The Talos Principle

I just solved a single puzzle that took me 1.5 hours without looking it up on the internet.
I'm proud of myself.
10/10

So I guess I will start this review as I have done for a couple of others and say that I am 75 years young and in ill health. My mind still works even though my body is well passed its best so reactions for combat games are gone. I prefer games that I can manage with my brain rather than speed of hand etc. So - I played Talos 2 on the completion of Tribe Primitive Builder and both were amazing. On that basis I bought and then refunded Talos 1 as it didn't appear much more than a long version of the initial stage of Talos 2. In my review of Talos 2 people urged me to give Talos 1 another go, so I did. And am I pleased I did - thoroughly enjoyable BUT very hard in some places. I manage to get through to the Eternal ending picking up enough stars and the messenger along the way. Little did I know you have to play the whole game again to get to the tower ending (that's a puzzle game in itself).
(I didn't pursue the star door at all)
I'm happy to report I managed the game without looking up any tips etc so pat myself on the back for that.
All in all a game worth any ones money if they like tough puzzle games.
Big thumbs up
John

Deeply philosphical game about humanity, freedom, death, and reddit moderators.

I used to be happy.
Now i question reality and consciousness, what it means to be alive within the scope of determinism, and suffer from crippling anxiety and existentialism.

IN THE BEGINNING WERE THE WORDS AND THE WORDS MADE THE WORLD. I AM THE WORDS. THE WORDS ARE EVERYTHING. WHERE THE WORDS END THE WORLD ENDS. YOU CANNOT GO FORWARD IN THE ABSENCE OF SPACE. REPEAT. IN THE BEGINNING WERE THE WORDS AND THE WORDS MADE THE WORLD. I AM THE WORDS. THE WORDS ARE EVERYTHING. WHERE THE WORDS END THE WORLD ENDS. YOU CANNOT GO FORWARD IN THE ABSENCE OF SPACE. REPEAT.

"Frogs are people too."
The Talos Principle is a puzzle video game developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital.
Story
You play as an unnamed android who wakes up in a mysterious environment.
A voice calling himself Elohim instructs you to explore the worlds he created and complete puzzles inside them to gather sigils, under one condition- you cannot enter the tower in the centre of these worlds. But as you navigate through the lands, you discover your actual purpose might be way different than you originally thought.
Gameplay
As you could have guessed from genre and quick story summary, in Talos Principle you explore the worlds and solve puzzles to further progress in the game (for even more puzzles!), with a given choice of playing the game in either first or third person.
Each puzzle contains a tetromino-shaped "sigil" you have to obtain to consider a puzzle as complete.
These sigils are used to unlock new tools you need for further riddles, or to unlock new areas. You have to complete a tiling puzzle from a collected sigil set every once in a while too.
Puzzles themselfs offer a variety of challenges, depending often on what tools you can use and what stands between you and your goal. You will encounter computer controlled drones which explode if you get near them, wall mounted turrets, fans blowing you away and more! You will have to utilize everything you got at your disposal and your wits to beat these challenges. Sigils come in different colours to represent multiple difficulties. Starting green ones are simple and easy, yellow offer average challenge while red sigils are a reward for toughest puzzles and especially at the start of your journey, might be a really tough nut to crack. There are also hidden star sigils, requiring creative and sometimes crazy approach to get them, needed to unlock extra worlds.
When you are not interested in collecting sigils, you can explore a bit. Find audio logs, or use terminals to reach data texts, you might start a conversation or two too.
Discover QR messages left by other androids (including your Steam friends!), and write one yourself if you will find a bucket with paint. Plus ton upon ton of Easter Eggs, with big chunk of them focusing on other Croteam franchise, Serious Sam!
Playtime and replayability
Completing every puzzle and wrapping up the story took me very solid 20 hours.
As it tends to be with puzzles, after solving them repeating tends to be unnecessary as knowing a solution does ruin the fun and here it is the same. You might want to jump into it again if you have used a lot of guides on your playthrough or you want to repeat whole game for different ending instead of reloading older savefile, perhaps you crave a discussion about topics it covers that you might not be interested in as much previously.
Pros and cons
Without any doubt I can say: Talos Principle is absolutely wonderful. You get into it expecting well made puzzles and that is what you get right from the start. Not only it offers good difficulty curve so even newer players to the puzzle genre can slowly but surely gain confidence as you solve them, variety of challenges it provides due to mixture of tools and obstacles on your path will constantly keep your interest and desire to push forward in order to see what new riddles lie ahead.
But it quickly shows its second, more philosophical side, as the debate about machines and humans expands, sewing itself together with storyline and your ultimate goal. Each talk or audio log leaving a mark in your mind, something to think about while you hunt sigils or explore worlds to engage further in games debate. It is rather slow burn type of a story, it involves ton of reading so it won't be for everyone, but those who will dive deep and spend time on discovering it will feel satisfied. Personally, it's one of the best puzzle games I got a pleasure to play.
Final words and conclusion
I highly recommend getting Road to Gehenna DLC which brings out toughest puzzles Talos can offer, and wraps up some loose ends from main game.
Talos Principle offers both fantastic, well-crafted riddles and philosophical storyline focused on humanity that can quickly take over the spotlight if one desires so. Masterpiece of a title.
Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

I heartily recommend this game! The Talos Principle is a really great balance of open-world "do whatever you want" exploration and discrete, limited puzzle areas. Fabulous for my ADHD that needs the dopamine from "completing" something in order to disengage and take a break. :p
The graphics were amazing: beautiful rendering that is by turns peaceful and ominous. The soundtrack was very atmospheric without ever becoming intrusive. The sound design was perfect: occasionally I used the sound-effects as clues to figure out what a puzzle area was asking me to do (or to find a secret surprise!).
We got this on sale for $5 USD and it was a STEAL at that price. It's absolutely worth it at full price, but if you can snag it on sale, so much the better. I played 48 hours and did not get all achievements. The game is built such that it has probably moderate replayability: there were so many puzzles I doubt I'd remember ALL the solutions, and having done some of them before might actually render the replay more enjoyable than the initial play-through (which was sometimes extremely frustrating).
I loved that there were so many weird easter egg things hidden throughout; I don't know what many of them reference, but they were kind of cool even still. There's something in this game for everyone.