Check out mindbending puzzles in The Talos Principle 2's specially made demo

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It's not just the first bit of the final game.

The demo for The Talos Principle 2 is out now, building steam in the hype engine for what will probably be the premier first-person puzzler of 2023. Developers Croteam have made it special for you, standalone and set apart from the final game's flow and puzzles.

"You can jump in to get a taste of this long-awaited sequel by playing a specially tailored demo. In this demo, play through some of the puzzles from the very beginning of the game, before moving forward to roughly a halfway point and seeing how things evolve," they said.

The original The Talos Principle was a much-beloved first person puzzle game about light and lasers, though it definitely went a bit further than that. If you like the genre and didn't play the first one then I'd say it holds up pretty well as one of the best post-Portal puzzle games. Our Phil Savage wasn't really sure that it needed a sequel—though once he had some time with The Talos Principle 2 he was pretty excited for it.

It's a sequel that intends to be a bit bigger, a bit grander, than the first game was. It's also stranger, about a colony of post-human robots rather than individual humans. It's a game about societies rather than individuals as the first one was. The metaphysical focus has shifted from a philosophy of the individual to a philosophy of the group. Your character is the final robot to be born, the 1,000th in a society purposefully restricted to a population of 1,000.

"For some, your character's birth is a cause of celebration—the end of their expansion and the beginning of the final form of their society. For others, it's a bitter pill. The city is struggling for the resources they need to build and repair, causing some to argue for continued growth and further exploitation of the land. These are the stakes for The Talos Principle 2. If the first game was about what it means to be an individual, the sequel asks what that means for the society that individuals form," said Phil.

So if you're into weird architecture and metaphysical nonsense, well, get over there and check out that demo. You can find a demo for The Talos Principle 2 on Steam.

Jonathan Bolding
Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.