A lot is written about how this game suffered from published interference and that is just the first half of a supposed whole. Knowing all of that, and that probably we won't ever get a direct sequence, how good is to play the game today? Great, I would say. Some may be turned off by the limited scope of the game world and plot, but for me it worked quite well. It plays almost as a sandbox, with a very detailed Prague as scenary. Yes, the main story is rather short, as it was my first playthrough, following it more closely. However, if you play as my second one, taking your time to investigate every nook and crane, hacking and reading every e-mail and reading every book, you'll have a very respectable 60+ hours of gaming. Gameplay flows way better than Human Revolution, and every style is truly a satisfactory choice. However, stealth still is the most enticing. Simply because going Rambo makes the game too easy after a while. Whole tense stealth sequences can be "solved" by taking down a few enemies, and rarely you'll be fighting againts overwhelming odds. However, is also nice to clear an area and then explore it entirely, Both experiences are rewarding and give you very distinct games to play, which is one of the cornerstones of immersive sims in general. However, there are some immersion-breaking quirks, like being able to steal everything from a room/apartment in front of the owners without question, or murdering a whole institution and then speak politely to the receptiotinst. For one side it's interesting that the game doesn't punish you for choosing a given playstyle. For other, you get almost no significant consequences for it, and playing as respectful non-lethal stealth Adam is basically the same as kleptomaniac psychopat mass-murdeder Adam. If you can get in on a sale, grab the full version. System Rift is more-of-the-same, but A Criminal Past gives you some new spins. If you suffer with crashes, look around the net for possible solutions, they work.
The Talos Principle has an unique premise: you are a robot walking among ruins to solve puzzles with high-technology items, all while discussing philosophy and following a well-crafted story. It's basically everything I like in a single game. The learning curve here is incredible smooth and well-crafted. Every possible strategy and mechanic is presented as a simple puzzle, which gives you all the tools necessary to solve the more complex ones. And there are plenty of them, don't worry, but I seldom got stuck and frustrated in one of the "normal" ones . On top of that, the game still looks good today. Archaeology buffs will recognize many real-world locations, and you may take your time to explore the worlds. Just be aware that there is very little to reward exploration in general, with very few exceptions. While the normal puzzles strike a great balance between difficulty and intuitiveness, the ones to get the stars are... well... a P.I,T.A. For stars you often have to use and connect devices from several different puzzles in a level. This sounds great on paper, but everytime you die, reset a puzzle, leave the level or simply quit the game, all puzzles in that level are reseted. So be ready for a LOT of backtracking and repetition if you wish to get all stars. By the last third of the game, I just skipped them entirely. All you lose without the stars is a few bonus levels and an alternative ending, which is fine, I don't see the point of different endings in puzzle games, since it's not exactly the most exciting games to play again. BTW, the final sequence of the ending I played (and that I think most people would try) it's also terrible. A long and TIMED puzzle that doesn't autosave. I was quite excited by the climax, but repeating it a couple of times tasted more as frustation than satisfaction by the end. Can't say anything about the DLCs, because the game gets a bit repetitive by the end. Perhaps another time. For now, best puzzle game I've ever played.
Just to tell that the game here is as updated as in Steam. The comment from 2018 that says otherwise is not valid anymore, and the fixes of the old "unnoficial" patch, as well as more recent fixes, are incorporated in GOG. So enjoy the current sale and buy half the price of Steam! :)
I bought the game in Early Access and had a good time with it, exploring the whole map and reaching the game "ending" (at the time). It was clear that it was still rough, but way better than other older games (*cof*Stranded Deep*cof*). I was excited to try 1.0 then. Well, unfortunately 1.0 is basically the same game. Everything that was rough and underdeveloped is still there. The game even lacks some incredible basic things, such as SOUND. Yes, a huge crocodile emerges from the water to attack you... without any sound! Not even an water splash. Same for basically all other creatures, that fight, run and die as quietly as the sand dunes. But there is one big difference from Early Access. Now alien squads increase in size with each attack, and even more if you stay in place. A developer said it's "because the game is made to keep you on move". NO, it's not! Just see the inventory system, where carrying one Antidote occupy the same slot of 30 Logs. By the time you actually manage to get two or three camels with bags, you are going to be attacked by a dozen aliens each time. That won't be necessarily a problem, sure, if combat wasn't so plain BORING in this game. Just jump on a rock or platform and spend the next 10 minutes hoping that you arrows hit the odd enemy hitboxes every time they surface for a couple seconds. But don't worry, if you are out of arrows, you can calmly craft more in the safety of your inexpugable plaform, while the aliens keep singing and dancing in front of you. At times I was even able to get near them and grab the arrows from their face while they look at me. Iep, combat is THAT bad... Giving more emphasis on it was a huge mistake. So, I wouldn't recommend the game anymore, because it's another promise that will always be an Early Access game. It may still be worth a try if you get for a discount on a sale, but please disable completely the aliens (at least there is this option, but only at game start).
I don't care about the "dated" graphics, they are fine to me. But the game just isn't that fun to play. Awkward dialogue, clunky combat, confusing story (I still simply don't understand why things happened as they happened in the first game day and led to subsequent events).
I took my time to play this game seriously twice in the last two years. First time I got bored after a few dozen hours, but I followed the main "story" till the end just to see if something else would happen. The second time I played with the harshest survival settings possible and had great fun struggling to survive in my first planet. But, after a while, it got boring again. The issue here is that the game loop is so darn repetitive. For instance, one of the most important things to do in the game is to increase your inventory size. And you can simply maximize it in the first system you are, and your only challenge and enemy will be your patience to repeat the same patters dozens of times. The developers added a lot of content over the years, but the procedural generation makes everything play almost exactly the same. After you saw the first planet, the first space station, the first settlement, the first derelict freighter, etc. you saw everything. The different kinds of planets are just visual skins, creatures and plants are simply irrelevant (I never looked at them any longer than the needed to scan)... Also, to make things even more "easy" and less offending to anyone, distance is complete irrelevant. From anywhere in the universe you can just go back to anywhere you already visited in one click. You will never feel like you are travelling deep into the space to discover hidden marvels to bring back home. Your are just going from one place to another completely similar to do the same stuff. Are you wondering what lies the different star colors that you need to unlock with upgrades will bring? Well, your guessed right: exaclty the same stuff, plus one mineral with a different color needed to go to the other kind of star. Don't deceive yourself, the game will never progress past those first times you do something. Am I being repetitive in my review? Well, it's just because this game is... so... darn... repetitive!
I bought the game hoping that the "open world" aspect would improve it in relation to the other games in this series. Well, after two hours watching long cutscenes and ocasionally pressing buttons when asked, just following the others, I can say that the game is still Metro... Good for who likes this kind of game, not for people who actually want to think about what they are doing. I guess won't have the patience to get to the open world part. The cherry on top was stitting for 5 minutes whatching an endless cutscene, trying to skip it hitting a key and have my game quickloaded to waaay before that. Yeah, save points suck also. Well, still Metro!
This game is unique in its goal to update old dungeon crawlers of the past. Having my share of those, I was excited to try it. Unfortunately, I gave up after only two levels. The exploring and puzzle-solving are nice. Combat, on the other hand, is not. Eager to keep nostalgia to maximum, they made a beautiful-looking game that you simply doesn't look at. I cannot recall what the enemies were actually doing against me, because I spend all combats looking to the bottom right of the screen, waiting to click again and attack. The worst offender is the magic system, where you have to click several times in tiny squares to cast an spell. So, it quickly becomes a boring clickfest. It seems that you could program keyboard hotkeys with AutoHotKey, but I'm not willing to spend time tinkering with something the developers could have made available (as an option, at least).
First half: cloak, crawl and run. Second half: watch, babysit and run. But yeah, first part is fun. Worth the 1 dollar I paid for.
