The Talos Principle

[Sawyer]

We had Portal, then we had Talos Principle... then we had crickets. Have I missed a game somewhere? How could we have gone so long without more great games of this ilk? Somebody is going to say The Witness, but no.

Before this becomes answerable, I'd kinda want to know why The Witness didn't qualify.

It's the puzzle style. There's probably a name for the different style of puzzles, but Portal and Talos Principal are more spatial? I really, really wanted to like The Witness. The Witness, though, was trying to teach me a layered language I got bored with learning about halfway through.

[MonkeyFinger]

We had Portal, then we had Talos Principle... then we had crickets. Have I missed a game somewhere? How could we have gone so long without more great games of this ilk? Somebody is going to say The Witness, but no.

Before this becomes answerable, I'd kinda want to know why The Witness didn't qualify.

It's the puzzle style. There's probably a name for the different style of puzzles, but Portal and Talos Principal are more spatial? I really, really wanted to like The Witness. The Witness, though, was trying to teach me a layered language I got bored with learning about halfway through.

In much the same boat. Couldn't really explain the why of it but the others sucked me in while The Witness... not so much. I don't think I even made it half way.

[coopasonic]

We had Portal, then we had Talos Principle... then we had crickets. Have I missed a game somewhere? How could we have gone so long without more great games of this ilk? Somebody is going to say The Witness, but no.

Have you looked at Supraland? There is a demo on steam.

[Blackhawk]

There are a couple of others that I've looked at on Steam that were well reviewed, but I haven't actually tried them yet.

[Lordnine]

I will give another vote to Supraland. You can find an impression thread I posted some time ago. One of the best puzzle games I’ve played since, well, the Talos Principal.

Some others that may interest you.

The Turing Test (Easier than Portal or Talos but still quite good.)
Q.U.B.E. 2 (While a sequel, you do not need to play the original, the sequel is much more compelling than the original and hits most of the Portal boxes.)
The Magic Circle (More exploration, less straight puzzle, but a similar feel with some very clever puzzles.)
Pony Island (This might be a stretch if you want a 3D puzzle game but it offered a very similar feel in my opinion. Definitely worth a look if you like clever puzzle games with some subversive story thrown in.)

[Blackhawk]

Hello, old thread!

I just played this a second time, this time in VR. The game is the same, and reading back over my comments previously, my opinion hasn't changed all that much. The puzzles are awesome, the difficulty curve is just right to keep you thinking without making you pull your hair out, the atmosphere is great, the philosophy is... present, and I still don't like the tetromino puzzles - too much guesswork rather than the reasoning the rest of the game involves.

I also still think they way they hid the completion secrets is terrible. (Some are designed to only be solvable by a very, very narrow audience. If you don't happen to have the uncommon real-world skills - coding skills - involved in their hiding process, you won't even notice that some of the hidden items exist, and you'll wonder forever why you can't find the last few.) But that's a small quibble on an otherwise great game.

But as I said, this time I played in VR, which completely changed the experience. Being able to have a sense of distance, height, and space made the game even more interesting. Given that this is a spatial reasoning game, it's ideal for VR. Aesthetically, it made the environments all that much more immersive. Croteam has a solid love for VR, and they did a great job of the conversion, including the controls. I never felt like I was struggling because of a control, and I very rarely ever found any graphical oddities brought about by VR conversion. To be fair, though, it's an older game and the textures and geometry did show through a little here and there, but that also means that it runs really well, often an issue for VR games.

They do have the full range of comfort settings in the controls (teleport movement, snap turning, darkening the edges of vision while turning, etc.) for those bothered by motion sickness. That isn't an issue for me, though, so I went with all of those settings off. This was one of my first full-length VR games, though, so the first few times I had to jump onto a fan and get flung across the map it was little disconcerting and had me gritting my teeth and bending my legs for the landings. By the time that I was done, though, flying through the air didn't phase me.

At least until I accidentally fell from the top of the tower. That was an experience.

So, if you like Portal-reminiscent puzzlers and have VR, check out The Talos Principle. And if you like the Talos Principle and don't have VR, get VR and give it a play!

[Butterknife]

I really enjoyed playing this game in VR too. I had never played it before, so for me the entire experience was in VR (I've never played it flat). It was a very well-done VR conversion -- as you noted a lot of features were added for comfort, and the gameplay itself translated well to VR. I never finished the game -- got stuck on a puzzle late in the game and was too stubborn to look up the solution. But I enjoyed my time with it.

[Blackhawk]

There were a few in last world and the late towre that were real head-scratchers, but when I finally figure them out I invariably realized that either it involved a trickI knew but had forgotten about, or getting stuck was because I had fixated on a solution and failed to consider that it might not be the right one.

[Zaxxon]

What VR system are you guys using? VR is one of those topics that I know I would like to try someday, but I've put absolutely zero effort into. I also want to try HL:Alyx.

[Blackhawk]

What VR system are you guys using? VR is one of those topics that I know I would like to try someday, but I've put absolutely zero effort into. I also want to try HL:Alyx.

I'm using a Rift-S. It is awesome, I love it, and have zero complaints, but the Quest 2 became Oculus's favorite son, and they don't give the Rift-S a lot of attention (plus they are retiring it.)

If I were advising someone into what to buy, though, it would be easy: Compare the pros and cons of the Oculus Quest 2 with a link cable with the Valve Index. And if I had to point to one only, it would be the Quest 2 with the link cable. Cheaper, comparable quality, and you get access to both the Steam/PC library and the Oculus Store, which is a big deal (due to exclusives like Asgard's Wrath.) The Index can only play games released for the PC without some very iffy hacks.

Plus you can unplug the Quest 2 and play wirelessly, although only for Oculus Store games.

[coopasonic]

Plus you can unplug the Quest 2 and play wirelessly, although only for Oculus Store games.

That is not 100% true ("only for Oculus Store games"). I have played Steam games (including Alyx) wirelessly on the Quest. It used to require making a dev account and sideloading, but I am not sure that is even necessary any longer as Virtual Desktop was going mainstream, I think.

[Butterknife]

I'm still rocking one of the original Vive headsets, actually. I think I've had it for what, 4 years now? Wow, has VR really been out that long? I wouldn't recommend that these days, though.

Personally I'm waiting for the wireless iteration of Valve's next headset, then I'll probably upgrade. Not a fan of Facebook/Oculus, although they have a superior product at the moment so I would recommend that if you don't mind Facebook.

[Blackhawk]

FWIW, I've seen borderline zero Facebook integration. For the login, there's no reason one couldn't make a Facebook account that you never touch, never add info to, and never post on for the login. There aren't any privacy issues if they don't have any info.

[Butterknife]

FWIW, I've seen borderline zero Facebook integration. For the login, there's no reason one couldn't make a Facebook account that you never touch, never add info to, and never post on for the login. There aren't any privacy issues if they don't have any info.

That's great news! Thanks for letting me know, that would definitely affect my next purchase.

[TheMix]

What VR system are you guys using? VR is one of those topics that I know I would like to try someday, but I've put absolutely zero effort into. I also want to try HL:Alyx.

Well, if COVID gets more under control, and you are ever on the north end of town, I'd be happy to let you take my Index for a stroll with HL:Alyx. Heck, even if only for a brief time, the beginning is still pretty sweet.

And if you bring your Tesla, maybe I can get gilraen to take a look.

[Zaxxon]

Hah, deal on both counts.

[Blackhawk]

[Zaxxon]

Give it to me now.