Peter Vlasveld

I am only giving this game 4/5 because I am a massive fan of the first game, and so I have to compare it to that. On a scale of all games ever made, The Talos Principle is a 5 and every other game ever made is a 1. It combines amazing puzzle design with existentialist philosophical musings that not only leave you satisfied with the gameplay, but also having a renewed sense of curiosity about your own existence. So that's all to say the The Talos Principle 2 had a _lot_ to live up to. In the end, The Talos Principle 2 is a beautiful game, with all of the philosophical thought of the first and some nice puzzle design. The problem is that, compared to its predecessor, there are not enough puzzles, and the puzzle difficulty is pretty mediocre. Don't get me wrong, there were a few challenging puzzles that had me scratching my head for the good part of an hour, but they honestly don't even compare to some of the out of the box thinking that it took to finish the first game. Then there is the issue of collecting stars. In the first game, collecting each star was a puzzle in and of itself. Every one was different, and then if you collected enough of them, it allowed you to unlock even more puzzle areas, with incredibly hard puzzles in them. It was so satisfying to collect the stars and then solve all of the star puzzles. Comparing that to this game: Each puzzle area has 2 stars to collect. In order to collect them, you just find the statue, and solve the incredibly easy puzzle associated. The puzzle is always 1 of 3 things, which means that once you've figured it out once, you can solve them all really fast. Then comes the most unsatisfying thing in the game: You've collected all the stars, you go to turn them in, expecting to unlock a new puzzle area, but instead you get a cutscene :sad-trumpet:. So yeah, it's a great game, but unfortunately I have to compare it to the first, and thus, it loses a star for me. Still would recommend it to anyone, if not just for the philosophy.