While the Talos Principle may not be up to Valve's level of complete quality when it comes to Portal 1/2, The Talos Principle is a very good first-person puzzler with an interestingly-enough story to keep you driving towards the end. The quick concept is that you are working through 3 worlds with a total of about 100 puzzles to solve while learning the rules of the strange world that you have found yourself in.

The puzzle elements are sufficiently different from Portal or other similar games to be fresh enough, and for those that were more spatially challenged by Portal's puzzles will find that those in Talos are much more two-dimensional. Elements like the use of the light connectors to create virtual circuits and using a recording of your actions create some more interesting challenges. One factor that I will warn about is where Valve is well noted for developing Portal with the concepts of "platform learning", carefully bulding puzzles that guide you carefully in the use of all the tools, Talos is a lot less hand-holding, at least after the first few puzzles. Not that they don't try to guide, but it stumbles in some areas as where Valve has it perfected. But all this likely means is that you should not get too stumped on any one puzzle, and instead work on others; as the narrative voice mentions, you might learn more in other puzzles that can be brought back into earlier ones. As such, only about 4-5 puzzles I found to be difficult until I figured out the right trick. But one thing is true for Talos as it is for Portal - there was a deep satisfaction in discovering the solutions to puzzles on my own, and that's why I'd definitely recommend the game.

Add in the promise of future legit campaigns, and Workshop ability, and Talos looks like it has a good long tail, making it well worth the price.

While the Talos Principle may not be up to Valve's level of complete quality when it comes to Portal 1/2, The Talos Principle is a very good first-person puzzler with an interestingly-enough story to keep you driving towards the end. The quick concept is that you are working through 3 worlds with a total of about 100 puzzles to solve while learning the rules of the strange world that you have found yourself in. The puzzle elements are sufficiently different from Portal or other similar games to be fresh enough, and for those that were more spatially challenged by Portal's puzzles will find that those in Talos are much more two-dimensional. Elements like the use of the light connectors to create virtual circuits and using a recording of your actions create some more interesting challenges. One factor that I will warn about is where Valve is well noted for developing Portal with the concepts of "platform learning", carefully bulding puzzles that guide you carefully in the use of all the tools, Talos is a lot less hand-holding, at least after the first few puzzles. Not that they don't try to guide, but it stumbles in some areas as where Valve has it perfected. But all this likely means is that you should not get too stumped on any one puzzle, and instead work on others; as the narrative voice mentions, you might learn more in other puzzles that can be brought back into earlier ones. As such, only about 4-5 puzzles I found to be difficult until I figured out the right trick. But one thing is true for Talos as it is for Portal - there was a deep satisfaction in discovering the solutions to puzzles on my own, and that's why I'd definitely recommend the game. Add in the promise of future legit campaigns, and Workshop ability, and Talos looks like it has a good long tail, making it well worth the price.