You can also encounter a fire of Prometheus. These once collected can be then used to skip puzzles.
If you played the first game, you might ask, are there tetrimino blocks still in the game? The answer is yes. Once a player collects 8 of the mysterious blue lights in an area a gate will open. To reach the other side a player will have to build a bridge out of the tetrimino blocks - that means finding correct order and correctly rotating the blocks. If the bridge building was limited to those 12 areas it would have been a pleasant experience. Unfortunately you will be forced to build way many more bridges, even ones that go up or down. For some this may be rather tiresome.
Verdict:
Talos Principle 2 is a masterpiece of a game, it is a thought provoking and well made mind-bending puzzle game with beautiful scenery that is well balanced and suitable for all players.
