The Philosophy Behind The Talos Principle: Reawakened

Hi everyone!
We're a few months away from the launch of The Talos Principle: Reawakened, we'll let you know when that's happening soon enough, so we thought we'd look back at why the game exists in the first place.

But first, please wishlist the game now if you haven't already.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2806640/The_Talos_Principle_Reawakened/

Remakes and remasters are not rare, but they are certainly not often seen in the indie space. Well, maybe they are in Croteam's little universe

A lot has changed since the original's release, and our team is as passionate as ever. The lingering feeling that there is more to be done with it never disappeared, and it became more prevalent with the launch of The Talos Principle 2.

Creating Talos Principle 2 was a long journey. We switched to a new engine, became proficient with various new tools, and finally built the next step in this future history. That enjoyable but frequently challenging process taught us a great deal.

As the tenth anniversary of the first game approached, and realizing that many new players may be reluctant to return to the original due to it being a decade old, we started to think about all the possibilities that a remaster offered more seriously. We realized focusing on a remaster could bring the game into the same engine as the sequel, upgrade the graphics, fix some quality-of-life issues that had bugged us for years, and introduce the world of Talos to a whole new generation of players in one fell swoop.

So, we decided to proceed! But like anything in life, we didn't want this to be a low-effort product, so we focused on providing tangible value.



On the technical side, there was far more work than just recreating the levels in Unreal Engine 5. We needed to blend old and new assets to create an up-to-date look. When we re-used the old ones, we put much effort into remastering them thoroughly upgrading meshes and improving textures.

Most environment assets were remade entirely using texture displacement, which is a perfect match for Nanite because it allows for high-detail geometry. We used many techniques we had learned from developing Talos 2, and in some cases, we improved them even further.

In combination with Unreal's lighting system, which allowed us to create more exaggerated lighting setups, these visual improvements enhanced the simulation's fantastical, hyperreal look. It is a place that is beautiful, eerie, lonely—and won't last forever.


On the gameplay side, we introduced a brand new rewind mechanic to allow you to go back between 2 and 10 seconds and fix any missteps. This also helps you avoid being locked in a puzzle without knowing it. This change is based on feedback we received from folks being frustrated when a small mistake meant they had to redo the entire puzzle or situations where players would not be sure if their previous move meant they couldn't proceed.

For similar reasons, we also reworked the infamous time recorder; It now allows you to set up checkpoints (up to 20). You will no longer have to wait in one spot for a prolonged period of time in order to leave the room for later actions, removing the time pressure element. This makes for a more cerebral, less frustrating experience that all our testers describe as a huge improvement.



A more minor gameplay tweak, but one that was inspired by the great reception of a similar change in Talos 2, concerns the connectors. It is now possible to deselect connections individually, so you don't have to start from scratch whenever you want to change your configuration.

Finally, we've completely reworked the Messenger hint system, which everyone, including ourselves, found baffling, as the hints were incredibly hard to unlock and not particularly helpful. (Sorry.) Every freed Messenger will now give you three tokens that can be used to skip red sigil puzzles, giving players who are stuck some flexibility - although you still have to earn each Messenger's help!


With The Talos Principle: Reawakened, we don't want to change the fundamentals of the experience or transform it into something new. The core gameplay and storytelling principles remain unchanged. However, the game is visually refreshed, with many gameplay frustrations removed, and is now almost ready for its own journey into the future.

There are many more reasons we wanted to create The Talos Principle: Reawakened, including adding new story content and streamlining the user-generated content creation. We'll talk about them in our upcoming blogs, so stay tuned.

Much love,
Croteam