Finally 100% The Talos Principle 2. After an excruciating 9 year wait, I am so happy to find that the game was very much worth the wait. Not only was the pacing and level design expertly crafted, but the story was thought-provoking and made me question my personal belief in AI and what they could mean for humanity. It ponders the question of a world where AI did not take over, but became the final hoorah of humanity to save their own way of life.

Where do we go from here? Do the new humans live in harmony and remain within the confines of security in the hopes of not repeating the same mistakes of their ancestors, or should they use the knowledge of their ancestors to become even more ambitious and truly reach for the stars to bring life to all the universe? It’s been quite some time since a story in a video game transcends its medium, but the Talos Principle II succeeds in spades.

Had to drop the game after really enjoying the first game. While the main combat is improved, the new enemy types and attacks become incredibly frustrating because the controls are still ass. For example, sometimes there are healers you have to kill while fighting larger enemies but sometimes the view distance is so low that you cannot see them, and there could be multiple to it becomes an exercise in just running around the enemy to hope I dont miss a healer. The roll is improved but not by much, and too many enemies require it to dodge attacks whereas in the first game I basically never had to roll so it being clunky wasn't an issue, now it is. The story is so bland and all the characters seem like shells the writers used to spit out generic story beats and dialogue to get the game moving. The story in the original game was so different from anything we'd seen in gaming, and this game has a discount Square JRPG story. Even the Dragon controls worse in this game. Just skip this one bro.

While the story is much improved over the first, some of the gameplay sections were much more frustrating. Adding sidequests to the game completely bloated the map, making it much harder to navigate and get around. I was often confused as to what marker on the map was the main objective, so i would have to stop what I was doing to read the quest log. My biggest complaints with the original were completely exacerbated in this game. Even how you get specific abilities being tied to vendors or side quests made progression fell much less organic. Not a bad game but definitely one of the weaker Metroidvania’s

Raising the Bar Redux is a Half-Life 2 Beta fan's dream come true. Not only does it revive the classic and gritty art style we never got to experience, but it melds into the story and progression of retail HL2. Honestly, if you are a Half-Life 2 fan, I cannot recommend this enough.

I see many people saying that the game struggles with guiding the player, but I honestly never had any issues with the level design and I think it actually improves on some chapters like Water Hazard.

The combat loop is exceptional as all HL2 experiences are however with new weapons that are exclusive to certain areas, it gives it much more dynamic combat scenarios than any HL2 mod ever.

It is not perfect, it is an incomplete game and essentially a beta, so the performance is pretty bad. The opening has some bad performance when exploring City 17 but it mostly goes away... then you get to the 2nd half of Ravenholm and the framerate tanks even worse. While there are only 2 of the 7 Divs released, it's a chunky 4-5 hour campaign that leaves you begging for more. This is going to be something truly special if it gets completed.

An excellent game with probably the best sound design in any video game. While the story and audio are sublime, there are still some flaws I hope are ironed out in the sequel. The combat, while functional is incredibly bland and repetitive. Combat encounters are far and few in between so it doesn't hurt the experience too much, though they are the worst parts of the game by far. While the puzzle designs are pretty amazing, the game keeps going back to the "look for the symbol in the environment" and hardly shakes up the puzzling with new mechanics.

I'm speechless. This is the the Half-Life game we all deserve for waiting this long.

11/10 , better than HL2

Edit after 100+ hours of game-time and a plethora of mods:

While I suspected the hype was what had me saying it was better than HL2, after months of constant replays and countless custom maps; I truly stand by my statement. This game just FEELS amazing. it's unexplainable, but the responsiveness of the mechanics, paired with the amazing music and visuals, create the MOST immersive form of media I've ever consumed.