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The Talos Principle 2
The Talos Principle 2 suits players who want puzzles with a philosophical, story-driven dimension. At ≈ $4.04 from 
GOG, the main question is whether you want to start exploring its increasingly intricate challenges now. The narrative has multiple endings, and the game lets you choose how thoroughly to pursue its puzzles.
You can finish the story without solving every puzzle; optional Gold puzzles add challenges for completion-minded players. At $29.99 from GOG, the edition is Standard and the interface languages include Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, Russian, and Turkish.
All-time low ~ $2.99across Steam & third-party stores
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $5.992026-10Current Low Across Stores~ $5.99Microsoft StoreAt its historical low now
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About The Talos Principle 2
The Talos Principle 2 is a philosophical first-person puzzle adventure in a world where robots carry on human culture. Solve challenges using familiar mechanics and new abilities such as gravity manipulation while exploring a mysterious megastructure and varied environments. Your choices shape an interactive story with multiple endings. The game has 94%% positive player reviews from 12,716 reviews. The Steam PC version was released on November 2, 2023. The interface is available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, Russian, and Turkish.
Credits
Composer
Damjan Mravunac · [Q18062053]
Developer
Croteam
Publisher
Devolver Digital
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$5.992026-10-09 · Microsoft StoreBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Traditional Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Show 9 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Korean | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Portuguese-Brazil | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Turkish | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-20
02Before you buy
Puzzles and abilities
Puzzles range from optional Gold puzzles to challenges using abilities such as gravity manipulation.
Language and controls
The Steam PC version has full controller support. English has full audio; other supported languages include subtitles.
03Frequently asked questions
Do I need to solve every puzzle?
No. The story has multiple endings, and you can finish without solving every puzzle.
Is this a sequel?
Yes. Its story continues the events of the first The Talos Principle.
Can I play solo?
It is a single-player game on Steam PC.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
Well, well well. At the tender age of 75 and in ill health it is hard to find good games that have no combat in them. A right hand that is almost useless and reactions that left me many years ago make that type of game virtually impossible. So the likes of Amnesia Rebirth (in safe mode) are possible but the mainstay are things like Everyones gone to the rapture, Dear Esther etc have become good for passing the time. Then a week or so ago I happened upon Tribe, Primitive Builder and wrote a nice review on that. Then two days ago along pops Talos 2 which I took a chance on - a BRILLIANT decision. It has everything an old body needs but a young (still capable) brain can manage. Hats off to the dev team - HIGHLY. HIGHLY recommended. Now should I buy the first one? of course I should. Cheers JohnShow moreShow less
50.8 hours at review653 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I think I'll just have to admit that I won't finish this game, and leave it at that. The puzzles are good. Better than the first installment. They're less complex and more lateral, and I had a blast solving them. And yet, overall, I hate this game. The first Talos Principle was simply a puzzle, first developed without any narrative at all, and its story was a relatively thin veneer — but it was precisely the amount the game needed. An android learning what thinking and will are and a benevolent yet overprotective AI god that refused to let it go created a surprisingly poignant dynamic that you could immerse yourself in while solving puzzles. It's one of my favourite games ever. I have an official T-shirt and everything. On the surface, The Talos Principle 2 seems to be "more and better." We have a whole society of androids now, and several powerful entities arguing about philosophy. But creating a believable and interesting philosophical argument in a post-human world where characters do not procreate (in a human way), have no need to eat or sleep, aren't bound by time or hormonal bursts is hard, much harder than mapping the journey of a single human-like entity. Unfortunately, The Talos Principle 2 falls flat on its face here. The hook of the story is that androids feel guilt for what humanity had done in the past (it's never explained why they identify with humans, as their needs and routines are very different), so they decide to never produce more than 1000 units and never leave a single dome city of New Jerusalem. While it's a possible future, it doesn't feel compelling at all — I understand the ecological message, but the scale of the "new humanity" is unreasonably small. It's just, overall, not an interesting way to approach the issue of overproduction and possible overpopulation, and I feel that smart characters would never have taken such a ridiculously extreme approach in the first place. Moreover, did we really need a post-human society to ponder Deep Questions like "protecting ecology is good, actually" — coming directly from any 80s children cartoon? Are the writers absolutely positive that post-humanity doesn't offer any more compelling questions? It slides into "but discovering the world is good, actually" and "science is interesting, actually", all presented with the same (lack of) finesse. It lacks fantasy, too. All androinds have similar models. They do nothing to customize the way they present beyong userpics (in cyberspace, if tuning themselves in reality is unfeasible). Where's a character with a two-billion-symbol-long name (it's not like anyone in New Jerusalem would have issues processing such a name in conversation)? Why do they have no furries, or people talking in dead languages, or a hundred characters choosing to unite into a single multi-intelligence, or any other of millions of possible ways to establish their personalities that people would do if they weren't constrained by mortality and bodies? Conversely, why do they have (very outdated and binary) genders and a concept of family if they have no childbirth or sexual drives? Why is so little of their philosophical musings centered around the Algorithm that — they know for a fact! — randomizes their personalities, their actual source of being? Why don't they customize their personalities at-will, if they have no hormone-based emotions? Why do they not create non-human constructs, either pet-like or AI-like? Et cetera, et cetera. The answer to all these questions, I fear, is simple: it's because The Talos Principle 2 is a sci-fi game that's written by people who are either not interested in or not well enough acquainted with modern sci-fi. Characters saying things like "why is it always that groundbreaking inventions are portrayed as a possible menace in sci-fi" is proof of that — if you read something more modern than Philip ♥♥♥♥, you'll find plenty of techno-optimistic stories. Another proof is an engineer character who, upon discovering a new material, reacts with something like "It's like nothing I've ever seen!" Um, some specifics, please? What particles is it made of? What molecules does the structure resemble? What specific physical qualities does is posess? An engineer would go into detail — but she can't do it in The Talos Principle 2 because the writer doesn't know the answer, because they're not a sci-fi writer. A story doesn't have to have every hard bit of science mapped out to be interesting. But it needs texture. When a character creates a daughter, it doesn't feel like the writer gave any actual thought to the matter of how a daughter is different from any other creation of that character in the absense of biological birth. She has no genes, the "mother" has no oxytocin response — so how is her "daughter" different from countless other androids she had created? A thoughtful answer to that question alone could make a very interesting game, but The Talos Principle 2 doesn't have it. It's all skin-deep. Always skin-deep. And, honestly, the game's philosophical musings are also stuck in mid-XX century at best. "It's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ puzzle game, and you wrote a whole essay about the writing and plot," I hear you say. But the thing is, the plot is prominent. The game begins with you exploring an androind city for like an hour with no puzzle in sight — it's optional, but clearly meant to be important. There are a lot of dialogues, a lot of character interaction. I weep at how good it could have been and how utterly outdated it is. So if you can disconnect yourself from the plot and just solve puzzles, go for it. They are good, as is the visual design. I, however, loved the first game so much that I expected something more from the second. But what I got was, undortunately, much less.Show moreShow less
30.8 hours at review126 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
They did it. I'm speechless. An absolute masterpiece. And here I thought it would be impossible for Croteam to match the quality and depth of the first game - how wrong I was. From the natural environments and architecture to the music, the puzzles, the characters, the story, and the constant self-reflective and thoughtful arguments - everything fits together so perfectly and flows so organically while staying true to its roots. The attention to detail is also extraordinary. The Talos Principle series is the literal definition of a hidden gem. Can't recommend it enough.Show moreShow less
13.6 hours at review291 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Extremely Disappointing Sequel Note: My hours played are not accurate as I tend to leave my games running while I'm at work all day. As I move into the latter half of this game, my disappointment has swelled to a crescendo. I found myself combing through the negative reviews, hoping somehow that I am not alone in my sadness. I need to get these feelings out of my heart; thus I share them here with you. As background I think it's important to state that TTP1 is on my shortlist of best games of all time, right up there with Myst, Riven, The Witness, The Painscreek Killings, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Baba Is You. These games struck deep on my soul and will always be a part of me. Eight years ago after I'd finished 100-percenting TTP1 and its also-delightful DLC: Road to Gehenna, I was hungry for more. I scoured the Internet for news of plans for a sequel and was delighted to learn that it was in fact planned, albeit not until after they developed and released Serious Sam 4, their flagship franchise. I knew it would be a long wait, but I had faith. At least every six months, I checked on the status of SS4. After years of this, 2020 rewarded me with the release of SS4. Now I knew that TTP2 was surely underway: I checked for updates even more frequently. I went through the roof with the news of a November 2023 release date. All this to say: I was anticipating TTP2 hard. I pre-purchased and played it on release day. There were warning signs of disappointment within the first hour of gameplay; I brushed them aside. But as I pushed forward -- easy puzzle after easy puzzle -- there was no denying that my dreams of a worthy sequel would not come true. Complaint #1: Stars for everyone This might be specific to me -- and please comment below -- but my absolute favorite aspect of TTP1 was hunting hard to identify the hidden stars and then racking my brain, sometimes spending many hours, just to earn the one single, juicy star. They were so challenging! I loved it! Often you had to work together using components stolen from multiple puzzles and other parts of the worlds that were not obvious. You had to snoop and sniff around each little nook and cranny of each world because maybe, just maybe, it would grant you access to an area or a tool that you needed to win a rare and precious star. Star hunting took you over, under and way up on top of places that didn't even seem possible. "How am I ever going to get to the top of this castle!" Talking about the stars in TTP2 almost makes me cry. Not only are there stupid statues that give you gigantic clues about how to find each star, but then they made the lazy and insulting choice of recycling the same three lame star challenges: follow a map, shine a green light, or follow a slow-motion particle cloud like an idiot. Complaint #2: Puzzles that never get hard This has been covered in other reviews, but suffice it to say that they super dumbed-down the puzzle difficulty. It's okay to have a "tutorial" puzzle or two, but then I expect a challenge. What is a puzzle if it doesn't challenge your brain? Busywork? It's like doing a word find. It takes time a little time, but not real brain power. Complaint #3: Way to many robot friends TTP1 had a peacefulness, at times even a beautiful forlornness that came from being a solitary automaton hunting for answers in a mysterious, empty world. I personally do not appreciate the dozens of wannabe philosophical conversations with fellow androids that cover fun topics like cats pissing on sophisticated, futuristic technology. Complaint #4: Message is confused, obtuse, The written text and conversation in TTP1 was, on a whole, thought-provoking and enjoyable. It created a mystique and a feeling that drew me in. TTP2, on the other hand, always feels like it's trying really hard to be "deep" and thoughtful, but what comes across is a flat and disconnected series of one-liners that never amount to a meaningful message. And please, can we agree that the premise of humanity killing itself via climate change has been done enough? I think this is the 3rd game I've played this year that have used the same gimmick. Please: It's not clever anymore. (Was it ever?) Closing Thoughts My feeling is that Croteam wanted to make a game that appealed to as many people as possible, so they dumbed it down (even my precious stars) to the point that even my 9 year old could solve most everything in the game. Why the bad dialogue? I'm not sure. New writers? Some negative reviews mention how "big" the worlds are and how"far apart" the puzzles are. Personally, I don't mind a big, beautiful world to explore as long as there is something to find. I will search almost endlessly if you give me some hidden areas, easter eggs, or clues that might help me solve a challenge star. Sadly, this game has no gems to find. What a pity that they wasted such an opportunity.Show moreShow less
116.9 hours at review119 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
How is it possible that a 29€ game feels like a real 70€ game, but most 70€ games don't even feel like a 29€ game? The Talos Principle 2 can do it and that's why I'm going to have a lot of fun with it. Thank you Croteam! <3Show moreShow less
1.5 hours at review287 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
A demonstration of why bigger isn't always better. Its hard to put into words why I feel like this didn't work, but it boils down to feeling like they wanted to make a sequel bigger than the original to its detriment. Bigger areas, full of nothing. Bigger cast, that vomit how you should feel at you. Even attempts at bigger questions to present the player, but failing to understand why those worked so well in 1. Instead of a more personal experience, diving into mysteries and coming to your own conclusions, you're constantly discussing with other people about why humanity should be humble, or walking around town discussing your findings, or having social media commentary in your head as the whole town watches your actions. Even the puzzles themselves seem to be more lacking in substance. Each area boils down to 10 puzzles sticking to usually one new gimmick and two of three challenge towers. These towers boil down to finding an orb and chasing it, finding where a picture was taken to flip a switch, or connect a light to the tower (which is about 50% puzzle and 50% pixel hunt to find a connector hiding somewhere in the world). I took the time to solve every puzzle, tower, gold puzzle, etc and feel like at every turn the game didn't land. I understand the message it conveyed, its a great message! But so much was lost in trying to find a way to deliver that message that the entire experience suffered for it to the point where the message becomes tainted. Unlike the first, it was not you coming to the message yourself, but moreso beating it over your head at every opportunity. I wish I could recommend this like the first game, but this just doesn't do it for me.Show moreShow less
30.1 hours at review85 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Best puzzle game released in years Not come across a single bug Very good price - puts other devs to shame Sequel just as good, if not better than the first game Dev claims this is double length of the first game Well optimised compared to any other new release Newly introduced mechanics/puzzles New world to explore Great soundtrack Responsive, passionate devs If you love Talos 1 it's a no brainer If you love puzzle games it's a no brainer Just buy/play it.Show moreShow less
4.7 hours at review238 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I would describe the original Talos Principle as a tight puzzle game that tells you an okay story if you look for it. I would describe Talos Principle 2 as a sprawling walking simulator that gives you some okay puzzles if you look for them. The focus of the game is completely inverted from the original with seemingly all the effort put into long dialogue sequences and massive empty environments with characters arguing over, effectively, whether you should play the game or not. "We should explore this new area and solve these puzzles," says one NPC. "No, we go home where it's safe and not do anything," says another. "Where do you stand on this?" they both ask the player, even though the writers know full well that the player purchased a puzzle game to explore and solve puzzles. This repeats over and over again with different NPCs trying to convince you that you should or shouldn't continue doing exactly what you purchased the game to do, as if anyone is going to listen to an NPC tell them how dangerous doing things can be and be convinced to close the game. That's not to say no one will close the game after listening to these NPCs though, many probably will out of boredom. When you finally get through all the conversations and cutscenes and walking to the puzzles they unfortunately are a big step down from the first game in terms of difficulty. Where Talos 1 had a much smaller selection of tools for its puzzles it felt like it really explored every possible setup you could make with them and plenty of them made me actually have to sit and think for a minute or two. Talos 2 on the other hand introduces a new tool every ten puzzles but it feels like six of those ten are extremely simple tutorials that can be solved in a manner of seconds without any critical thought, then you get 2 not-quite-tutorial-but-still-easy puzzles and 2 (optional) thinking-required puzzles before you're off to another new tool and another batch of tutorials. Tetronimo puzzles are back, and while I wasn't a big fan of them before I'm even less of one this time around as those have been simplified down to the point where they're hardly even puzzles at all, you can frequently just place them all in the order they're already presented to you in the UI and it will just work, no thinking involved at all. Stars are back too, but like the other puzzles they've been simplified and streamlined and are frequently even easier than the regular puzzles. There's even a sizeable category of star "puzzles" that are just following a glowing line to an orb, then following the orb as it returns to where you found the glowing line. They're about as much of puzzles as those bead on wire toys they make for babies. In summary, story has a fundamentally bad premise, is presented in a way that is too much of a distraction from the puzzles, and the puzzles are too easy.Show moreShow less
11.6 hours at review82 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
More ≠ Better I think the developers forgot what made the first game so special and instead focused on making a bigger and more ambitious game. This game could have been much better if they had just remembered what made the first game so unique. I loved The Talos Principle. It was such a gem in many ways. It had clever puzzle and level design, interesting narrative, phenomenal graphics for its year and budget, good soundtrack, and beautiful environmental design. The only issue with it was that it was a little bit too long, thus it began being rather repetitive at the end. Nevertheless, it was a great experience throughout the journey. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3071931987 In The Talos Principle 2, the most flashy improvement that catches the player's eye is the graphics. The game looks absolutely stunning visually, the art design is masterfully done. Especially in some areas, they took it to another level. Graphically, Talos 2 is easily the best-looking puzzle game in the market. Puzzle-wise, we have well-designed puzzles in Talos 2, just like the first game. But I can easily say that puzzles are way easier in this one. In the first game, I had to look up the solutions for 2-3 puzzles, and the other ones were mostly very challenging too. In Talos 2, I didn't need help in any of them, and I didn't use the in-game puzzle skip mechanic. Thankfully, this game doesn't repeat itself like the first one did. The game introduces new mechanics throughout the journey. The puzzles are fun to solve and engaging, but I still felt the achievement feeling after solving both simple and challenging puzzles. However, the major issue with this game is, why isn't any of the puzzle mechanics connected? The answer is, to not make things difficult for the player. This is a major letdown because that was exceptionally well done in the first game and I expected that to be experimented further here. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3094080194 Exploring the world and secrets with friends is not bad, but the first game's solitude feeling with beautiful music was a whole other feeling. The first game's story was way more interesting than this one, TTP had a better balance, like 90% gameplay, 10% story, now it's like 65%-35%, which slows the tempo down by a lot. Neither the scenario nor the characters were interesting to me. By the way, the music got downgraded with this one, Talos 1's music was so captivating and atmospheric. This has a few decent tracks, but they are not as remarkable as the prequel. I know this is a demanding game, but performance could have been way better, there are some issues here. To conclude, The Talos Principle 2 doesn't have the magic that The Talos Principe had, so It didn't feel that special for me. Although I am a little bit disappointed with it, It's still a high-quality game and I had fun with it. Definitely recommended. SILVER MEDAL Follow My Curator Page ❤️Show moreShow less
52.9 hours at review234 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
A strange game. The only winning move is… First of all, let’s get all of ad hominems out the way. This is not a review in bad faith, nor is in written out of malice. I’m not politically opposed to democracy, liberalism, individualism, humanism and women’s rights. I’m somewhat a nihilist, yeah, but a rather practical one. Meanings can be constructed for ease of living and efficiency and all that jazz. I’m also not a puzzle genre hater. I’ve 100%ed Portal 2, and the only reason I do not have 100% at TTP1 is because I could never bring myself to kill Milton off. Who I am though is a huge fan of the first game. This is clearly affecting my perception of this one, so this is relevant, I think. I’m a huge fan of TTP1 and I hugely disliked TTP2. Is this game a sequel, does it continue the story? Yes. Is it a spiritual successor, does it continue the _narrative_? No, not at all. It feels different, hits different, and for me it wasn’t in a good kind of way. First of all, TTP2 is overwhelmingly naïve. I do see that this is a deliberate creative choice, but I strongly believe it does not fit the series. It was a bad idea to take a thought-provoking piece of art and continue it as a message rather than as a discussion. TTP1 had space within itself to engage with its ideas and to form individual conclusions. TTP2 clearly wants to tell you something specific, but to truly listen you need to suspend your disbelief a lot more than before. Where the first game would have tackled a question with some degree of nuance, this one tends to postulate an answer. Would like to explore space for some other reasons than our moral duty to light up the Universe with cognition and life? Do not believe in such things? Good luck. Do not think that beauty exists / is inherently good / matters? Good luck once again, now with a chance to disappoint your companions. The list goes on, and while I’m all for humanism, technocracy and progress, I still felt trapped in reasonings game offered me for it all. There’s also a huge problem with the narrative as a whole – there is no whole. Plot seems strangely fragmented, with Somnodrome arc being a bitter mix of an afterthought and a cut plotline. What was it for? Same goes for the secret society plot. And the main story, including Miranda’s, is just flat. Writers want us to care for their characters, but with characters being mouthpieces for ideas this is rather hard. Also, there’s a Theory of Everything is this game. It just is. With it, the Universe is _postulated_ as being fundamentally knowable and understandable, which is unsettling for such a huge philosophical debate. (Put your ad hominem down, I do believe that the world is cognizable, I just don’t think making this a knowable fact is a good choice for this particular game). Moreover, with the Theory of Everything the science is solved. By one person, who consciously excluded their peers out of scientific progress. One person solved science and nowhere in the game is anyone upset about it. Why? Because writers needed a magical solve-all-problems device, and without it nothing would work plot wise. But with it the plot just seems plastic and cheap. This story has no room for me to challenge it from the inside, it forces me to go and start a one-sided conversation with its authors, which I do not like. In short, it feels rushed, naïve and incomplete. But this is a puzzle game, not a text adventure. So, are the puzzles any good? Well, I did not like them. I’m not sure if it means that they are bad, but in my opinion, they are somewhat boring. Most of the time solving them feels mechanical, not that much of ah-a! moments for me. More of the “finally, get this, stupid new puzzle element” and “after 500 hours in portal my brain solves this without thinking”. The other category is “to convoluted to be interesting”. But there’s non zero chance this is me and not the game. Really bad stuff happens between the puzzles, in those huge open spaces. They get old very fast, and fast travel option isn’t helping much. Some regions are almost impossible to navigate even with the compass, and solving for stars just becomes a chore. Well, most of the game felt like a chore to me. There are other things I’m upset about, like making Athena, seemingly our main character from TTP1, a chosen-one with a God complex (she IS that even without the myth around her) or not including Milton, but otherwise good plot could have made it work. This one did not. It disregards a very personal thing for a fan of the first game – their unique experience. Maybe the new audience will find this alluring. I certainly did not.Show moreShow less
46.1 hours at review72 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.