izigame.me

Is Talos Principle still one of the best first person puzzlers around? Yes. Was I happy to replay the game through this Reawakened remaster? Yes. Was it necessary? No, not at all.
The original Talos Principle still holds up very well to this day, both graphically and in gameplay. I mean, it's only about a decade old - much too early for a remaster, in my eyes. Still, when Reawakened was announced, I was happy because it meant I would have an excuse to replay one of my favorite puzzle games of all time. Good news: it is still as fun as I remember. The bad news is that this remaster introduces a bunch of unnecessary baggage, to the point where I would advise new players to just play the original version.
UE5 continues to be an issue in gaming, and sadly this version of Talos Principle is no exception. Even on my very beefy computer, the game stuttered here and there, and playing it on max settings meant dipping into 40 FPS and below. When loading the shaders, Talos Principle Reawakened likes to keep crashing thanks to my CPU not playing well with UE5 games - I think this is a problem with 13 and 14 gen Intel CPUs specifically, but it's not fun restarting a game 15 times to hope it makes it through the shader process. The original TTP, on the other hand, still runs like a charm and while this version undoubtedly looks a lot better, thanks to crisper textures and features like ray-tracing, TTP has never been a game where I cared about looks, but about the puzzles.
Of course, there are two other reasons to play TTP Reawakened over the original: the new level editor and the included "In The Beginning" DLC. I was particularly excited for both of these, because I always wondered what it would be like to make my own TTP principle levels, and I am always up for more, harder puzzles. And I was also particularly disappointed by both of these new additions.
The level editor is...just there, I guess. Sure, you can make your own levels, but it is frustrating to use, you constantly have to make adjustments to prevent clipping even when the grid adjustment is on, and you can't really terraform the environment, so all you have is the long square/rectangular map to build on. Of course, I have seen some really awesome puzzles and maps already made, so I am sure the community will be able to use this editor in ways I never could, but for beginners, I was hoping for a bit more. It's particularly baffling that the level editor is in this game and not in TTP 2, where it would have made much more sense given the new additions and puzzle items. TTP2 also runs on UE5 (and much more smoothly than this ,might I add). Of course, TTP remains an awesome game - but why add the editor to the inferior and less feature-rich version of the two available titles?
So that leaves In The Beginning. And to be fair, I was very worried about this DLC before starting it. TTP 2 was the culmination of what I think this franchise can cover, with some really amazing puzzles and some really big headscratchers, particularly in the Abyss DLC. I wasn't sure how else puzzles could become more difficult, except by making them more annoying and less intuitive - and sadly, this is exactly what happens in this level pack. The new background lore and additional conversations of Alexandra and her team are awesome and I really enjoy it being a sort of "Prequel", but the actual puzzles leave a lot to be desired. 16 of the 18 puzzles are apparently community-created, and with all due respect, you can tell. Some of them are fun, a few were difficult in a good way or at least creative, and then the rest were just frustrating, annoying or plain impossible (see Daydream) without a guide.
To me, the best TTP puzzles are the ones that build up on each other, especially after discovering a new mechanic or object. These are all over the place, with no real rhyme or reason in terms of difficulty, the objects used or even adherence to what the game mechanics are. I remember one puzzle that was really mostly about moving as fast as possible to lock yourself into a room with no exit, something you would never do in any other TTP game. Unintuitive is the main word I would describe over half of these 18 puzzles; frustrating is the second one. There were some really good ones, like the flying cube one or the subway one...but most of these desperately needed a quality pass and some adjustments.
To me, Reawakened was only worth it because it allowed me to play through the main game and Road to Gehenna again, and those two experiences are awesome and worth it to this day. If you have a very beefy computer and can avoid some of the crashing and slowdowns this version comes with, then I would go ahead and buy this on sale. If you just want to experience a really good puzzle game without any of the baggage of UE5, a mediocre level editor or a bumpy, frustrating extra chapter, just play the original game.