Coming into this game with the previous entry into the franchise being one of my favourite games ever, and my favourite game in it's genre, is something to keep in mind for the review.
It is clear from the outset that Talos Principle 2 sets out to be more ambitious than Talos Principle from a story point of view, with the game starting you post the events of Talos Principle yet still keeping you in the same environments with the same graphical style of the first game, as well as the same puzzle elements from that game. Once you have completed this area the game takes on it's own life. With you quickly being introduced to many of the citizens of the city in which the game takes place. Notably via conversations with dialogue trees, as well as cutscenes - which are a welcome change from solely being delivered information through the use of computer terminals.
The story of Talos Principle 2 is fine, it does it's job. But it is not a particularly strong story. There is a large group of characters that you meet throughout the game, all of which have their own personal view points on the events of the game shaped by their political interests and aims. Sadly many of which feel like they are nothing but walking stereotypes of the aspect of Talos Principle 2's political spectrum that they inhabit. Despite the amount of characters that are present in the game, no more than a handful of them are meaningful or interesting to interact with throughout the game. Many of the threads that I found more interesting lay, once again, in the terminals. This time via audio logs as well as text logs. Which lead me to feel a sense of apathy at the site of seeing one of my robot friends menacingly standing 100 meters in the distance patiently waiting for me to inch closer in order to trap me into a conversation when I would much rather be exploring the environment trying to find puzzles as well as various secrets hidden throughout.
There are 12 main areas in Talos Principle 2 which house the large majority of puzzles in this game. Split into 4 areas of 3 zones with each area opening up more upon both puzzle, and story, progression. With many of these 12 areas possessing 10 puzzles each of which introduces and builds on it's own unique mechanic, with the exception of the final area, which ranges from teleportation to clones to inverting the colours of lasers. You might be predisposed to think that 120 puzzles with eleven different mechanics is a game which possesses large amount of gameplay variety to keep the player engaged for the entire time they are playing. The large assortment of puzzles mechanics does keep things fresh from a gameplay perspective, from a puzzle perspective however it falls flat.
10 puzzles is not a large amount. Especially when considering that due to a new mechanic being introduced in almost every new zone that you visit, at least one of which must function as tutorialization for the new mechanic and how it may, or may not, interact with the environment in addition to any previous mechanics that may be available in your current zone. Combine this with the type of puzzles which are present in both Talos Principle and Talos Principle 2 (Puzzles in these games are, for the most part, short, bite-sized puzzles which typically take just a few minutes to be able to solve.) and consequently there is not a long enough period of time in which the new mechanics have the time to grow, develop, and stand out in a meaningful way. Even Talos Principle 2's attempt at having a big culmination of all mechanics coming together for one final "trial", akin to The Tower from Talos Principle or The Challenge from The Witness, falls flat form the same issues that plague the main game.
Committing to such a strategy also results in some mechanics being more fun and engaging as puzzle components than others which leads the game to be inconsistent in its quality, and difficulty, throughout resulting in a roller-coaster-esque experience at times. Removing some of these poorer puzzle mechanics and allowing the more interesting, fun, challenging, mechanics to prosper in the hands of both the designers, as well as the players, would have resulted in a puzzle experience more akin to Talos Principle. Where both the puzzle mechanics, and puzzles themselves, are iterated and developed more leading to a more stable and linear difficulty curve. On the overall topic of difficulty I am of the opinion that Talos Principle 2 is easier than both Talos Principle, and its DLC: Road to Gehenna. Puzzle games don't need to be brain bendingly hard in order to be good (Cypher by Matthew Brown being a good example of a game that satisfies said criteria) as games such as Portal 2 or 2023's Cocoon prove but a lack of difficulty can leave the game feeling largely flat in quality.
Further adding to the feeling of flatness is the considerable lack of secrets in addition to the differing approach to the stars (read: additional puzzles) in Talos Principle 2. In Talos Principle there was a number of stars completely hidden in each level. The only thing that indicated how many stars were in each level was a sign which had everything in the level on it. But even then there were stars that were hidden beyond that. In Talos Principle 2 in each zone there is 2 shrines to Prometheus, Pandora, or the Sphinx. Each one being a different form of "challenge" to obtain a star. Neither the Sphinx nor Prometheus shrines contained much puzzle elements at all, they would both lead you to somewhere in the level, you'd do the required task, you'd get a star. The Pandora shrines were somewhat similar to the stars in Talos Principle in that you would be tasked with trying to find the right tools in the zone in order to complete the puzzle that the Pandora shrine would have on it. Each of the Pandora shrines were fun to try and figure out what parts of different puzzles could interact and provide you with the desired outcome. In the same way that many of the Talos Principle stars would operate.
Two-thirds of the stars in this game having little to no challenge behind them compounds the overall feeling that Talos Principle 2 is undercooked by quite a significant margin, especially in comparison to it's predecessor and it's DLC. At its core Talos Principle 2 is a good game, it's the knowing that the game could have been so much better which is the most disappointing part.
It is clear from the outset that Talos Principle 2 sets out to be more ambitious than Talos Principle from a story point of view, with the game starting you post the events of Talos Principle yet still keeping you in the same environments with the same graphical style of the first game, as well as the same puzzle elements from that game. Once you have completed this area the game takes on it's own life. With you quickly being introduced to many of the citizens of the city in which the game takes place. Notably via conversations with dialogue trees, as well as cutscenes - which are a welcome change from solely being delivered information through the use of computer terminals.
The story of Talos Principle 2 is fine, it does it's job. But it is not a particularly strong story. There is a large group of characters that you meet throughout the game, all of which have their own personal view points on the events of the game shaped by their political interests and aims. Sadly many of which feel like they are nothing but walking stereotypes of the aspect of Talos Principle 2's political spectrum that they inhabit. Despite the amount of characters that are present in the game, no more than a handful of them are meaningful or interesting to interact with throughout the game. Many of the threads that I found more interesting lay, once again, in the terminals. This time via audio logs as well as text logs. Which lead me to feel a sense of apathy at the site of seeing one of my robot friends menacingly standing 100 meters in the distance patiently waiting for me to inch closer in order to trap me into a conversation when I would much rather be exploring the environment trying to find puzzles as well as various secrets hidden throughout.
There are 12 main areas in Talos Principle 2 which house the large majority of puzzles in this game. Split into 4 areas of 3 zones with each area opening up more upon both puzzle, and story, progression. With many of these 12 areas possessing 10 puzzles each of which introduces and builds on it's own unique mechanic, with the exception of the final area, which ranges from teleportation to clones to inverting the colours of lasers. You might be predisposed to think that 120 puzzles with eleven different mechanics is a game which possesses large amount of gameplay variety to keep the player engaged for the entire time they are playing. The large assortment of puzzles mechanics does keep things fresh from a gameplay perspective, from a puzzle perspective however it falls flat.
10 puzzles is not a large amount. Especially when considering that due to a new mechanic being introduced in almost every new zone that you visit, at least one of which must function as tutorialization for the new mechanic and how it may, or may not, interact with the environment in addition to any previous mechanics that may be available in your current zone. Combine this with the type of puzzles which are present in both Talos Principle and Talos Principle 2 (Puzzles in these games are, for the most part, short, bite-sized puzzles which typically take just a few minutes to be able to solve.) and consequently there is not a long enough period of time in which the new mechanics have the time to grow, develop, and stand out in a meaningful way. Even Talos Principle 2's attempt at having a big culmination of all mechanics coming together for one final "trial", akin to The Tower from Talos Principle or The Challenge from The Witness, falls flat form the same issues that plague the main game.
Committing to such a strategy also results in some mechanics being more fun and engaging as puzzle components than others which leads the game to be inconsistent in its quality, and difficulty, throughout resulting in a roller-coaster-esque experience at times. Removing some of these poorer puzzle mechanics and allowing the more interesting, fun, challenging, mechanics to prosper in the hands of both the designers, as well as the players, would have resulted in a puzzle experience more akin to Talos Principle. Where both the puzzle mechanics, and puzzles themselves, are iterated and developed more leading to a more stable and linear difficulty curve. On the overall topic of difficulty I am of the opinion that Talos Principle 2 is easier than both Talos Principle, and its DLC: Road to Gehenna. Puzzle games don't need to be brain bendingly hard in order to be good (Cypher by Matthew Brown being a good example of a game that satisfies said criteria) as games such as Portal 2 or 2023's Cocoon prove but a lack of difficulty can leave the game feeling largely flat in quality.
Further adding to the feeling of flatness is the considerable lack of secrets in addition to the differing approach to the stars (read: additional puzzles) in Talos Principle 2. In Talos Principle there was a number of stars completely hidden in each level. The only thing that indicated how many stars were in each level was a sign which had everything in the level on it. But even then there were stars that were hidden beyond that. In Talos Principle 2 in each zone there is 2 shrines to Prometheus, Pandora, or the Sphinx. Each one being a different form of "challenge" to obtain a star. Neither the Sphinx nor Prometheus shrines contained much puzzle elements at all, they would both lead you to somewhere in the level, you'd do the required task, you'd get a star. The Pandora shrines were somewhat similar to the stars in Talos Principle in that you would be tasked with trying to find the right tools in the zone in order to complete the puzzle that the Pandora shrine would have on it. Each of the Pandora shrines were fun to try and figure out what parts of different puzzles could interact and provide you with the desired outcome. In the same way that many of the Talos Principle stars would operate.
Two-thirds of the stars in this game having little to no challenge behind them compounds the overall feeling that Talos Principle 2 is undercooked by quite a significant margin, especially in comparison to it's predecessor and it's DLC. At its core Talos Principle 2 is a good game, it's the knowing that the game could have been so much better which is the most disappointing part.