The Talos Principle 2 already has me feeling like a scientif…

A great puzzle game can make you feel like a genius. style like classics door Count on the immense satisfaction that comes from solving a complex solution. This can be a tricky puzzle in itself, as developers need to be careful not to make the challenges so complex that they send players looking for a guide after too much head-scratching. However, the games that make it successful offer players a special kind of intellectual reward that is more rewarding than digital trophies.

That was the guiding philosophy in 2014’s standout Talos principle, and it looks like this will continue into its sequel. After playing a large portion of the upcoming puzzle-adventure game (five hours; about a quarter of the last game), Talos principle 2 Already shaping up to be a worthy successor. Not only does it have a larger scope with more philosophical detail, but it also doubles down on the inventively designed puzzles of its predecessor – I already feel like a mad genius.

bring puzzles

In its initial moments, Talos principle 2 Looks exactly like its predecessor. I’ve been abandoned in a desert and sent into puzzle rooms, where I jam electronic doors and place boxes on switches. Completing a puzzle gives me a tetromino piece which I put into doors to unlock new areas. However, this is just a cheeky tutorial. I am immediately taken out of a simulation machine and discover that I am a robot living in a future society filled with intelligent machines.

Whereas the first game was a standalone experience that relied on lore logs to weave its background story, the sequel puts the narrative at the forefront. I spend a chapter simply wandering around the hub city, interacting with robots and learning about their society. I also get access to a social media site full of philosophical conversations between bots (if the first game’s heady conversations put you off, be warned that the sequel will amp it up even more). When a party to celebrate the town’s 1,000th robot goes awry, I’m sent on an expedition to investigate a mysterious pyramid. To get inside, I have to activate a series of towers in different areas.

And of course, that means solving a lot of puzzles.

The general structure is more or less the same as the original structure there, although a little more open. When I travel to an area, I am free to explore and tackle puzzle chambers in any order I choose. If I stray off the beaten path, I’ll also find some bonus puzzles, hidden lore logs, environmental secrets, and collectible flames that will let me escape the puzzles (this is especially useful since there are no hints to be found). Completing eight puzzles allows me to unlock a path to a tower, where I need to place tetromino pieces to build a bridge. It’s a clever little twist on a defining feature of the original.

The puzzle rooms are already familiar. I’m often trying to get a beam of light onto matching locks by using machines to reflect the light on them. During my playthrough I was introduced to three new machines that are based on that idea. In the first area, I’m working with a new tool that takes two different colored beams and combines them to create a new one. For example, combining it with blue and red beams produces green. Naturally, when I connect splitters to other splitters to direct light around the walls it creates some complex puzzles.

The next step continues with the inverter, which produces an output of the opposite color to anything connected to it (connecting it to a blue beam produces red). One particularly tricky puzzle required me to place an inverter on a box above a fan, open a far door with an inverted light flow, and then find a way to direct both a blue and red beam inside. Is. Solutions often involve multiple beams of light moving around the chambers in all directions.

The demo also features a more mind-bending tool that brings a bit of door Temperament: Driller. These devices can open a portal on specific surfaces, allowing me to move devices or shine light through them. My favorite puzzle in the entire demo is finding a way to drill a hole in a high wall and get a converter high enough to reach it. Putting a converter on the fan seems like the easy answer, but first I have to use a driller to connect objects inside and outside the room closed to the pressure plate.

What Talos principle 2 So far particularly well presented are puzzles that at first glance seem physically impossible to solve. There were a lot of rooms where I felt like a child trying to figure out a magic trick. However, in almost every one of those cases, I was able to come up with a solution that made me feel like a wizard. I only found myself cheating twice, as I found two rooms in which I could climb the chamber walls to reach the final room. I’m not sure whether it was a conscious decision or not, but it made me feel a little disappointed in myself.

This is just a taste of what’s to come. I’m assuming each open area introduces a new puzzle concept, meaning there may be another nine or so. If I’m using so many tools I can see the puzzles becoming a little overwhelming late in the game, but I’m sure developer Croteam knows how difficult it can get before it reaches the point of frustration. Is. That strength is on full display in the first quarter of the adventure. Like the talking android of the sequel, I’m eager to uncover every secret of this mysterious world. Keep throwing well-designed puzzles at me and I’ll keep solving them.

Talos principle 2 It is scheduled to launch this year for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5.