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The Talos Principle |OT| It's Serious Puzzling, Sam (PS4 port out now!)

Inkwell

Banned
I have a couple quick impressions of Road to Gehenna (currently have areas 1, 2, and half of 3 completed).

It's definitely challenging. I haven't seen anything crazy difficult yet. In general I like where the difficulty is at right now. This is excluding the stars. I'll come back after I finish everything else to get those.

The bulletin board stuff is keeping me a bit on edge. I've made some choices that may have been stupid and worry it will effect the outcome, or not allow me to see all of the BB content. The "experiment" comes to mind. I knew exactly what was going on and what was going to happen but I'm just too nice :(.

Also, anyone found any easter eggs yet? I found one in the first area, but I'm not sure if there's more to it or not.
I'm talking about assembling the leprechaun statue. You hear something like thunder, but that's about all I've noticed.
 

Ionic

Member
I'm talking about assembling the leprechaun statue. You hear something like thunder, but that's about all I've noticed.

World 2 Easteregg:
I found a floppy disk that said TOP SECRET on it. I picked it up, but have not found a use for it yet. It is not in one of the puzzles. You have to climb some stuff to find it.
World 4 Easteregg:
I found an island covered in bunnies. The funny thing was I had to bunnyhop to get to it!
 

Inkwell

Banned
World 2 Easteregg:
I found a floppy disk that said TOP SECRET on it. I picked it up, but have not found a use for it yet. It is not in one of the puzzles. You have to climb some stuff to find it.
World 4 Easteregg:
I found an island covered in bunnies. The funny thing was I had to bunnyhop to get to it!

Forgot about the floppy disk! It has a text game on it that's usable from the terminals. I think it may have disappeared after playing it once.
 

Ionic

Member
Forgot about the floppy disk! It has a text game on it that's usable from the terminals. I think it may have disappeared after playing it once.

The Serious Sam one? I had assumed that was just part of the game. Makes sense because Uriel says "I found your file" as it loads up. Also, mine stuck around after the first playthrough.

Edit: I just did one of the replay puzzles in world 4 and spent over a minute in replay mode trying to figure things out. When I played it back:
Some monitors materialized out of nowhere that looked like they had faces on them. Perhaps a developer? They disappeared very quickly."
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Oh wow, the monitor metagame is like GAF. With ascii art!
 

Sciz

Member
Yeah, there might not be a lot of puzzles, strictly speaking, but most of these are real mind-melters, even before you go star hunting. Definitely leans harder on some of the more esoteric ways the mechanics work out than the base game.

Solved The Pendulum completely by accident though.

The new format for the terminals is a nice change of pace.

Also, anyone found any easter eggs yet? I found one in the first area, but I'm not sure if there's more to it or not.
I'm talking about assembling the leprechaun statue. You hear something like thunder, but that's about all I've noticed.

I didn't build the statue until after saving everyone, but it triggered an event when I returned to the central hub. Not sure if it'll happen before saving everyone or not.
 
Yeah, there might not be a lot of puzzles, strictly speaking, but most of these are real mind-melters, even before you go star hunting. Definitely leans harder on some of the more esoteric ways the mechanics work out than the base game.

Solved The Pendulum completely by accident though.

The new format for the terminals is a nice change of pace.



I didn't build the statue until after saving everyone, but it triggered an event when I returned to the central hub. Not sure if it'll happen before saving everyone or not.

Yeah, these puzzles are no joke this time around. In the first area I solved
The Swapper
in a way that I really don't think was intended (
never had to open the final [red] gate
). Even after clearing the remaining puzzles there, I have no idea how you'd do it otherwise - unless I totally missed
a connector
somewhere in there.

I also completed the (easter egg spoiler)
Leprechaun only after saving everyone in the area (missed the stupid hat during my initial round of searching), and got the thunder, but didn't get anything to happen there or after returning to the main hub
- dunno!
 

Ionic

Member
I beat the main part of the campaign in two sittings today and thought it was spectacular. But after seeing the normal ending I can't not go for all the star sigils.
 
does one have to 100% the companion game Sigils of Elohim to get all the stars in The Talos Principle?

I'm two endings in to The Talos Principle, and I loves the shit out of it, but star hunting is taking a toll on me. Its somehow harder then the actual later on puzzles were. And the Tetris piece puzzles in Sigils get ridiculous about halfway through.
 

Sciz

Member
I also completed the (easter egg spoiler)
Leprechaun only after saving everyone in the area (missed the stupid hat during my initial round of searching), and got the thunder, but didn't get anything to happen there or after returning to the main hub
- dunno!

When I say everyone I mean finishing all of the main puzzles, not just the ones in that area. It'll make sense when you see it.

does one have to 100% the companion game Sigils of Elohim to get all the stars in The Talos Principle?

I'm two endings in to The Talos Principle, and I loves the shit out of it, but star hunting is taking a toll on me. Its somehow harder then the actual later on puzzles were. And the Tetris piece puzzles in Sigils get ridiculous about halfway through.

The stars earned in SoE are bonuses, and nothing more. You can see everything there is to see in the game without them.
 

Inkwell

Banned
Yeah, there might not be a lot of puzzles, strictly speaking, but most of these are real mind-melters, even before you go star hunting. Definitely leans harder on some of the more esoteric ways the mechanics work out than the base game.

Solved The Pendulum completely by accident though.

The new format for the terminals is a nice change of pace.



I didn't build the statue until after saving everyone, but it triggered an event when I returned to the central hub. Not sure if it'll happen before saving everyone or not.

I had this happen last night and was so confused lol. It makes sense now.
 

Unit24

Member
The game crashed in the middle of one of the puzzles in Road to Gehenna, and now I'm too scared to try again in fear that it'll happen again when I'm almost done with something difficult.
 

Ionic

Member
The game crashed in the middle of one of the puzzles in Road to Gehenna, and now I'm too scared to try again in fear that it'll happen again when I'm almost done with something difficult.

The interesting thing about these kind of puzzle games is that the puzzles are only difficult once.
 

Feep

Banned
These puzzles are SO HARD. Though I did nail the first two I just hit in World 4. The star in Colliding Beams seems outright impossible, though...and due to the nature of the setup, I can't see how to get an external object into the puzzle...hm.
 

Sciz

Member
These puzzles are SO HARD. Though I did nail the first two I just hit in World 4. The star in Colliding Beams seems outright impossible, though...and due to the nature of the setup, I can't see how to get an external object into the puzzle...hm.

You can't do it with the stuff in the puzzle, but you don't have to look very far either.
 

Feep

Banned
Rescued all but two, now...Pendulum and Harmony. Ray Trivia was awesome.

Only three stars, though. = P

Edit: Only Pendulum left. Got the star in Harmony, too! Now how the hell do you manage this...
 

Scrooged

Totally wronger about Nintendo's business decisions.
So...is there a way to get a savefile from near the end of the original game? I ended up reinstalling Steam to another drive and lost the save because it's located in the Steam userdata folder of all places. No other game saves there, wtf. I also had cloud saves disabled.

I really don't feel like doing all of the puzzles again and this is keeping me from getting the DLC.
 

Blizzard

Banned
So...is there a way to get a savefile from near the end of the original game? I ended up reinstalling Steam to another drive and lost the save because it's located in the Steam userdata folder of all places. No other game saves there, wtf. I also had cloud saves disabled.

I really don't feel like doing all of the puzzles again and this is keeping me from getting the DLC.
I haven't played the DLC but I don't THINK you have to even finish the main game. There's a main menu option to just play the DLC.
 

The M.O.B

Member
I plan on getting both The Talos Principle and Road to Gehenna once I upgrade my computer next year.

But it is awesome to see that Croteam is more versatile than some people thought. I'll be happy to support them once I junk this 3yr old desktop I got now.
 

Sciz

Member
I haven't played the DLC but I don't THINK you have to even finish the main game. There's a main menu option to just play the DLC.

Yep. Croteam always handles their DLC as completely independent level packs. This ain't Dark Souls.
 
This is 66% off on Steam right now, probably because of the DLC release.
I'm seriously tempted to pick it up even though I don't have time to play it anytime soon.
 

Feep

Banned
Beat the DLC! Or, at least, all the main puzzles. Where do I even try for the gray sigils...?

Edit: Apparently I need
MORE STARZ
 

Ionic

Member
Beat the DLC! Or, at least, all the main puzzles. Where do I even try for the gray sigils...?

Edit: Apparently I need
MORE STARZ

I had to use a guide for half the stars. The main puzzles I can deal with, but the stars in the main game were just too esoteric. I don't have the mind to link together so many elements to solve some of those. There is a great guide on Steam that gives you revealable hints for every star so you can nudge yourself along and tailor the stars to your own difficulty. Of course, I'm not REALLY beating the game in doing this, but sacrifices must be made.

The post-star puzzles are really interesting. They're pretty compact, but offer pretty immense challenge. I swear my room is bigger than this one puzzle and I can't figure it out.

Edit: The small puzzle in the post-star error has somehow driven me further into delerium than any other so far. There is just so little to work with that I can't possibly imagine a solution. I know it's here, but I feel like I've done every single option a half dozen times. Maybe I need to sleep and pick it up in the morning.
 

Feep

Banned
I had to use a guide for half the stars. The main puzzles I can deal with, but the stars in the main game were just too esoteric. I don't have the mind to link together so many elements to solve some of those. There is a great guide on Steam that gives you revealable hints for every star so you can nudge yourself along and tailor the stars to your own difficulty. Of course, I'm not REALLY beating the game in doing this, but sacrifices must be made.

The post-star puzzles are really interesting. They're pretty compact, but offer pretty immense challenge. I swear my room is bigger than this one puzzle and I can't figure it out.
I don't really like most of the star puzzles. SOME of them are awesome, the "hard mode" puzzles, like the ones in Crater and So Close, So Far. But most of them just involve incredibly tedious scouring of the environment looking for random objects or architectural oddities that allow you to break the "self-contained" nature of each puzzle. It isn't very fun and I don't really have time for that stuff, which is why I have no problem with looking up a guide.

That said I only need 10/16, apparently? And I have six at this point so maybe I'll persevere...
 

Feep

Banned
Okay, I got four of the seven sigils. But what the fuck at the other three. All of them seem literally impossible. Ionic, two of my remaining three are small, I assume you mean Temporal Solution or Little Space Big Solution, neither of which I've solved...
 

Inkwell

Banned
I don't really like most of the star puzzles. SOME of them are awesome, the "hard mode" puzzles, like the ones in Crater and So Close, So Far. But most of them just involve incredibly tedious scouring of the environment looking for random objects or architectural oddities that allow you to break the "self-contained" nature of each puzzle. It isn't very fun and I don't really have time for that stuff, which is why I have no problem with looking up a guide.

That said I only need 10/16, apparently? And I have six at this point so maybe I'll persevere...

I feel the same way. The worst part is not knowing if you need to use elements from outside the puzzle or not. There's a star in the first area that I used something from an outside source to get, but apparently it could all be done from within the puzzle.
 

Ionic

Member
Okay, I got four of the seven sigils. But what the fuck at the other three. All of them seem literally impossible. Ionic, two of my remaining three are small, I assume you mean Temporal Solution or Little Space Big Solution, neither of which I've solved...

Temporal Solution I managed to get through at a fairly decent clip, but Little Space Big Solution is completely my foil. I can't even get to that third connector. I'm worried that when they say "Big Solution" that they want me to use resources from outside the "Small Space".
 

Scrooged

Totally wronger about Nintendo's business decisions.
I haven't played the DLC but I don't THINK you have to even finish the main game. There's a main menu option to just play the DLC.

What about the story? Is it a continuation? That's a big aspect of the game I didn't get to see how it all ended. If so I'll probably just have to watch the end of the game on youtube or something.
 

Sciz

Member
What about the story? Is it a continuation? That's a big aspect of the game I didn't get to see how it all ended. If so I'll probably just have to watch the end of the game on youtube or something.

It picks up moments after the end, but I think you can get the gist of what's going on pretty quickly. Talos's ending is great, though, so one way or another you shouldn't miss out.

I feel the same way. The worst part is not knowing if you need to use elements from outside the puzzle or not. There's a star in the first area that I used something from an outside source to get, but apparently it could all be done from within the puzzle.

A decent number of the stars seem to have alternate solutions this time around. I don't have quite all of them yet, but my experience has been that they're mostly achievable using the objects inside the puzzles themselves, with the obvious exceptions of the ones that aren't inside puzzles to begin with.

Temporal Solution I managed to get through at a fairly decent clip, but Little Space Big Solution is completely my foil. I can't even get to that third connector. I'm worried that when they say "Big Solution" that they want me to use resources from outside the "Small Space".

Temporal Solution was the only puzzle in the game that broke me, and I wound up kicking myself when I saw the actual answer. There's an approach that almost works, but you'll never be fast enough no matter how close you cut it.

Little Space Big Solution is rough, but I can vouch for it being entirely self-contained.

Hint:
Getting to the third connector involves first doing something with the other two that you'd normally never even consider because it's such a dumb idea under ordinary circumstances.
 
Just grabbed the original on sale and am just past
World A
. Enjoying it lots so far; how's the DLC compare?
The DLC puzzles seem to be quite a bit more challenging than the original game. I really like the terminal stuff in the DLC. It's like a BBS with some text adventure games and a discussion forum. If you're enjoying the base game, definitely pick up the DLC.
 
Just grabbed the original on sale and am just past
World A
. Enjoying it lots so far; how's the DLC compare?
The DLC puzzles seem to be quite a bit more challenging than the original game. The terminal stuff is different from the base game. It's like a BBS with some text adventure games and a discussion forum. If you're enjoying the base game, definitely pick up the DLC.
 

Conezays

Member
The DLC puzzles seem to be quite a bit more challenging than the original game. The terminal stuff is different from the base game. It's like a BBS with some text adventure games and a discussion forum. If you're enjoying the base game, definitely pick up the DLC.

Cool, thanks for the info. The terminal features sound pretty interesting.
 

epmode

Member
I like everything about Talos but those record/playback hologram puzzles. My mind is apparently incapable of understanding them without a LOT of trial and error.
 
PSA for the star in the middle of Crater: if you manage to get all the way up to needing [partial solution spoilers:
the box for the very last step, and you SOMEHOW manage to fuck up and drop it outside of the two cordoned off areas, know that it is possible to get it back inside by glitching it past the purple barriers over the fans on either side that allow you to leave the puzzle and then taking the fan facing backwards and grabbing it on your way up, thereby getting it out of the puzzle and jumping back into one of the cordoned off areas. This way you don't have to set up the ENTIRE AREA over again!
] I speak from experience :(

Halfway through Area 3 and so far I've not had to resort to a guide - but everything's been pretty rough, and I'd say more complex than most of the base game.
 
So what's the consensus on the difficulty so far?

I found the main game a bit too easy, not alot of puzzles made my mind melt.
It's nice to read that they ramped it up.
 

Feep

Banned
Brains are so weird, man.

I struggled for an hour on Cut it Out last night at 3 AM, got frustrated, went to sleep.

Booted it up just now and literally solved it in forty seconds.

5/7 now...

Edit: And solved Temporal Solution within another five minutes.

ONE PUZZLE LEFT....!
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
This DLC has really reminded me of how much I love The Talos Principle. The original game was easily my favourite game of this year, and this game is right up there as well. I love the puzzles and the world they've created. It's just top notch.

I like everything about Talos but those record/playback hologram puzzles. My mind is apparently incapable of understanding them without a LOT of trial and error.

Granted, there are very few of them in the expansion (and even the main game, really).
 

Feep

Banned
I DID IT I AM A GENIUS ALL PUZZLES SOLVED WOOOOOO

Kind of disappointed in the ending, though; it's barely any different...oh well. The puzzles were their own reward.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
yeah, I could take or leave the ending. I did really like the terminal story, though. Now I just need to clean up some god damn stars...
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
The new puzzles have made me start a new base game, so while I sit confused about the new puzzles, I run through the original like clockwork with the Serious Sam narration turned on. That's one of the coolest free DLCs I've ever gotten, ha.
 

epmode

Member
Finished! Picked up a few stars but oh god there's no way I'm getting all of them without a guide.

This expansion is similar to The Old Blood (Wolfenstein's expansion). Excellent content, slightly diminished by the lower production values. Buy it.
 

Feep

Banned
Finished! Picked up a few stars but oh god there's no way I'm getting all of them without a guide.

This expansion is similar to The Old Blood (Wolfenstein's expansion). Excellent content, slightly diminished by the lower production values. Buy it.
There are traditional puzzles locked behind stars. Keep going ^^
 

Blizzard

Banned
I finally finished the main game (HAVEN'T STARTED THE EXPANSION YET). Ending spoiler thoughts for the MAIN GAME:

I was a little disappointed. I expected something like the hydro dam from what ELOHIM said, and the generations of AI to produce a human successor was pretty clearly spelled out in the game. It would have been nice to have like, more cats (and dogs since they're immune) around, or some people still alive, or the SOMA/TALOS unit firing up a factory to reproduce itself. Or even, morbid as it would be, an Alexandra skeleton since she stayed to the end. Or to be crazy, some sort of preserved human brain state so they could live on.

Having a single unit wake up by itself with a single cat was pretty, but lonely. Hopefully it finds something to do with itself, or the expansion touches on this.

One other spoiler thought about the game in general:
It was kind of interesting when you start seeing parts of the game world flickering, whether it's because of real-world failures or data corruption or whatever, but then the tower doesn't flicker at all. And you wonder if MAYBE it's more real or something...until you get near the top and it still flickers. And you're like, darn. :(
 
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