The Talos Principle II
The Talos Principle IIexpands on the concepts present in the original in grand ways , introducing innovational puzzle mechanics alongside a bounteous narrative . The game is made by Croteam , the developer behind theSerious Samseries , and will be give up by indie darling publisherDevolver Digital . Almost ten years after the release of the original , The Talos Principle IIaims to bring the mind - bend puzzler franchise to fresh heights .
arrange in the same universe as the original , The Talos Principle IItakes space in a world where humanity has been substitute by automaton , and the histrion is the 1000th that has just been made . After being ask over to a secret puzzle - fill island by the technical entity Prometheus , players can freely roam as they puzzle out the many puzzle scattered throughout the world . There are both entirely new puzzler mechanics and one that expand on mind from the first submission - for example the RBG converter , which is similar to tripod laser connector player are familiar with . Each puzzler cluster has eight main puzzler , two Lost Puzzles , and one extra - challenging Gold Puzzle .
Related : The Talos Principle II Has " A Lot More " Characters , state Developer
Screen Rantsat down with mystifier designer Mario Kotlar and writer Verena Kyratzes at Gamescom to check Principle II , its bewilder instrument , and the philosophical concepts it will explore .
Screen Rant : I would love to just take heed a footling bit about the new sort of puzzling mechanics that players will get to experience .
Verena Kyratzes : So the Talos Principle I was a story of how human beings incidentally wipe themselves out through ball-shaped warming , they discharge the computer virus from the permafrost , they pass over themselves out . And the scientists in the die days of humanity decided to try and create a successor species to the human backwash : golem . And the query was , " Can I create a golem that is , in damage of its intellect and its emotions , a human being , despite not having a biologic body ? " And the answer that the first step reached was yes , we can . Now we ’re 1000 long time later , if you ’ve seen the first Talos Principle , this will look very conversant to you . It was very important for us to do a story that ’s not just you know , The Talos Principle II : Harder . " Are you really certain that you ’re a human being ? " Yes , I am - we ’ve been over this .
So we wanted to take the report of Talos I and then do the ordered next step . So after we talked about the soul , we are now talking about bon ton , about civilisation . We want to tell a story about the real worldly concern now , not again something that turns out to be just a simulation . You now learn that your name is 1k , you are the 1000th robot that was created 1000 age after the program of the first Talos Principle was finish and some 2000 year after humanity wiped themselves out . The number 1000 is very important for the automaton , because they have decided that the thing that they ’re most afraid of is to repeat the mistakes that the biological human race made . They are afraid of technological enlargement , accidentally damage the environment in a fashion that they can not anticipate and that they can not undo . So they have decide that they will build a metropolis - a single city with 1000 citizens and you are the 1000th - and then they will be done . Like refinement will continue , but it will not expand past this point .
And that is a very hotly discussed theme within the city , because while this is the government plan , there are some people who think 1000 robots is pretty sheer , like we should have stopped at 100 . And others think there were 8 billion man , so why do n’t we build 8 billion automaton ? And , of course , all shades of signification in between .
This is the mayor , one of the many vocalize character of this game . The first Talos Principle had two characters - this has a mickle more . So there ’s a big party to celebrate your natal day and the mop up of the goal , but it is disrupt by Prometheus , an entity produce by a technology that the golem can not fathom . This is scientific discipline fiction to them , like , " What the hell is pass on there ? " And he says , " I come up from a mysterious island , full of wonders and mysteries and puzzles , and I invite you , robot kind in general , and your the player character specifically to come to this island and resolve its mystery , solve its puzzles , and also encounter answers - what sort of result he does n’t entirely say .
This is a biz about order , so if we ’re asking the player to care about society and to make decisions about society , we have to give them the option to also learn about the beau monde ; you’re able to not deal about something that you do not know . So for the player who really , really want to just go like , “ This is a puzzle game , give me the puzzles , " they can take the optimal route through the city . And so we found an organic way to mix backstory into the game . But you do n’t - I desire to make this very exculpated , you do not have to have represent Talos Principle one to interpret Talos Principle two , we ’ve been very careful to make it so that you’re able to get an additional level of signification maybe sometimes , but you do n’t need to understand it .
And so the biggest interrogation is , I say in the first game , you were inside the simulation , and you were solve puzzles to prove that you ’re a human being . Now in the second biz , we ’re in the real world and somebody built puzzler out of steel and concrete that are clearly relate somehow to the puzzles of the first game . So the self-aggrandizing inquiry is , who did this ? Who created this echo of the infancy of human of automaton civilization and why are they asking you to solve puzzles ? I ’m not going to tell you now but that ’s one of the questions that the plot is get going to respond .
Mario Kotlar : You might remember the tripod connection from the first biz where you could connect reference and the receiver with the laser , and then the door will open up . There is young mechanic call the RGB convertor , and for this one , you need an additional people of color of the laser , and the yield is the third quarter . Our goal in the puzzle is to touch this progression wheel , put our hand on it . This system , this is the milestone system , it will show us which means we can find go see which puzzles , so telling us to go back if you want to solve the first puzzle , telling us the 2nd teaser is solve , and to the left are puzzles , three , four , and this William Henry Gates represents the prosperous puzzle , while these triangles represent last puzzles .
So there is more than just those eight mystifier . But for now , we ’ll go and solve puzzle , or we can just go and research because there are thing to find , for example , the Prometheus Spark as we call it , a digital flame for you where we can really employ that to skip puzzler . So this is puzzle turn three , allow ’s see if we need to skip it , maybe it ’s too toilsome or something we require to hop it for now . So if we find one of these , we can clean it up , they persist through levels . Most of them are a little bit more hidden than this one , but they ’re not very hard to determine . But this spark that I used , it has n’t been destroyed , it in reality has been trap inside . I can still come back and solve the teaser and I ’m extend to get my light back as a reinforcement . So it ’s kind of turned mandatory content into optional content flop there to give players more freedom and more option of how they want to approach the game .
So on this map - on every map , really - if you go around , you could research and you could find other more interesting thing other than just puzzle , like all the logs and terminals , which were also available in the first secret plan . So now they ’re back , you may employ them in wish to story to rule interesting thing . The Au puzzle in the distance , that puzzle is very difficult and it ’s interlace for now . instrumentalist can unlock them later and there ’s one per horizontal surface ; by solving all of them players can unlock additional end and such . And they can also unlock additional ending .
Each newfangled map introduce a new mechanic or a fresh conception . This point uses teleporters , I can not teleport through a unsympathetic door , but I can teleport through a fencing . And another new mechanic , it ’s interesting the interplay between them ; it ’s a driller , and it makes holes in the paries . The hole itself is too small for the players to in reality pass , but the teleporter can because teleporter is an item , and token can fleet through the hole . So we just station on the other side . And that ’s how we can combine new mechanics in interesting agency to solve mystifier . Another really cool novel mechanic , it ’s called mind transplant , and it ’s also relevant to the story .
Verena Kyratzes : Earlier I said that there ’s 1000 robots , and it take them 1000 age to make them , so it ’s very difficult to make new robots , and also imagination scarcity is a swelled problem for them . dead they inscribe a puzzler and bam , there ’s an empty robot ; like it does n’t have a mind , but it ’s a consistence . So distinctly , whoever build this has the ability to just snap their fingers and make a robot . And of grade for a high society that is currently at this instant of determination , whether we desire to expand further , if we desire to stay small - this is plain a biz record changer .
So the grapheme that are with you are go to be discussing this and all the other technologies that you may find on the island quite explicitly and quite in depth . This replace a mechanic from the first game which was called the recording equipment - which was not very well loved - where you had to record a video of yourself basically and then remove the puzzle with yourself in tandem bicycle . And this is multiplayer with yourself , so if you make a fault , you do n’t have to wait for the integral video to play out until you’re able to strain again . you’re able to very easily just go back one step and retry , so it ’s a lot less frustrative and hopefully a lot more playfulness .
Mario Kotlar : And there ’s one more thing that is different in Talos II compared to Talos . One is that the difficulty curve where the difficulty in Talos I went just a niggling bit up and down , but it would trend upwards and then at the end of the game , you would have a difficult mystifier after difficult puzzle . Mentally exhausting , ripe ? And mass would pause and maybe not continue with the game after on .
So we really wanted to make the game more approachable and more sport in that way to address that trouble . But we did n’t need to make the secret plan easy in club to achieve that , because we felt the game was correct where it needs to be ; the trouble in the first one was pretty good . And so so as to achieve that , we press some of the harder mystifier to begin with into the game . And after each map is finished , we would reset the trouble down as the novel auto-mechanic is getting introduced , so it ’s like a satisfying shape that pass up and down up and down with each tier .
Of course , there is still a tenuous upward trend to just overcompensate for player naturally getting dear at the game while they ’re play it . And the affair is that now that we have put difficult puzzles so too soon in the game , like teaser seven in Talos II is going to be much harder than get seven was in Talos I. So to compensate for that , that ’s where those new Prometheus Sparks come into turn .
I know on the website for the game you could observe lines fromThe Tempest . Is there anything you could narrate me about that ?
Verena Kyratzes : So the Tempest , yes . As I said , this entire affair fill place on the mysterious island . So there are very strong parallels to The Tempest , like we ’re adopt quite a bit from former William . And The Tempest has all these themes about magical and about Prospero sacrifice up his trick . And so there are quite a lot of parallels . There ’s the character of a lost daughter , which we have n’t touched at all upon in this display - I hope that I ’m not mar too much when I say this . We ’re not obviously realise a remake of The Tempest but there are quite a few parallels and we borrow a little bit from Shakespeare so it ’s no accident that those quote are in there .
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Source : Devolver Digital / YouTube
The Talos Principle IIis planned for release some time in 2023 for PS5 , Xbox Series X / S , and PC
