The Talos Principle 2 Review Summary

Beautiful and immersive environments: The game is praised for its stunning graphics, detailed landscapes, and breathtaking environments. The visual design and art direction contribute to a rich and immersive experience, making exploration enjoyable and rewarding.

Excellent soundtrack and music: The game's music and soundtrack are highlighted as outstanding, contributing significantly to the atmosphere and overall enjoyment of the game. The music is described as beautiful, relaxing, and well-suited to the game's themes.

Deep philosophical themes: The story explores profound philosophical questions and themes, inviting players to reflect on humanity, society, and existential topics. This depth adds a meaningful layer to the gameplay experience.

Strong narrative and characters: The game features a well-developed story with engaging characters and meaningful dialogues. The narrative is praised for its depth, emotional richness, and the way it builds on the themes of the first game.

Engaging and well-designed puzzles: The game features a wide variety of puzzles that are challenging yet fair, with new mechanics and tools introduced gradually. Players enjoy the satisfaction of solving these puzzles, which range from simple to complex, and appreciate the thoughtful design that respects their intelligence.

Disappointing story and characters: The story and characters in Talos Principle 2 were widely criticized for being boring, pretentious, and lacking the depth and emotional impact of the first game. Many players found the philosophical discussions heavy-handed and unengaging.

Large and empty maps: The game's maps are often criticized for being unnecessarily large and empty, leading to tedious navigation and a lack of engaging content. Players found the open areas bloated and difficult to traverse without fast travel options.

Excessive running and traversal: Players frequently complained about the excessive amount of running and traversal required between puzzles. The large, open areas and lack of fast travel options made navigation tedious and time-consuming.

Lack of save system and limited dialogue choices: Players were frustrated by the lack of a manual save system and the limited impact of dialogue choices. The auto-save system was reported to be unreliable, and dialogue options often felt biased or meaningless.

Achievement system flaws: The achievement system was criticized for requiring multiple playthroughs and having missable achievements. Players found it frustrating that they could lock themselves out of achievements and that some achievements were tied to skipping story details.

Narrative-driven gameplay: The game emphasizes a strong narrative presence with a story-driven gameplay experience. Players engage with a substantial story and character arcs, making meaningful decisions that influence the plot and exploring philosophical themes.

Diverse and challenging puzzles: The game features a wide variety of puzzles, including new mechanics and types such as Pandora box puzzles, tetromino bridges, and optical puzzles with refraction devices. These puzzles are designed to be more intricate and complex compared to the first game, offering a range of difficulties from easy to extremely challenging.

Exploration and environmental storytelling: The game encourages exploration of large, detailed environments with hidden secrets and lore. The expansive locations and beautiful scenery enhance the overall experience, making exploration a key aspect of the gameplay.

Character interactions and dialogue: The game features a talkative experience with a main cast, offering constant chatter and interactions with characters. These interactions depend on player decisions and contribute to the story and narrative development.

Introduction of new mechanics and items: The game introduces new mechanics and items progressively, such as drills, accumulators, inverters, and RGB converters. These new elements add variety and depth to the puzzles and gameplay.

Optimization and performance issues: Many players report performance issues, including poor optimization, crashes, and graphical artifacts. These issues are prevalent across various hardware, from lower-end PCs to high-end systems.

Graphical improvements and issues: While the game features impressive graphics and art, there are notable graphical issues such as ghosting, artifacts, and screen tearing. These issues are more pronounced on lower-end hardware.

High system requirements: The game demands high-end hardware for optimal performance and visuals. Players with lower-end hardware experience significant issues, including unplayable conditions and frequent crashes.

Stability and crashes: The game suffers from frequent crashes and stability issues. Players report crashes occurring multiple times per hour, as well as various bugs and glitches.

Linux and Steam Deck performance: Performance on Linux and Steam Deck varies. While some players report smooth performance with Steam Play, others experience significant issues, including unplayable conditions on lower-end hardware.

Highly recommended for puzzle lovers: The game is frequently praised for its engaging and well-designed puzzles, making it a must-play for fans of puzzle games. Many reviews suggest that if you enjoyed the first game or similar titles like Portal and The Witness, you will likely love this one as well.

Play the first game: Several reviews recommend playing the first game before diving into this one. The first game is praised for its atmosphere, character development, and puzzle design, making it a crucial part of the overall experience.

Worth the price: Many reviews indicate that the game is worth its price, especially for fans of puzzle games and philosophical themes. Some suggest waiting for a discount, but overall, the game is considered a great value for its content and experience.

Technical suggestions for better experience: Some players suggest setting the dialogue volume to 0% and enabling subtitles for a better experience. Additionally, there are requests for the game to be optimized for modest PCs, similar to the first part.

Good entry point for newcomers: The game is suggested as a good entry point for new players, even if they haven't played the first game. It is accessible and enjoyable for newcomers, making it a great starting point in the series.

Steam Deck: The game exhibits significant performance issues on the Steam Deck, with users reporting struggles to maintain stable frame rates and frequent drops in FPS. Graphics and upscaling technologies like FSR have been criticized for causing visual artifacts and poor image quality. While some users reported a smooth experience on Linux with Proton, others experienced crashes and stability issues. Extensive tweaking of settings is often required to balance performance and visual quality, indicating a mixed but generally positive compatibility experience with notable friction points.

Monetization: The reviews indicate a generally positive reception of the DLC content, with many users finding it valuable and enjoyable. However, there are some concerns about the pricing and the increased difficulty of the puzzles in the DLC. Overall, the DLC is seen as a worthwhile purchase for those who enjoy challenging puzzles and additional content.

External guides: The primary user complaints revolve around the complexity of puzzles and the necessity of using walkthroughs to progress. Additionally, users highlight the difficulty in finding hidden secrets and collectibles without external guides. The overall sentiment suggests a significant dependency on external data for both puzzle-solving and exploration.

Game world resembles real locations: The game's environment is compared to real-world locations, such as Chernobyl, providing a sense of realism.

Game features many cats: The game includes a significant number of cats, which is a notable aspect of the gameplay or environment.