So when I tell you that the team behind Serious Sam made another game, what genre are you thinking? Because personally, “philosophical puzzle game” is quite low on the list. So this is a philosophical puzzler with an overarching story. Like Portal but slightly more biblical.
We interrupe the usual fortnightly update schedule so that I can fangirl about this fantastic game having a sequel kinda just shadow dropped in a few weeks time, keep your eyes on this space I suppose.
The Talos Principle is a 3D puzzle game with some small platforming elements, though the hard jumps can be made using the game’s built in assisted jump, which shows you where you’ll land when you tap space. To start with you only have access to jammers which can be used to disable blue energy walls, moving mines and turrets, but as you progress, more puzzle elements are introduced such as laser redirectors and cubes hexahedrons.
The game is broken down into a bunch of areas, each with a number of puzzle chambers that can be solved in any order. Each chamber rewards you with a tetromino shaped “Sigils”, either green, yellow, or red. Each colour representing a different goal. Green Sigils unlock new areas, yellow Sigils unlock new mechanics, and red Sigils represent harder puzzles and are required to achieve one of the two main endings.
There are also stars which are more difficult to find and require either combining elements of two puzzles, or breaking objects out of a puzzle. Needless to say, you wont find all of these without a pretty in-depth search. Every 10 stars unlocks a secret star world with 3 balls hard puzzles each rewarding a white Sigil, and together unlock the third secret ending.
The game has a hint system, but only on the thinnest of technicalities. There are 3 hints that can be unlocked through the course of a playthrough, but you first need to unlock lobby C in order to retrieve the axe to enter the area where the messengers rest. Then after solving 5 cyan Sigil puzzles, the messanger can be awoken, granting you a hint. The hints can only be used in red Sigil puzzles, and invalidate an achievement when used. Both of these limits can be sidestepped with save scumming.
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/257510 £24.99
Humble Bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/the-talos-principle £23.99
Switch: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/The-Talos-Principle-Deluxe-Edition-1695266.html £26.99
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