Recent reviews by Randominity

This game is ok. I liked the mystery and the interesting characters and the art. However, there just isn't much game here. It sticks to a simple construction which is kinda nice but it feels very limited in the scope of the story and just how many puzzles or detective moments there really are.

In my opinion, this is probably the Zachtronics game to start with. The infinite plane really helps give you much more freedom to pursue whatever solution you can get working (before you really get into optimization). This leads to generally less frustration than many of the other Zachtronics games while you're getting going in them. Doesn't mean it's easy or it doesn't get challenging at the end.

An excellent take on the minesweeper/hexcells concept. The curated set of puzzles really helps the experience shine.

The one negative is that the bonus puzzles can get unfairly difficult. As far as I can tell, some of them get deep, deep down logic chains before you're able to make any determinations which ends up being very tedious to clear those last few puzzles.

While I wish there was a bit more going on with the story and the languages themselves, this game is very economic in its construction. It's just enough in every way without being bogged down in complexity or repetition.

With an interesting enough premise and no big flaws, this is an easy recommendation.

The first Talos Principle was about a 7/10 for me. It was entertaining and had interesting puzzles but I found the philosophical voiceover a bit pretentious. It did have interesting things to say in the way the plot developed but it tended to throw a bunch of lofty concepts at you without clear purpose along the way.

Talos Principle 2 does a fantastic job of addressing this by framing the philosophizing in something more concrete within the narrative both in terms of the setting and the characters. This mostly works in creating an interesting narrative which is interesting but doesn't quite have a true cinematic flair in every instance. (I know they're "robots" but more natural body & facial animation would go a long way in this instance)

For gameplay, there's a long list of puzzles to uncover and solve which (almost) never felt unfair. In almost every instance when I couldn't get a puzzle the first time, I would come back to it later with a fresh look and grasp the answer quickly enough in a way that made me feel both clever and dumb. There was one of the environment puzzles which I felt was a bit too well hidden and became frustrating but it was the only one for me (one of the monuments in W2).

All of this brings Talos Principle 2 up to a 9/10 for me.

To Croteam: if you integrate your puzzles a little more into the narrative and do a little more with refining the cinematic presentation I think the next installment could truly be one of the greatest games ever made. (I criticize because I really want to see what just how close to perfection you could come)

Interesting way to build a narrative. A lot more could be done with this format. Biggest problem with the game is that there needs to be more of it.

Excellent indie game with lots of content which feels like you could play it forever. The combination of rogue-like and bullet hell shooter genres have each genre covering the flaws of the other.

I was hoping for more interesting usage of VR but it ended up being pretty much just another "The Room" game. I enjoyed what was there but it's probably not quite enough for $30.

Feels like a series of escape rooms which take advantage of being a video game to allow for a multitude of failure conditions (ways to die). Can get a little frustrating when you're getting to the last few hurdles in a level, die, then have to get all the way back through the 20 or so steps to get back to try again. Has just enough content at this point to be worth it.

The one VG game I consistently come back to. Consistently satisfying.