HomeReviewsThe Talos Principle 2
The Talos Principle 2 review: masterful puzzles that will make your head spin with dizzying delightIntelligent systems
Intelligent systems
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
Early on inThe Talos Principle 2, one of your soon-to-be robot pals says to you with a completely straight face, “We’re here to solve this puzzle, not to discuss philosophy.” I can almost see Croteam’s writing team now, chuckling inwardly to themselves as they do a big silent wink to camera from behind the robot’s eyes. You’re not fooling me, Croteam. I’m here to solve puzzlesanddiscuss philosophy, and I know you are too. You can’tstoptalking about philosophy in this game, and frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Talos Principle 2 is still chock full of light and laser puzzles, but they remain very satisfying brain teasers. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
I promise to talk about the puzzles first, you have my word. Much like the first game, The Talos Principle 2 sees you roaming around semi-open environments as you trot between distinct little puzzle enclosures, all of which are handily signposted and flagged up with big glowing numbers outside, just to doubly make sure you can see them from a distance, and you’re attempting them in rough order of easy-to-difficult (though you can deviate and tackle them in any order you wish). Also like the first game, these puzzles are chuffing brilliant. Each area is themed around a new contraption of some kind, teaching you the basics of how they work before really laying it on thick with the devious head-scratchingness of it all. But it also does a brilliant job of layering up multiple conundrums simultaneously, mixing and matching different themes together into one delicious soup of puzzley goodness.
It was at this point in the trip that the others started to doubt whether 1K would be a valuable addition to the expedition party… |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
There are also a handful of island-wide brain teasers to suss out between dedicated puzzle arenas as well. Alas, they won’t get your synapses firing in quite the same brain-breaking way they did inThe Witness, say, but they do get you thinking about your environment in such a way that they rarely feel like empty scenery filler between objectives. These, combined with the fact that each little island cluster is just a more coherent and evocative landscape to explore in the first place, all works to give The Talos Principle 2 a much stronger sense of drive and momentum. There’s always something tickling away at your brain wherever you happen to be, and your eyes are constantly being drawn to investigate its nooks and crannies.
Stacked DeckThe Talos Principle 2 is deemed ‘Playable’ on the Steam Deck, but I wouldn’t recommend it, even aside from its teeny tiny text and mostly illegible icons. You can just about get a steady frame rate playing on Low at 1280x800, but it’s not particularly smooth, and get be quite jerky running around its dense forest locations. Its thumbsticks just don’t give you quite the same degree of control as a proper mouse does, either. It’s just about doable if you want to solve a quick few puzzles in bed, but not much more than that.Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
The central moral and philosophical problems that are gently frying their circuits in The Talos Principle 2 are a right old doozy, too. You know, small stuff like: should society always be growing and evolving in the pursuit of progress and technological advancement? Or will that lead them down the same path as their dumb idiot human forefathers, who all perished in an ecological apocalypse? Maybe they should remain small, balanced and contained, at peace with the world but potentially stagnating and sealing their own fate in the process. After all, the capital g ‘Goal’ they’d all been working towards - the creation of 1000 new people - culminated the moment you, the player, were born. So what now? Who gets to decide what everyone’s purpose is now, especially when the person who set ‘The Goal’ in the first place has long since disappeared and seemingly doesn’t care anymore?
Big shoutout to The Talos Principle 2’s photo mode. It’s truly excellent. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
For example, Athena is not the same obvious God-like figure as Elohim was, but the parallels are there all the same, both in its use of Judeo-Christian ideas and and conventions, and the way it mixes together everything from Greek mythology and Roman philosophy to western poetry. The result is a carefully presented melting pot of different ideas and schools of thought on the subject, but crucially one that still gives you, the player, a degree of agency in how you navigate it. You were literally born yesterday, after all, and while your crew will have their own thoughts and feelings on the situation, the fact you’re also given the space to debate and come to your own conclusions as well is very welcome indeed.
Honestly the architecture in this game is properly stunning. Who knew the inside of a Toblerone could feel so vast and upside-down? |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Devolver Digital
All of which is to say that there’s a lot to love in The Talos Principle 2, even aside from its excellent puzzles, philosophical questions, and really quite gorgeous scenery. Despite the cold hard trappings of your mechanical body and its vast, brutalist architecture, there are deep wells of warmth and weirdness to be found here, and when you stack it all up it’s not only one of thebest puzzle gamesI’ve played this year, but also hands down one of the chewiest and stickiest games to lodge itself in my brain full stop. Kinda like what happens when I try and eat an actual Toblerone, to be honest - that stuff just gets everywhere. Even now, I’m thinking about the sheer scale and enormity of its giant laser towers, solutions to puzzles I haven’t quite been able to wrap my head around yet, and whether, after losing track of which body-double I beamed my consciousness into back on island four, whether I am, in fact, still the same robot I began the game with. You might just be here to solve a puzzle, according to Alcatraz, but what a journey it takes you on in the process.
