I'm going ahead and starting a catch-all for The Talos Principle, a portal-em-up puzzle game by Croteam and Devolver. It isn't coming out for about a month yet but there are a couple of related games out now for free on Steam.
Here's how Steam describes the game:
The Talos Principle is a philosophical first-person puzzle game from Croteam, the creators of the legendary Serious Sam games, written by Tom Jubert (FTL, The Swapper) and Jonas Kyratzes (The Sea Will Claim Everything).
As if awakening from a deep sleep, you find yourself in a strange, contradictory world of ancient ruins and advanced technology. Tasked by your creator with solving a series of increasingly complex puzzles, you must decide whether to have faith or to ask the difficult questions: Who are you? What is your purpose? And what are you going to do about it?
Features:
Overcome more than 120 immersive puzzles in a stunning world.
Divert drones, manipulate laser beams and even replicate time to prove your worth - or to find a way out.
Explore a story about humanity, technology and civilization. Uncover clues, devise theories, and make up your own mind.
Choose your own path through the game's non-linear world, solving puzzles your way.
But remember: choices have consequences and somebody's always watching you.
Like I said, there are two related games out now. The first is Sigils of Elohim. This is a pentominoes-like game where you have to arrange 4-block tiles to cover a board. Completing each "level" gives you a code that will give you some kind of item or bonus in the final game.
This ties into the main game in that it appears that solving each puzzle in the game itself will give you a pentomino tile. You must get all the tiles and solve a pentomino puzzle to exit the "level".
There is also The Talos Principle Public Test. This is made up of three puzzles from the game plus the final pentomino puzzle.
There are a few varieties of puzzle in the public test. One involves using a limited number of "scramblers" to get through a series of barriers. The second uses a set of "reflectors" to bounce and split laser beams between emitters and multiple receivers. Finally, there are blocks (shades of the Companion Cube) that you can use to weight things down, stand on or place reflectors on and a fan that can blow things around. Looking at the videos it appears there will be more puzzle elements in the final game.
There are also bonus stars to collect to encourage exploration.
The environments are mostly open so there is a lot of exploration to do. And the game does look really good.
There seems to be a story as well. At one location in the public test level there is a computer terminal you can interact with. You can't do much with it but there are a couple of files on it that you can read that cover things like history and philosophy. It seems that there is some reason why these various high-tech puzzles are sitting around in what look like abandoned ruins.
There is also the point that when you use the terminal you can see your hands and you either have cybernetic hands or are a robot. Probably the latter. I presume this will become important in the story.
So, it looks interesting. And it's always good to see something other than another face-shooter. It's 10% off right now on pre-order (15% if you own any one of a couple of other games like Antichamber and The Swapper).
The demo public test is free, so check it out.
Yep, this certainly scratches that Portal itch! The tetromino puzzles in the main (public test) game, actually seem a bit out-of-place compared to the rest of the 3d world physics/traversal puzzles; I presume the tetromino sections will slide more firmly into place (sorry!) and effect more context as the story in the full game progresses. Regardless, I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this one.
Yup, I'm interested. Played the demo (available on Steam, y'all), and that's right up my alley.
IGN review, only thing that has me hesitant is the price tag but I'm guessing it won't be on winter sale due to newness.
Yeah, I might have to grab this. Distinct environmental puzzles without a dexterity element are basically my favorites.
I really liked the demo, except for the part where I couldn't figure out the solution to a puzzle because I didn't realize that a particular object could be used as a weight, or removed from the spot I'd socketed it into already.
If you preorder, you get a copy of Serious Sam 3 and 10% off. The discount goes up to 15% if you already own The Swapper, Serious Sam 3, or Antichamber.
Personally, I think you should get an extra 5% for each of those that you own.
In. Steam kept recommending it to me and at a glance it looked interesting. 15% off incentive and full controller support was enough to push me over.
The length I'm hearing is 15-20 hours for the main game, another 5-10 for the optional puzzles. That seems worth the $30 to me.
On my Xmas wish list. Cannot wait.
I dug in yesterday. It's very enjoyable. I won't say much about it as it's a game about discovery but it's a beautiful game that you can actually slow down and enjoy.
REALLY liking this game so far (unlocked all Tetris blocks in "A" and a bunch from "B", still quite a few stars to find, though)
Don't forget to check out 'Sigils of Elohim' , the free side-puzzle thing you can download separately. It unlocks stuff in the main game when you finish a row of puzzles (mainly new lines of text you can paint on walls, but also you can get free gold stars as well). It may well test your patience of Tetromino based block puzzles though.
Also : if you already unlocked stuff, I noticed that the codes have changed since the game released, so if you noted down any unlocked codes previously you might want to check they haven't changed by clicking on them in the mini game.
Loving this game.. the levels so far seem to have just the right amount of openness allowing me to proceed more or less as I see fit. It's a beautiful game, and I'm very intrigued with the philosophical backstory stuff.
I'm nearing the end and some puzzles are proving to be real stumpers. Seems like now I beat my head against the wall trying to solve something, take a break, and come back and finally solve it, only to move onto the next puzzle and start beating my head against the wall trying to solve it. I'm working on collecting what I need to get to level 5 of the tower and have 3 areas in C left to conquer.
Still loving this game and want to get to the end to see what answers (if any) await.
Picked this up today with the help of GMG's -10% sale price coupled with their -25% coupon code ( 25HAPP-YXMASF-ROMGMG ), bringing the final price down to $27.
Loving it so far. Atmosphere is superb.
Only one more sigil to collect in world C... so close to the end. I want to see how it ends but I don't want it to be over. Luckily there's still plenty for me to do- lots of stars to try to get still, plus I haven't touched the boarded up room from each world.
Going to get this at some point next year when it's a little cheaper and my to-play list is a little shorter. I look forward to playing it!
Only one more sigil to collect in world C... so close to the end. I want to see how it ends but I don't want it to be over. Luckily there's still plenty for me to do- lots of stars to try to get still, plus I haven't touched the boarded up room from each world.
The boarded up rooms just lead to side areas with a lot of tetromino puzzles and really are only used to unlock extra "hints" you can use in the main puzzles (which, by the way, are totally useless from what I can see).
The gold star areas though - wow those are some tough puzzles 0_o . That or I'm really dumb. I'm actually a lot less keen on the ones that rely on timing your way past those explosive drones, I tend to find them rather annoying and frustrating.
I solved world A's boarded up room today and I see what you mean. I wondered around the other two such rooms without solving then yet- but did find a star in the one from world C.
That's only my 6th star discovered- not enough to get to the star areas yet... Not sure the best way to go about finding them, when I go back to the areas where it's marked I've got a star to find, I'm faced with a bunch of puzzles I've already solved and no clue where to start looking. I know there were some areas where I was able to see the star while working on solving a puzzle- but I'll be damned if I can remember exactly where they all are now. I toyed with the idea of starting the game over again and making sure I solved the star before leaving each area, but it looks like I'd lose all progress I made in my current playthrough if I did that. Silly that they don't have at least separate save slots I could use...
You can get three "free" stars by completing the puzzles in "Sigils of Elohim" and winning an unlock code.
If you don't feel like playing through a ridiculous number of tetronimo jigsaw puzzles then, try the codes below:
B4RG-GSLC-8TPQ-RZKS
C5LX-PCKB-IFQT-P46V
8XPP-XKQK-2UBX-ZKYZ
I'm assuming they'll be the same for everyone and not random one-shot deals.
Seriously debating whether to get this now or wait til later. I think I'd play it now, but I was planning on playing Dragon Age, and the pile is mighty. Also feeling like I want Captain Toad, and there's a limit to how many full-price games I can get this close to post-Christmas. But I also want to support this type of game getting made, so I'm torn.
Yeah, I went through the same debate myself.
It's so rare that I pay full price for games anymore that something really has to stand out from the crowd to pique my interest. The last couple Idle Thumbs podcasts talked The Talos Principle up enough to perk an ear. The Steam Public Test demo did the rest of the work.
I'm really happy that I took a dive as the game has been a refreshing surprise that came straight out of nowhere. It caught me so much off guard that it inspired me to revisit and edit it into my GOTY Top 10.
Check out the demo and see if it resonates with you. You could always use the latest GMG coupon (WINTER-SALE20-GROGRE) for a 20% discount if you decide to buy.
Oh, I already did the demo and am definitely on board. It's mostly the combination of over spending on Christmas, the Steam sale, and having another full-price game that I think I might want more that's making me hesitate.
Man, this thing just keeps delivering. I'm already like 14 hours in and new puzzle mechanics are still being introduced, this latest one had me all, "Who the? What the? Huh?!"
This game is so damn good. The whole package, top to bottom. I initially scoffed at the comparisons to Portal levels of ambition, creativity & quality, but I'm now 100% behind the correlation.
I just started, but already this game gets big points for displaying the time since last autosave when you go to quit. Every game should do this.
Also, the cards are selling for close to $.20 each, so that's cool too.
Guys, for serious, this is really, really good.
It's like Portal 2 in that it has a handful of puzzle mechanics that get used repeatedly and really creatively, except it doesn't hold your hand about the solutions, there are a crapton more puzzles, and it forces you to figure out how to break the rules. I'm digging the philosophy-ish storyline, but I can see how that might be a negative for some folks. It's definitely not nearly as in-your-face as Portal's narration, so it can be bypassed.
It's also nowhere near as short as Portal or Portal 2. I'm 11 hours in, and the end is not yet in sight. Compare that to me having finished Portal 2 in 9 hours, and I paid less for this. It's absolutely worth the price of admission.
It's also nowhere near as short as Portal or Portal 2. I'm 11 hours in, and the end is not yet in sight. Compare that to me having finished Portal 2 in 9 hours, and I paid less for this. It's absolutely worth the price of admission.
See, to me, that is this game's biggest flaw. It could have been an excellent 10 hour experience, but instead it feels like I'm doing puzzles where the solution is almost identical to a previous one and I'm just doing the busy work to complete it. It's actually deflating my desire to finish it at this point and is deterring me from recommending it to others who would have the same concerns about it's length.
I really need to pull the trigger and get this game.
So yeah, this is pretty much the coolest Easter Egg I've seen in forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Ps...
Non-game spoiler, obviously.
Yeah, I don't stand a chance of getting all the stars.
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