The Talos Principle II

The Good
Many of the environments are quite stunning.

The game has a large selection of excellent puzzles. Some can be quite challenging, but I only had to resort to outside help once.

The different "humans" providing different philosophical insights worked well and perhaps better than the failed predecessors of the previous game, as they felt more alive.

The Bad
Bigger isn't always better. The world in The Talos Principle 2 is vast, but often the size is just becomes annoying to traverse, or the repeat of megascan assets just becomes apparent.

Some of the puzzle concepts introduced later in the game just don't work as neatly as the earlier concepts or those from the previous game.

I didn't necessarily want more tetromino puzzles.

The Bottom Line
The Talos Principle was a surprise favourite for me. So its sequel had a lot to live up to.

On the puzzle front the game definitely delivers. I had a lot of fun solving all the puzzles the game had to offer. There are quite a lot of new mechanics introduced throughout the game which ramp up the variety. There's also a lot more of them I think. The additional challenges each "world" contained were of a more mixed quality and generally just involved a lot of walking around. And not always very purposefully.

Where the first game explores what it is to be human, part 2 focuses on a new philosophical question: what the meaning of life is. The other "humans" give a more lively conversation which is nice, but I must admit this second offering doesn't feel as profound as the first. It's still great, but the novelty has perhaps worn of a bit.

Still the game comes highly recommended if you like either a good puzzle game or a philosophical debate, but mostly if you like both.