What annoys me the most are franchises that flip flop between numbers and subtitles for mainline entries, like Assassin's Creed, Tomb Raider or Dragon Age. Just pick one and run with it, gee.
Novel until they start recycling the same ones. Look at all the sequels that include "Revelations" or "Origins" in the title, there are far too many of them!
I mean he did criticize how the philosophical story lacks drama and impact and could tie in better to the actual gameplay. But I enjoyed all of that in TP1 regardless and I don't think it would dissuade anyone else who liked the first game either.
I mean, there’s also the fact that he used the phrase, and I quote, “really pussy juice-milkingly good” to describe it. Those aren’t the kind of words Yahtz throws around for just any ol’ game (or at least not in that specific order).
I was hoping for a sequel to "Random Documents and Audio Logs" but this review is still really good. It's always great to get a sequel that not only took what made the original good and improves on it, but makes itself stand out from it. This game is absolutely beautiful, and all the points of the philosophical debate encountered throughout are pretty interesting.
Random documents and audio logs We find em stuck to notice boards, we find em under dogs We're gonna put em in a file and give it a review When we're bored of all the gameplay but we've nothing else to do Recorded just for us but they were scattered all around We get trophies and achievements coz there's hundreds to be found So we're hacking those computers and we're raiding all the drawers For some optional objectives and the codes to all the doors
Heres my Extended Version of Random Documents and Audio Logs let me know what you think: Random Documents and Audio Logs We find 'em stuck to noticeboards We find 'em under dogs We're gonna gonna put it in a file And give it a review 'Cause we're bored of all the gameplay but we've nothing else to do. Random Documents and Audio Logs They're hidden in the basement They're cast out into bogs We shuffle 'round the floorboards Until we've stubbed a toe Looking for that box With that cursed Audio Random Documents & Audio Logs Got us spinnin' 'round 'n 'round Like Sonic the Hedgehog We'll boggle at the lore 'Til we're all blue in the face Now, get my baseball bat So I can put in its place! *THUD*
@@LazarouDave What do you mean they don't work? not trying to be an ass I just want to know why it doesn't work. from my point of view my version won't work unless you actually sing it.
@@ElvenRaptor depends on your definition of a "proper conduct", pillaging and slave trafficking(?) may have been considered a pasttime of true men at some point somewhere
I personally really enjoyed the "we're a very reasonable bunch" thing. It feeds back to the themes of the utopia* these robots managed to create; a place where everything works like clockwork without causing destruction left and right, and where people don't even get mad in the face of ideas that contradict what they believe in, illustrating how far they've advanced when compared to the flesh and bone era of humanity. Growing and expanding isn't only a potential threat because of the damage technology could cause, but it could also result in a lot of people forgetting how to accept different ideas due to them no longer being part of a single tight-knit community. * I'm well aware that the city has a serious energy problem among other things, but that's besides the point.
I still admire the original Talos Principle for giving the most accurate representation of an internet argument I've ever seen in a video game. When I was debating the computer, I got so pissed off by the end, only to score an only somewhat satiafying victory when he just started copy-pasting the same message because he didn't have any better retorts.
Counterargument: The primary philisophical dilemma escalating into a giant space laser battle would have detracted from the ostensibly-intentional uncomfortability that the game presses you into for the purpose of making you question your beliefs and actually, you know, think about stuff. Also that is the plot of Gurren Lagann.
Was so much more ambitious than a sequel even has to be, but genuinely all the better for it. Seems like a big risk but I think it paid off. I'm as surprised as anyone that a god damn puzzle game is my game of the year, but here we are.
I mean, Croteam did come out out of nowhere, busting out of Eastern Europe, bucking industry trends and dropping a hot masterpiece with the original Serious Sam, but I guess the Talos Principle is pretty cool too.
I disagree with the ending point - I liked that everyone in the game can discuss their disagreements in a civil manner without forced emotional drama. Reminds me of how in 90s Star Trek the best part of the show was always the meeting where they discuss how to solve the problem of the week, getting a range of opinions - something sorely missing in the modern era.
I think it's big kudos to the devs for making a game, where the target audience are adults, engaging without sex or much violence. The first one was wonderful and some of the notes were very silly - like the one written in hexidecimel.
Hex code is present in portions of like half the text logs of both games. It's a great way to symbolize the corruption of the files, while also rewarding the curiosity of people with the diligence to to manually type raw hex codes into a translator. Weirld little freaks like me, that is.
The first one gave me an existential crisis reading the random documents and audio logs. I never ended up finishing it. Idk if the second one will as well, but it sounds like it might.
To be fair, i like the approach that the robots are all reasonable and don't physhichally fight. Makes up for all the times in games where the I in AI might as well mean ICBM.
Yahtzee may be wanting some Diogenes equivalents, who can somewhat chaotically derail discussions by dragging things back down to earth in a way that leads to more philosophy. The classic "Behold, man" while holding up a defeathered chicken sorta deal.
Funnily enough, lead writer Jon Kyratzes also worked on another game that released this year that seems to be an opposite of TP2's world, that being Clash: Artifacts of Chaos. Instead of a futuristic world of robots trying to learn from humanity before, Zenozoik (the land the Zeno Clash games are set in) is pretty much a prehistory. Though there's nary a human in sight: the game mainly has sapient, monstrous freaks that take the shape of stuff like a boomerang-throwing goose woman, a morbidly obese turkey with mushroom caps growing over his body, a big Platybelodon man or three-legged buff moose man with a three-eyed face shoved into its torso sideways like a flounder. People fight a lot to solve stuff but are hardy enough to get up from each beating, there's not even a concept of currency yet, and the only ruler only has a single law: before a physical confrontation, either opponent can challenge the other to a board game involving dice and take turns playing modifiers to affect the score. The winner of the die game gets to impose a condition on the loser before the physical altercation starts. What's fun is that at points, if you're not noticed yet, you can hear any sapient enemy like these mercenaries give a monologue about why they do what they do. Greed, ambition, the thrill of a hunt, envy, just trying to get by in the world, a belief in social Darwinism, genuine belief that the ruler of the land can make a positive difference (while enjoying the prospect of beating folks up) or just wanting to eat someone while respecting that you yourself may be eaten one day -- it's all there. Jonas Kyratzes' work might not be as in-depth on philosophical points, but it's still there, especially where it concerns the power of the afore-described dice game and why people even adhere to it in the first place. And the writing's just generally very solid. Very much recommend looking it up, or at least spreading word about it.
It's fine they don't physically fight but it needed a stronger sense of tension in the debates. Maybe imply that violence is a possability if no resolution is found. Not everythign needs violence but a good story needs a sense of crisis or tension and everyone calmly making their points and agreeing to disagree takes a lot of that away. Basically it needed a little more focus on story structure to add some flavor to all that philosophy.
@@metazoxan2 "a good story needs a sense of crisis or tension" While I can't agree to that, since I read some great tension free stories, it's at least true for most types of stories.
We've really come full circle! Your review on the first Talos Principle is actually how I discovered your content so long ago. And now we're back with the sequel but this time under a new show name, or old if you've discovered Fully Ramblomatic before it became ZP.
I totally agree with everything here. The Talos Principle 2 is a downright masterpiece and I was in awe from start to finish. Made me feel really smart, making me almost cosplay as a philosopher in my own home.
Seriously, it’s like the platonic ideal of a sequel. It expands and improves on virtually every aspect of the first game. Sequels often give me a newfound appreciation for their predecessors, but they usually do so in a negative way. Not this time, though.
I adore this series so much. I'm always enamored with a game that makes me actively seek out every bit of the writing I can instead of mashing theough everything and avoiding conversations.
I would love to be part of a gaming stream where the audience is nothing but Greek philosophers. Same amount of crude jokes, but now with an air of sophistication
>Diogenes has entered the chat >Diogenes: SUP BITCHES I'M BACK FROM MY MOST RECENT TEMP-BAN AND I HEARD THAT SOMEONE MADE AN ASSUMPTION ABOUT "SOPHISTICATION" THAT NEEDED TO BE PROVEN WRONG IMMEDIATELY
This is going on his top 10 list, and might be near the top. I was wondering if he would find the philosophy a little shallow or the puzzles a little easy. What I appreciated most about this game were the puzzles, yes, but also the scrap text documents containing real world excerpts from philosophical/sociological/theological texts. Nothing like a timeless quote to keep them brain boners stiff.
I felt like the philosophy stuff got a little overbearing at points. About halfway through the game I decided I just wanted to do the puzzles and started fast forwarding through most of the non-essential dialogue.
@@anonony9081 This game is essentially designed for people like me. What I liked most about the philosophy was the way in which it made a compelling case for a series of mutually exclusive perspectives. That takes a healthy measure of humility and skill to keep from letting any one view obviously take "front and center" as the "good" path. That said, as a philosophy buff myself, I was wanting more depth and sophistication in the perspectives actually taken by the characters. I did, though, appreciate the occasional winks at those players who had read the source material the games themes draw from.
@@kevinwilcox6943 If you like lead writer Jonas Kyratzes' work on Talos Principle 2, you might find something to enjoy in Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from earlier this year, which he worked on as well. It's set in a very colourful prehistoric world full of monsters. Nary a human in sight, it's mainly creatures (however sapient) that brings to mind medieval drolary doodles, prehistoric animals, and Stan Winston studio puppets á la The Dark Crystal. It doesn't dip super deeply into philosophy, as the story is more so an intimate bond between a recluse martial artists and a boy who is preyed upon by various mercenaries. It's also quite action-oriented, like a 3D beat-em-up. Nevertheless, for its presentation and world alone it deserves to be more talked about. The Zeno Clash series as a whole ought to be.
Yeah, the puzzles were bogged down a bit by how they introduce new puzzle mechanics in almost every area and have to drop the difficulty for a bit while you learn. The few "endgame" puzzles require you to think about some mechanics differently from how they're usually used and give me hope that they will eventually put out a DLC that just focuses on raising the bar with the mechanics we already have, like what Road to Gehenna did for Talos Principle 1.
@@scalarmotion Oh, I would SO love a DLC for it. Though I do wonder, considering there's I think four endings? How they would manage it and still take in the choices you made at the end and how it affected the civilization afterwards. Unless they do it as an insert in mid game story. Still, the original had a DLC, I can still hope for more for 2.
This is one of my favorite games of 2023, so I'm glad to see you got around to reviewing it! All the talking to NPCs initially had me quite worried because of how different it was and how easily they could've fucked that up, but I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by it! The additional bits you get by doing a 100% run also felt appropriately satisfying, and I'd definitely recommend people to aim for that if they play it.
The game is stunning, dry, vast, and exactly as yatz described. I love and appreciate it deeply as it's very nice to get something that throws you in a not so straight up and done situation. It knows what responsibility it was with being a sequel and fucking shows you that it's not going to mess around with that one bit.
Yes, people disagreeing without excessive drama isn't sexy or exciting, but that's the _point_ - our media has been training us that we need to blow up and "get the better of" those who disagree with us. To the point that the one or two characters who act downright angry with you for your choices seem like the nutjobs, I found that aspect as refreshing as the straightforward sequel naming convention.
So the original game had a lot to say about what it means to be human, to have free will and self determination. One of the discussions I really enjoyed from this game is that we look at what it means to have a bunch of freshly sentient beings having to create and learn how to operate in and with society, the kind of natural extension of what it is to be person being what it is to be a people. Making sure that that society is a place for everyone and the importance of hearing voices you don't agree with. Pandora and Prometheus as these two opposed ideals that would silence the other, but they're both right to a point. Like, "how do we actually have discourse?" is a pretty important question for people to ask themselves at the moment and I've been thoroughly enjoying how the game plays with it
I also like that it took the first game's "Can a machine be a person?" question and, rather than rehash it, declared the answer "yes" and moved on to spend the rest of the game asking different things.
I think one thing they could have fixed, in relation to Yatzee's complaint about traipsing back and forth across the large environments, is to have given you an idea of where to actually start on the Pandora monument puzzles. I found that the Sphinx and Prometheus puzzles were just fine since the Sphinx's plaque in combination with your mental map of the surrounding area gives you an idea of where something is and Prometheus's torch hints in the direction of where his spark is. But Pandora? Unless you saw a little doodad hanging off the environment somewhere, you're basically just revisiting every puzzle, painstakingly holding connectors in your hand while looking over the walls of the puzzle, hoping you can spot the environmental doodad. Like, for the entire game I couldn't figure out an logical approach to where to start with those. And everything else, like locating the monuments, terminals, lost puzzles, or laboratories are all question mark icons on your compass so it's easy to locate those without feeling like you're getting lost in the huge space. So yeah, I get the feeling Yahtzee's complaint has more to do with the Pandora puzzles making the environments seem like a pain to traverse. Which is a shame because I definitely think the environments themselves are very gorgeous and a huge appeal to this game.
I guess that is the ideal society, isn't it: a place where people can disagree without calling each other twats. Talos Principle 2 gave us an optimistic look on a post-apocalyptic future, and that is rare!
I'm so glad this got a sequel, the first game is an exceptional puzzle game that all puzzle gamers should play, in terms of puzzles and design it's somewhere up there with The Witness. The kind of game you get about 1 of per decade.
What's funny is that, while the puzzles in The Witness are jaw-droppingly clever, the audio logs were pretentious and simplistic philosophobabble (I suspect it's mostly just crap that Jonathan Blow thought was super insightful while on some drug trip or other). In contrast, TP2's puzzles are a little more on the standard side, but the philosophy and story is incredibly deep and meaningful.
Can I just say how nice it is to have the review when it's ready, instead of waiting a week for it. Now I get to watch my fave reviewer before seeing anyone else's reviews 😊 Tbh it felt like The Escapist kept doing stuff to prioritise profit over people's enjoyment, and I swear it was getting worse... like stuffing ads before big reviews. But it was like a sinking ship we were all tied to, because you guys make some of the best content on YT. I'm so glad you went independent.
I have watched every video of ZP from the start and, while shaken by the change, and glad to see what feels like a return to the Joy that it once wad originally in this. Its much less clinical, lots of eggshell under the toenails flaking off like so much chaff. Cheers, Ben, Much more to you and everyone else involved.
The idea of a stream chat filled with philosophers is hilarious. Like, imagine playing Skyrim and Socrates superchats one question and then the rest of the stream is just philosophers arguing.
the cat is a reference to things mentioned in the documents and audio logs in the first game, i remember that it was actually a bit funny and i don't know whether to be surprised or not that a puzzle game hasn't got any drama or tension going on, it is a puzzle game still, but for a sequel i'd be expecting more then just getting your ear talked off by the philosophy department points given for making a world with life, points taken for making that life boring af to talk with
I'm kinda surprised he liked this so much, but I totally agree. It's a complete evolution of what worked in the first game. That lack of action that might have sunk its broad apeal really spoke to me. I love this model of a society that still has conflict but goes about it camly and carefully.
I rarely use Yahtzee’s reviews as hard recommendations (we have VERY different tastes in games), but since he partially inspired me to play the original TTP, I popped into this review to see if I should get the sequel. So I’m very glad he said up front it’s “really pussy juice milkingly good”.
Yahtzee's best tool is that he's a really smart person that can immerse himself in something highly intellectual, but he's also smart enough to know when you need to have a bit of excitement to it. He doesn't just go "oh look at how smart this game is, it's only for big brain billies like me" or "LMAO this game's for nerds" he strikes the balance of "this is very smart and interesting but you can do this while also having a bit of fun with it." The smartest people know that you need to sometimes be dumb.
I feel like I had the opposite approach to the first Talos Principle - I was there for the lore and backstory, and the puzzles were in the way of solving the next bit of juicy, tasty lore
Been waiting for this one the long time - Talos Principle was the most enjoyable puzzle game experience I've had within the past 10-15 years and I gobbled up every word of the philosophic prose and fully engrossed myself in the story. Glad the sequel has the Yahtzee seal of approval.
This is a great take on the game. In my opinion, Talos Principle 2 is a shoe in for best game released this year, it's so incredibly deep and thought provoking, but gives you breaks from the thinking to go sightseeing and redirect lasers at things. I feel like I'm a person who spends entirely too much time thinking about philosophy, but this game is making me see a lot of things in a new, more nuanced light. Many times I pick a choice that really resonates with me, and then the robot I'm talking to completely destroys my perspective with a solid counter argument and I'm left feeling like a total knob. It's really smart.
Funny that thing about CroTeam: whether they're throwing thousands of enemies at you or asking you to solve laser puzzles, they love to give you a big environment to do it in. And in Serious Sam 2 (not to be confused with Second Encounter), they let you cross their vast distances in vehicles. I don't remember if Serious Sam 4 had vehicles in it, but I hope it did. After all, to paraphrase Crazy Vaclav, "Zagreb girls will think you're a goldsmith" if you have good vehicles in your games.
I am getting more and more sick of games that waste my time with "hold forward for several minutes to access the rest of the game". I want spreadsheet-like gameplay elements back so I can access the next content without putting a pebble on the W and going to grab a drink.
It is incredible that these guys have consistently dropped something every few days since starting. They're blazing through reviews at a rate previously only dreamed of in the ZP days! Great job guys!
How did Yahtzee not mention the fact that one of the characters who has a distint British accent makes your name of 1K sound like "WONKY"? She was my favourite. But wait, you say, British accent on a Robot? Wait until you hear the silver surfer dude.
The color coded thing is brilliant. Plot is white (and related criticism, good and bad), mechanics are blue (and related criticism, good and bad), good stuff overall is in green, bad stuff overall is in red. Simple and elegant....and something that improves upon the format in compelling ways.
YAY TALOS PRAISE !!!! I spend all of November working my through and 100%ing the game and I had an absolutely fantastic time, the core philosophical message and journey spoke to me a lot more than Talos 1 did Completely agree, my biggest issue with the game (besides the performance issues) is that going for stars and lost puzzles can mean doing a LOT of wandering, and if I was a fan of walking sims I'd be ok with it but I am not so I am not ok with it. I can appreciate the beauty when I'm not walking back and forth across an entire desert just to twiddle with a connector.
For a moment there I was worried that the end credits gags that were a staple of The Show That Is Legally Distinct From This One wouldn't be returning, but thankfully my patience was rewarded.
I was a bit taken aback by how aggressive some of the characters would get in dialogue when I said some platitude like "death is natural," but I ended up really appreciating it.
Amazing review as always from Yahtzee, and I think this was one of my favorites in a long time. Both hilarious and informative from beginning to end. I've been meaning to play The Talos Principle for awhile, so I'll bump it up the to do list in order to play the sequel.
My only major personal criticism of the game is the lack of a significant 'combine all the mechanics we have been learning all this time' section at the end. It kind of technically exists, but was rather short and simple compared to the one in the original game. Definitely nothing like a huge towering stack of puzzles through the sky. Though I accidentally sequence broke the final puzzle in The Talos Principle II, solving half of it out of order, so perhaps my experience wasn't quite intended.
I feel like it is almost a shame that yahtzee skipped over the fact that the star puzzles in this game were less obtuse, as there were only 3 styles of puzzle, with clear solutions, but finding the solution was the challenge, rather than finding the hidden wall like it was in the first game.
I felt similar to the videos start (about puzzle games, not about being smart) since i started shadows of doubt recently and was amazed how thrilling a good riddle can be if it is presented right.
Random documents and audio logs We'll find them stuck to noticeboards, we'll find them under dogs We're going to put them in a file and give them to review When were bored of all the gameplay and we've nothing else to do!
If you enjoy our content, consider supporting Second Wind on Patreon! www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup
Are you going to do Best, Bland and Worst games of the year?
Yup. New name though. In January.@@benwright5844
I know this might be random but do any of you have plans on making a new D&D series
Really the only thing I watched on the escapist channel was zero punctuation. I'm glad that the series can continue, just in a different form!
Will you be getting a new theme song from Russ Pitts?
As someone who worked on this game:
I feel like I can die happy now
Congrats on a game so good even Yahtzee couldn't find much to pick at. 🎉
Definitely going to be playing through both soon ❤
hey you even have a cat avatar, you're a true citizen of New Jerusalem!
@@17arando ^You make it sound EASY to "run" through T1!??
Hi! ❤ I love you and your husband. You are beautiful people.
Thank you for the absolutely wonderful experience.
It's kind of crazy how normal sequel naming seems like a novel approach
Right? I was just thinking "wasn't everyone bitching about" sterile numbering" years ago?".
What annoys me the most are franchises that flip flop between numbers and subtitles for mainline entries, like Assassin's Creed, Tomb Raider or Dragon Age. Just pick one and run with it, gee.
@@Delightfully_Witchy you only learn to appreciate something when you lose it.
I just realized there is exist a few games with 2 in the title, but there is no previous game. Like Tron 2.0 or Dota 2.
Novel until they start recycling the same ones. Look at all the sequels that include "Revelations" or "Origins" in the title, there are far too many of them!
When his only actually critique is a comparison to Disco Fucking Elysium, you know you've made an incredible game
Dangerously close to eye fork territory.
I mean he did criticize how the philosophical story lacks drama and impact and could tie in better to the actual gameplay. But I enjoyed all of that in TP1 regardless and I don't think it would dissuade anyone else who liked the first game either.
@@wizardpajamas6405 That *was* what the comparison to the other game was all about, lol, so it's still the same critique
I mean, there’s also the fact that he used the phrase, and I quote, “really pussy juice-milkingly good” to describe it. Those aren’t the kind of words Yahtz throws around for just any ol’ game (or at least not in that specific order).
I was hoping for a sequel to "Random Documents and Audio Logs" but this review is still really good. It's always great to get a sequel that not only took what made the original good and improves on it, but makes itself stand out from it. This game is absolutely beautiful, and all the points of the philosophical debate encountered throughout are pretty interesting.
We find them on notice boards, we find them under dogs
Yes, very true.
@@SoloMael we’ll put it in a file and we’ll give it a review. When we’re bored of all the gameplay and we’ve nothing else to do.
I want to hear a barbershop quartet arrangement of the song.
let's get this Dan man to a thousand upvotes, let's achieve this Goal
Random documents and audio logs
We find em stuck to notice boards, we find em under dogs
We're gonna put em in a file and give it a review
When we're bored of all the gameplay but we've nothing else to do
Recorded just for us but they were scattered all around
We get trophies and achievements coz there's hundreds to be found
So we're hacking those computers and we're raiding all the drawers
For some optional objectives and the codes to all the doors
Heres my Extended Version of Random Documents and Audio Logs let me know what you think:
Random Documents and Audio Logs
We find 'em stuck to noticeboards
We find 'em under dogs
We're gonna gonna put it in a file
And give it a review
'Cause we're bored of all the gameplay but we've nothing else to do.
Random Documents and Audio Logs
They're hidden in the basement
They're cast out into bogs
We shuffle 'round the floorboards
Until we've stubbed a toe
Looking for that box
With that cursed Audio
Random Documents & Audio Logs
Got us spinnin' 'round 'n 'round
Like Sonic the Hedgehog
We'll boggle at the lore
'Til we're all blue in the face
Now, get my baseball bat
So I can put in its place!
*THUD*
I was looking for this!
@@joeyparkhill8751 Good attempt, but these don't really work to the tune, unless I'm misreading it
@@LazarouDave What do you mean they don't work? not trying to be an ass I just want to know why it doesn't work. from my point of view my version won't work unless you actually sing it.
Well then sing it. Let's hear how you meant it to sound
"Planet of the Reasonable People" would be a novelty by this point.
It would be more of a fantasy setting, with how things are going.
Though who am I kidding, it always has been
That would be Star Trek
@@hithere5553 Or most Azimov
@@ElvenRaptor depends on your definition of a "proper conduct", pillaging and slave trafficking(?) may have been considered a pasttime of true men at some point somewhere
@@ElvenRaptor probably had some other justification, "this world was made for us to rule it" or something like that. They always do
I personally really enjoyed the "we're a very reasonable bunch" thing. It feeds back to the themes of the utopia* these robots managed to create; a place where everything works like clockwork without causing destruction left and right, and where people don't even get mad in the face of ideas that contradict what they believe in, illustrating how far they've advanced when compared to the flesh and bone era of humanity. Growing and expanding isn't only a potential threat because of the damage technology could cause, but it could also result in a lot of people forgetting how to accept different ideas due to them no longer being part of a single tight-knit community.
* I'm well aware that the city has a serious energy problem among other things, but that's besides the point.
Meanwhile, Thecla:
I still admire the original Talos Principle for giving the most accurate representation of an internet argument I've ever seen in a video game. When I was debating the computer, I got so pissed off by the end, only to score an only somewhat satiafying victory when he just started copy-pasting the same message because he didn't have any better retorts.
Counterargument: The primary philisophical dilemma escalating into a giant space laser battle would have detracted from the ostensibly-intentional uncomfortability that the game presses you into for the purpose of making you question your beliefs and actually, you know, think about stuff.
Also that is the plot of Gurren Lagann.
Was so much more ambitious than a sequel even has to be, but genuinely all the better for it. Seems like a big risk but I think it paid off. I'm as surprised as anyone that a god damn puzzle game is my game of the year, but here we are.
yo gabriel Ultrakill. Thoughts on the Road to Elysium DLC?
Honestly, I’m so happy that you guys are doing this. As an indie developer, makes me believe that even my company can find its footing.
I mean, Croteam did come out out of nowhere, busting out of Eastern Europe, bucking industry trends and dropping a hot masterpiece with the original Serious Sam, but I guess the Talos Principle is pretty cool too.
Boy, oh boy, if the game comes out let’s hope it ain’t Yahtzee reviewing it 😂
@@richardhunter9779Please tell me you did not really call Serious Sam a masterpiece.
We’re cheering for you! ✨💫🌈
@@alex.g7317 I wouldn’t mind if Yahtzee reviewed it. He’d give it a good spanking, but then talk about what our game did right.
I disagree with the ending point - I liked that everyone in the game can discuss their disagreements in a civil manner without forced emotional drama. Reminds me of how in 90s Star Trek the best part of the show was always the meeting where they discuss how to solve the problem of the week, getting a range of opinions - something sorely missing in the modern era.
Man, the more I listen to it the more I enjoy the Fully Ramblomatic theme. I might even like it better than the old [REDACTED] theme song.
This one is fire, and how well it matches the ascending credits, i just dont have words.
it's already pretty much replaced the ZP theme in my head. whoah.
Yep, I adore the new theme.
It needs some kind of drumroll into the outro theme because it kinda sounds like it's starting "mid thought" but beyond that it's good :D
Same. It's growing on me.
I think it's big kudos to the devs for making a game, where the target audience are adults, engaging without sex or much violence.
The first one was wonderful and some of the notes were very silly - like the one written in hexidecimel.
Hex code is present in portions of like half the text logs of both games. It's a great way to symbolize the corruption of the files, while also rewarding the curiosity of people with the diligence to to manually type raw hex codes into a translator. Weirld little freaks like me, that is.
The first one gave me an existential crisis reading the random documents and audio logs. I never ended up finishing it. Idk if the second one will as well, but it sounds like it might.
@@Scorpio3002 There are two of us. :-)
To be fair, i like the approach that the robots are all reasonable and don't physhichally fight.
Makes up for all the times in games where the I in AI might as well mean ICBM.
Yahtzee may be wanting some Diogenes equivalents, who can somewhat chaotically derail discussions by dragging things back down to earth in a way that leads to more philosophy. The classic "Behold, man" while holding up a defeathered chicken sorta deal.
Funnily enough, lead writer Jon Kyratzes also worked on another game that released this year that seems to be an opposite of TP2's world, that being Clash: Artifacts of Chaos.
Instead of a futuristic world of robots trying to learn from humanity before, Zenozoik (the land the Zeno Clash games are set in) is pretty much a prehistory. Though there's nary a human in sight: the game mainly has sapient, monstrous freaks that take the shape of stuff like a boomerang-throwing goose woman, a morbidly obese turkey with mushroom caps growing over his body, a big Platybelodon man or three-legged buff moose man with a three-eyed face shoved into its torso sideways like a flounder.
People fight a lot to solve stuff but are hardy enough to get up from each beating, there's not even a concept of currency yet, and the only ruler only has a single law: before a physical confrontation, either opponent can challenge the other to a board game involving dice and take turns playing modifiers to affect the score.
The winner of the die game gets to impose a condition on the loser before the physical altercation starts.
What's fun is that at points, if you're not noticed yet, you can hear any sapient enemy like these mercenaries give a monologue about why they do what they do.
Greed, ambition, the thrill of a hunt, envy, just trying to get by in the world, a belief in social Darwinism, genuine belief that the ruler of the land can make a positive difference (while enjoying the prospect of beating folks up) or just wanting to eat someone while respecting that you yourself may be eaten one day -- it's all there.
Jonas Kyratzes' work might not be as in-depth on philosophical points, but it's still there, especially where it concerns the power of the afore-described dice game and why people even adhere to it in the first place. And the writing's just generally very solid.
Very much recommend looking it up, or at least spreading word about it.
It's fine they don't physically fight but it needed a stronger sense of tension in the debates.
Maybe imply that violence is a possability if no resolution is found.
Not everythign needs violence but a good story needs a sense of crisis or tension and everyone calmly making their points and agreeing to disagree takes a lot of that away.
Basically it needed a little more focus on story structure to add some flavor to all that philosophy.
@@metazoxan2 "a good story needs a sense of crisis or tension"
While I can't agree to that, since I read some great tension free stories, it's at least true for most types of stories.
@@metazoxan2 But i dont think the type of robots who would create such frictions would arise from tallos 1
We've really come full circle!
Your review on the first Talos Principle is actually how I discovered your content so long ago. And now we're back with the sequel but this time under a new show name, or old if you've discovered Fully Ramblomatic before it became ZP.
Exit music is still jarringly louder than all of Yahtzee but glad to see the progress being made with this new series!
I mean, at this point it's tradition. If they made it quieter it would weird me out.
I totally agree with everything here. The Talos Principle 2 is a downright masterpiece and I was in awe from start to finish. Made me feel really smart, making me almost cosplay as a philosopher in my own home.
Seriously, it’s like the platonic ideal of a sequel. It expands and improves on virtually every aspect of the first game. Sequels often give me a newfound appreciation for their predecessors, but they usually do so in a negative way. Not this time, though.
I adore this series so much. I'm always enamored with a game that makes me actively seek out every bit of the writing I can instead of mashing theough everything and avoiding conversations.
"Planet of the Nice Reasonable People" is literally "Our of the Silent Planet" by CS Lewis
I would love to be part of a gaming stream where the audience is nothing but Greek philosophers. Same amount of crude jokes, but now with an air of sophistication
>Diogenes has entered the chat
>Diogenes: SUP BITCHES I'M BACK FROM MY MOST RECENT TEMP-BAN AND I HEARD THAT SOMEONE MADE AN ASSUMPTION ABOUT "SOPHISTICATION" THAT NEEDED TO BE PROVEN WRONG IMMEDIATELY
"Not so ruff, humanity-chan" sent me lmao
One of the funniest visual gags Yahtzee has ever done!
This is going on his top 10 list, and might be near the top.
I was wondering if he would find the philosophy a little shallow or the puzzles a little easy. What I appreciated most about this game were the puzzles, yes, but also the scrap text documents containing real world excerpts from philosophical/sociological/theological texts. Nothing like a timeless quote to keep them brain boners stiff.
I felt like the philosophy stuff got a little overbearing at points. About halfway through the game I decided I just wanted to do the puzzles and started fast forwarding through most of the non-essential dialogue.
@@anonony9081
This game is essentially designed for people like me. What I liked most about the philosophy was the way in which it made a compelling case for a series of mutually exclusive perspectives. That takes a healthy measure of humility and skill to keep from letting any one view obviously take "front and center" as the "good" path.
That said, as a philosophy buff myself, I was wanting more depth and sophistication in the perspectives actually taken by the characters. I did, though, appreciate the occasional winks at those players who had read the source material the games themes draw from.
@@kevinwilcox6943 If you like lead writer Jonas Kyratzes' work on Talos Principle 2, you might find something to enjoy in Clash: Artifacts of Chaos from earlier this year, which he worked on as well. It's set in a very colourful prehistoric world full of monsters. Nary a human in sight, it's mainly creatures (however sapient) that brings to mind medieval drolary doodles, prehistoric animals, and Stan Winston studio puppets á la The Dark Crystal.
It doesn't dip super deeply into philosophy, as the story is more so an intimate bond between a recluse martial artists and a boy who is preyed upon by various mercenaries. It's also quite action-oriented, like a 3D beat-em-up.
Nevertheless, for its presentation and world alone it deserves to be more talked about. The Zeno Clash series as a whole ought to be.
Yeah, the puzzles were bogged down a bit by how they introduce new puzzle mechanics in almost every area and have to drop the difficulty for a bit while you learn.
The few "endgame" puzzles require you to think about some mechanics differently from how they're usually used and give me hope that they will eventually put out a DLC that just focuses on raising the bar with the mechanics we already have, like what Road to Gehenna did for Talos Principle 1.
@@scalarmotion Oh, I would SO love a DLC for it. Though I do wonder, considering there's I think four endings? How they would manage it and still take in the choices you made at the end and how it affected the civilization afterwards. Unless they do it as an insert in mid game story. Still, the original had a DLC, I can still hope for more for 2.
I'm just happy to be directing laser beams around mazes again after all these years.
THEY MADE ANOTHER ONE?! Okay, you've got my attention now, Yahtzee.
@@YolandaPlayne Good news: Talos 2 has a new mechanic every 8 puzzles
This is one of my favorite games of 2023, so I'm glad to see you got around to reviewing it! All the talking to NPCs initially had me quite worried because of how different it was and how easily they could've fucked that up, but I ended up being very pleasantly surprised by it! The additional bits you get by doing a 100% run also felt appropriately satisfying, and I'd definitely recommend people to aim for that if they play it.
It is very refreshing to see yahtzee give a review about a game he really likes but can objectively see why others wouldnt like it.
The game is stunning, dry, vast, and exactly as yatz described. I love and appreciate it deeply as it's very nice to get something that throws you in a not so straight up and done situation. It knows what responsibility it was with being a sequel and fucking shows you that it's not going to mess around with that one bit.
It's always fun during a review when you can tell: "oh yeah, this one is going in one of the Top 5 lists."
At this point, I'm thinking this, definitely Hi-Fi Rush, prooobably TotK, and the rest I'm not sure of.
Yes, people disagreeing without excessive drama isn't sexy or exciting, but that's the _point_ - our media has been training us that we need to blow up and "get the better of" those who disagree with us.
To the point that the one or two characters who act downright angry with you for your choices seem like the nutjobs, I found that aspect as refreshing as the straightforward sequel naming convention.
So the original game had a lot to say about what it means to be human, to have free will and self determination. One of the discussions I really enjoyed from this game is that we look at what it means to have a bunch of freshly sentient beings having to create and learn how to operate in and with society, the kind of natural extension of what it is to be person being what it is to be a people. Making sure that that society is a place for everyone and the importance of hearing voices you don't agree with. Pandora and Prometheus as these two opposed ideals that would silence the other, but they're both right to a point. Like, "how do we actually have discourse?" is a pretty important question for people to ask themselves at the moment and I've been thoroughly enjoying how the game plays with it
I also like that it took the first game's "Can a machine be a person?" question and, rather than rehash it, declared the answer "yes" and moved on to spend the rest of the game asking different things.
I think one thing they could have fixed, in relation to Yatzee's complaint about traipsing back and forth across the large environments, is to have given you an idea of where to actually start on the Pandora monument puzzles. I found that the Sphinx and Prometheus puzzles were just fine since the Sphinx's plaque in combination with your mental map of the surrounding area gives you an idea of where something is and Prometheus's torch hints in the direction of where his spark is. But Pandora? Unless you saw a little doodad hanging off the environment somewhere, you're basically just revisiting every puzzle, painstakingly holding connectors in your hand while looking over the walls of the puzzle, hoping you can spot the environmental doodad. Like, for the entire game I couldn't figure out an logical approach to where to start with those. And everything else, like locating the monuments, terminals, lost puzzles, or laboratories are all question mark icons on your compass so it's easy to locate those without feeling like you're getting lost in the huge space. So yeah, I get the feeling Yahtzee's complaint has more to do with the Pandora puzzles making the environments seem like a pain to traverse. Which is a shame because I definitely think the environments themselves are very gorgeous and a huge appeal to this game.
I guess that is the ideal society, isn't it: a place where people can disagree without calling each other twats. Talos Principle 2 gave us an optimistic look on a post-apocalyptic future, and that is rare!
I'm so glad this got a sequel, the first game is an exceptional puzzle game that all puzzle gamers should play, in terms of puzzles and design it's somewhere up there with The Witness. The kind of game you get about 1 of per decade.
What's funny is that, while the puzzles in The Witness are jaw-droppingly clever, the audio logs were pretentious and simplistic philosophobabble (I suspect it's mostly just crap that Jonathan Blow thought was super insightful while on some drug trip or other). In contrast, TP2's puzzles are a little more on the standard side, but the philosophy and story is incredibly deep and meaningful.
The first positive review of Fully Ramblomatic, you love to see it.
3:33 Those who played first game to completion know exactly why there is memorial to cats.
Can I just say how nice it is to have the review when it's ready, instead of waiting a week for it.
Now I get to watch my fave reviewer before seeing anyone else's reviews 😊
Tbh it felt like The Escapist kept doing stuff to prioritise profit over people's enjoyment, and I swear it was getting worse... like stuffing ads before big reviews. But it was like a sinking ship we were all tied to, because you guys make some of the best content on YT. I'm so glad you went independent.
This review is a wonderful breath of fresh air. Thank you so much for your thoughts, Yatzee!
I'm so happyyyyyyyyyyy that this show continued (albeit under different branding). I had been following ZP since '07..! ❤
As a decade long ZP viewer, lemme just say how happy i am that the outro song is 50% louder than the video itself
While I wasn't convinced at first, this new art style is actually growing on me as the little rough bits get ironed out
Honestly I feel like I'm in now. I don't even really miss [CENSORED]
I have watched every video of ZP from the start and, while shaken by the change, and glad to see what feels like a return to the Joy that it once wad originally in this.
Its much less clinical, lots of eggshell under the toenails flaking off like so much chaff.
Cheers, Ben, Much more to you and everyone else involved.
The idea of a stream chat filled with philosophers is hilarious. Like, imagine playing Skyrim and Socrates superchats one question and then the rest of the stream is just philosophers arguing.
‘Planet of the Nice Reasonable People’ is underrated, I’m glad you mentioned it
Really fascinating is watching the reviews of Talos Principle 1 and 2 back to back to see the change in style and attitude almost a decade can bring.
the cat is a reference to things mentioned in the documents and audio logs in the first game, i remember that it was actually a bit funny
and i don't know whether to be surprised or not that a puzzle game hasn't got any drama or tension going on, it is a puzzle game still, but for a sequel i'd be expecting more then just getting your ear talked off by the philosophy department
points given for making a world with life, points taken for making that life boring af to talk with
A NEW ONE THAT THEY MADE? Alright, Yahtzee, you have my whole attention now.
I'm kinda surprised he liked this so much, but I totally agree. It's a complete evolution of what worked in the first game. That lack of action that might have sunk its broad apeal really spoke to me. I love this model of a society that still has conflict but goes about it camly and carefully.
Damn, I can’t believe a bold developer actually had the mind to create a sequel to their game, that’s crazy
Im glad Yahtzee was happy with this, cuz otherwise I may have cried.
aww ye. its soo amazing
I rarely use Yahtzee’s reviews as hard recommendations (we have VERY different tastes in games), but since he partially inspired me to play the original TTP, I popped into this review to see if I should get the sequel. So I’m very glad he said up front it’s “really pussy juice milkingly good”.
Yahtzee's best tool is that he's a really smart person that can immerse himself in something highly intellectual, but he's also smart enough to know when you need to have a bit of excitement to it. He doesn't just go "oh look at how smart this game is, it's only for big brain billies like me" or "LMAO this game's for nerds" he strikes the balance of "this is very smart and interesting but you can do this while also having a bit of fun with it." The smartest people know that you need to sometimes be dumb.
I feel like I had the opposite approach to the first Talos Principle - I was there for the lore and backstory, and the puzzles were in the way of solving the next bit of juicy, tasty lore
Been waiting for this one the long time - Talos Principle was the most enjoyable puzzle game experience I've had within the past 10-15 years and I gobbled up every word of the philosophic prose and fully engrossed myself in the story. Glad the sequel has the Yahtzee seal of approval.
This is a great take on the game. In my opinion, Talos Principle 2 is a shoe in for best game released this year, it's so incredibly deep and thought provoking, but gives you breaks from the thinking to go sightseeing and redirect lasers at things. I feel like I'm a person who spends entirely too much time thinking about philosophy, but this game is making me see a lot of things in a new, more nuanced light. Many times I pick a choice that really resonates with me, and then the robot I'm talking to completely destroys my perspective with a solid counter argument and I'm left feeling like a total knob. It's really smart.
Awesome video, thanks again to all of you behind the video
Born to word search, forced to philosophize
3:56 A (robot) man of culture on the top left of the screen there
The memorial to cats seems like such a yaqut thing to do
this was my first ever pre-order and I had such a blast with this game. really loved the cast of characters and how tight and accessible puzzles were.
Funny that thing about CroTeam: whether they're throwing thousands of enemies at you or asking you to solve laser puzzles, they love to give you a big environment to do it in. And in Serious Sam 2 (not to be confused with Second Encounter), they let you cross their vast distances in vehicles.
I don't remember if Serious Sam 4 had vehicles in it, but I hope it did. After all, to paraphrase Crazy Vaclav, "Zagreb girls will think you're a goldsmith" if you have good vehicles in your games.
I am getting more and more sick of games that waste my time with "hold forward for several minutes to access the rest of the game". I want spreadsheet-like gameplay elements back so I can access the next content without putting a pebble on the W and going to grab a drink.
Sorry I'm late, I only found out about the new channel just now.
Ooh, love the new branding!
This was such a great sequel, exactly what I hoped it would be. Croteam, if you're reading this, awesome work!!
The cat "obsession" of the robots makes perfect sense in the first and second Talos Principle games. In this essay, I will...
thanks for bringing more attention to this brilliant game, yahtzee. completely snubbed in all the awards shows for no reason
The first Talos Principle is my favorite game ever, I have really high hopes fir the first one. I gotta try it.
The Talos Principle 2: "It's willie-fiddling good!"
Nice to see normal programming has been resumed. Yahtzee knows; consistency is key. 👌🏻
It is incredible that these guys have consistently dropped something every few days since starting. They're blazing through reviews at a rate previously only dreamed of in the ZP days! Great job guys!
How did Yahtzee not mention the fact that one of the characters who has a distint British accent makes your name of 1K sound like "WONKY"? She was my favourite.
But wait, you say, British accent on a Robot? Wait until you hear the silver surfer dude.
@@louisduarte8763 1k is 1000, they all just have numbers, though some choose names as well
Don't forget Doge, my personal favorite.
love when yahtzee talks about games like this! such good scripting!
This is the ever present issue with fiction, that the Venn diagram of good drama and healthy behaviour has an extremely slim overlap.
Really glad yahtzee got a new show going I've been listing to this since middleschool
The color coded thing is brilliant. Plot is white (and related criticism, good and bad), mechanics are blue (and related criticism, good and bad), good stuff overall is in green, bad stuff overall is in red. Simple and elegant....and something that improves upon the format in compelling ways.
the theme song for this is great I love it, I look forward to hearing it every time these are posted.
YAY TALOS PRAISE !!!!
I spend all of November working my through and 100%ing the game and I had an absolutely fantastic time, the core philosophical message and journey spoke to me a lot more than Talos 1 did
Completely agree, my biggest issue with the game (besides the performance issues) is that going for stars and lost puzzles can mean doing a LOT of wandering, and if I was a fan of walking sims I'd be ok with it but I am not so I am not ok with it. I can appreciate the beauty when I'm not walking back and forth across an entire desert just to twiddle with a connector.
Good thing we're all refined gentlemen around here.
I love this video. Yahtzee doesn't miss. 10/10. Now I'm going to go play Planet of the Reasonable People
With how this year's generally been going for Yahtz and the games he's reviewed, we might just have ourselves a stealth GOTY right here.
For a moment there I was worried that the end credits gags that were a staple of The Show That Is Legally Distinct From This One wouldn't be returning, but thankfully my patience was rewarded.
Glad to see Yahtzee back in his natural habitat. Return of the king
Deep philosophical debate cannot beat humanity's need for drama
I'm a few hours in and I love the dry humor and silly social media debates in this game. And it does actually get a bit "heated" from time to time!
I was a bit taken aback by how aggressive some of the characters would get in dialogue when I said some platitude like "death is natural," but I ended up really appreciating it.
Didn't even know it existed. Thank you, without this video I doubt I would've known about it. Loved Talos Principle.
Don't tell me Gamurs also owns the rights to "Random Documents and Audio Logs"
I think the most positive thing to come from the split is the new show has much better music.
I used to watch ZP credits for the three jokes sewn into them. Now I watch the FR credits because the music is a banger.
Amazing review as always from Yahtzee, and I think this was one of my favorites in a long time. Both hilarious and informative from beginning to end. I've been meaning to play The Talos Principle for awhile, so I'll bump it up the to do list in order to play the sequel.
I'm glad you made red background less saturated. Previous was a bit too much of an eye strain
Naming conventions could've been even worse!
It also thankfully wasn't "The TWOlos Principle" either.
My only major personal criticism of the game is the lack of a significant 'combine all the mechanics we have been learning all this time' section at the end. It kind of technically exists, but was rather short and simple compared to the one in the original game. Definitely nothing like a huge towering stack of puzzles through the sky.
Though I accidentally sequence broke the final puzzle in The Talos Principle II, solving half of it out of order, so perhaps my experience wasn't quite intended.
I feel like it is almost a shame that yahtzee skipped over the fact that the star puzzles in this game were less obtuse, as there were only 3 styles of puzzle, with clear solutions, but finding the solution was the challenge, rather than finding the hidden wall like it was in the first game.
So glad you're back!
I had a really bad day, being able to watch another ZP, er i mean FR, helped. Tghanks yahtz and second wind team!
I felt similar to the videos start (about puzzle games, not about being smart) since i started shadows of doubt recently and was amazed how thrilling a good riddle can be if it is presented right.
So, who feels like donating to yahtzee’s next live stream and asking him to say ‘willy fiddlers’?
Random documents and audio logs
We'll find them stuck to noticeboards, we'll find them under dogs
We're going to put them in a file and give them to review
When were bored of all the gameplay and we've nothing else to do!
Your review has helped me decide to buy it
Honestly, the city of philosophers watching your "stream" part was hillarious and got me hyped for the game. That sounds awesome.