Playing A Game The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna PC

Toward the end of The Talos Principle, and especially when hunting for secret stars, Croteam's puzzles crossed the line from "difficult" into "exhausting" -- I enjoyed the game but felt no shame using online walkthroughs to complete it. Road to Gehenna picks right back up where the main game left off: with elaborate, lengthy, error-prone puzzles that saw me frequently throwing up my hands and reading a guide.

It's bad enough when the path to a puzzle's solution is obscured by a significant number of fidgety middle steps, but especially demotivating when some missteps mean that you need to reset the puzzle and start all over again.

Fortunately, "puzzle immersion" isn't all that Road to Gehenna has going for it: like the main game, it's structured around a fresh and surprisingly-nuanced philosophical narrative. And while The Talos Principle covered its material pretty thoroughly, Road to Gehenna manages to add to it in a satisfying way, with the AI personalities who got "left behind" and this world's equivalent of a rapture. Aside from some fun moments where robots absurdly misunderstand human history, it raises really fascinating questions about mortality and faith in the idea of a next life.

It doesn't reach the dramatic heights of the main game's plot, but the way it's told - with a virtual BBS and a cast of AIs writing their own articles, fan-fics, and shitposts - is pretty damn cool. Not quite as enthralling as Hacknet: Labyrinths, but similarly successful at building some personal investment in the game's world.

So, frustratingly complex puzzles aside, I'd call Road to Gehenna a worthwhile follow-up. Just, uh, don't waste your time with the secret stars -- unless you've got a passion for truly torturous puzzles.

Better than: Recursed
Not as good as: The Turing Test
Text-adventure content better than: Pony Island

Progress: Unlocked everything, with interweb hints.

Rating: Good