It’s such a shame that these videos aren’t getting many views especially with all the effort you(aliens rock),Ben and Dan are putting into these amazing videos that have improved a lot from the already great videos a year ago.thanks for making every day better.
I find it quite relaxing with the puzzles being easier to follow and some people are mostly here for Tyler.Also it not being a great game is no fault of Tyler and his team especially with the extra long videos that still have editing throughout.
@@YungChitnits a very fun game with great mechanics. They know how to make a hard puzzle game. For this game they are going to come out with a DLC using these mechanics with much harder puzzles. That way the casuals can complete the game and the puzzle masters looking for a challenge get their hard puzzle fix.
@@YungChitn difficulty is very subjective. All a puzzle comes down to is figuring out when to do what. “Challenge” is simply how many elements involved and how hidden are the steps. I found both this and Talos 1 to be very easy - only 1 or 2 puzzles from the DLC took more than a handful of minutes to figure out - but I’ve had a blast playing both. A plus for the sequel is the sheer number of new elements we have to play with. The DLC has so much potential. Only finding pleasure in “hard” puzzles is a pitiable way to play.
@@dzaki8331 Oh god, I do not want to imagine the kinda puzzles that would be created. "Um, actually, you moved the fifth device not perfectly at the edge of the fourth, meaning your 20-long chain of devices does not reach the barrier, failing the puzzle."
Its a simple peice to make a puzzle with, its easy to use with a simple on and off state, and its easy to create artificial difficulty by making exact placement necessary. Personally i think the most interesting peice weve seen so far is either the clones or the gravshifter, and i would love to see a puzzle with both elements, as there are so many possibilities when working with other you's in different orientations. Also i feel like the blue gates themselves could be a decent tool, similar to the hard light bridges from portal maybe, being a blue surface that prevents objects and signals from going through, all itd need is to be moveable somehow and youve got yourself a working mobility mechanic. The game borrows so much from portal already, with the cubes, buttons, laser imputs and outputs, drillers, the beam from the gravity thing, the fans (launch pads), even the way the blue and purple gates work, are all examples, so why not go ahead and borrow the other features they missed?
The one thing good I can say about the star puzzle is that using the activator to turn on the statue is clever as hell. Other than that, it just feels like looking aimlessly for the stuff. I looked up two guides and neither had the intended solution.
It took me close to an hour, _scouring_ the level, until I finally found the driller. Luckily I hadn’t yet found the angle for the connector so I was using photo mode to get a bird’s eye of level 4 and happened to spot the hidden gate.
What did the guides say? Also.. "looking aimlessly".. when you are kickstarted via.. going around a corner.. like did lots of people just not explore?! Like you see a gate and are like "oh I can use the thing inside the puzzle to turn it off" (btw that is much better than the hidden compartment from last time since it isn't *inside* where you assume there isn't anything new) and then get a drill and are like "okay look for a drill wall" and thus look around for a vantage point, see it, get the activator and then see the statue has no receiver and piece it together.. Like people enjoy "Meta puzzles" yet this game seems to make people not enjoy the same concept?
It does look like there is a hint to finding the driller, because the UI shows what elements you are going to activate, but the issue is that the MAJORITY of people won’t notice the extra gate icon you get when standing in that corner. But for the wall you need to drill, yeah that’s just “notice the metal wall in a very mountainous area”.
@@BaconNukethe lesson we get from this game is that environmental puzzles need to have a lot of cues in the environment to make them enjoyable and this game tries to completely hide it from the player, the witness teaches us very well how to hide environmental puzzles but still giving a lot of cues to make the player curious and thus make the completion rewarding, this game also did this very well in a lot of areas
Him missing that is really sad. One of the best scenes in the game. He also doesn't realize that the social media and dialogue choices is how the game in general decides between the 3 different endings for the city. Him completely ignoring all of that will probably make him get the boring ending there. He might not even get any of the three main endings for it and get the one where you don't even get an achievement? But not sure
In this star puzzle, I had the "huh" moments for both the drillable wall and the activator randomly activating 2 doors, so I had the intended experience with it. IMO the driller was in a well hidden spot and I would put it closer to a spot where you could see an extra door in the UI and it's not in a corner of a room
I first noticed the jammer could be taken out of level 7 (I think) and was questioning whether that was intended. Only once I opened that blue gate I noticed the activator radiating through the wall.
I can understand Tyler's frustration with the Pandora puzzle here. When I was playing the game myself, I wandered a lot taking in most of the scenery, (also looking for those bikes) and I stumbled across the drill wall before finding the Pandora puzzle. I guessed it had a use for a meta puzzle then spent 30 more minutes looking around, found Pandora's statue, and was even more confused. It took me 20 more minutes of looking only to find the driller when I was looking at every corner for a clue. 15 more minutes of walking to locate the drill wall and bring back the activator to the Pandora statue. Finding the wall and having some clue to go off of was nice, but the following hour of trying to even figure out how It would be opened was really draining. It gave me a sense of relief that I was finally done with it rather than a sense of accomplishment that I was able to figure it out. I really enjoy the exploration that this game has and the beautiful locations that these puzzles are found in, but some of them are a bit too much, like the small outpost on north-1 that had a Trevor voice log. While it's nice that so much of the map is available to get to and explore, having too much can definitely hurt the experience.
I like how Tyler has no issue pointing out issues he has with a game and giving his opinion. I couldnt agree more and I generally just look up solutions if I get stuck for too long.
Except in other games he's enjoyed the "meta puzzles" that require going between two corners on the map to get a collectible.. I think he is just big angry that he glossed over a bit of the map that would have caused the cascade of "oh okay a driller, look for the drill spot"
i agree, and i think the devs appreciate it too. feedback from a puzzle game connoisseur like tyler is valuable, and thanks to his platform all of us tend to pitch in with our own praise and criticism as well.
@@BaconNuke well no because people are consistent. I think he just thinks the driller should have been more obvious. Like some of the feedback he gave before. Essentially if I had to guess, he'd say these meta puzzles work best when a puzzle has an extra element that isnt required for completing the main puzzle, but is required for the meta puzzle. Just to subtly hint it has more use than it lets on. I have to agree with him on the fact that it just being *hidden behind a random wall* isnt clever or interesting.
@@BaconNukehe praised a lot of the star puzzles on this game, what he hates is things being intentionally hidden with no clear ways to find out about it, in this games case not even the map design tries to point to the place, it's very intentionally hidden from the player
@@Yipper64it’s not hidden at random though. There are logical connections for both of the “annoying” Pandora puzzles. Every Pandora puzzle has had its required elements be either very obvious or hidden reasonably close. It’s our own damn fault for running around the entire map, lol. I for one would hate having an extra element inside a puzzle - at best it would be some curious object that never got used or confused me into trying to use it. At worst it would help me unknowingly cheese the puzzle and then I’d leave thinking it was meant for that puzzle. We are puzzle solvers, Croteam are puzzle creators. I trust them to make good puzzle decisions. If they give me a red herring or send me on a wild goose chase, so be it. I laughed out loud when I finally found the driller after more than an hour running around and trying to get the driller out of level 3 😂
Trevor continuing to be that tragic character, confessing his love for Alex & in the same breath explains how futile any emotion is given their circumstances. Great storytelling right there.
About Pandora's Star, I really liked the activator solution for it. And it it wasn't such a chore to get an activator it could been a very nice aha moment when you realize how you need the activate that statue. Also, in Talos Principle 1 there were a few search the map meta-puzzles. But the maps were way smaller in that game. So an hidden cube in one side of the map was easily carried to the other side (except the axe in the hub-world, that one needed to be carried way to much tbh).
yeah, i was thinking "oh, having a statue without a receptacle in the activator world is pretty cool" but having to do a big chain of find the thing to get an activator is a bit iffy at best - i think that the smartest thing they could have done is put a puzzle involving the bubble going through walls directly next to the statue that you could reach it from to heavily imply - along with it not having a receptacle - the solution to it
I'm only half-way through, does Tyler figure out that the UI is telling him what's within the Activator's bubble? I'ma find out ... No he did not lol Also wow does he hate treasure hunts
Considering he still hasn't noticed that same ui element for connectors dimming/graying if they don't have line of sight to their connections it doesn't surprise me.
@@Scuuurbsthat reminds me of my experience with sea of thieves, i spent over an hour in the tutorial because the X on the map wasnt near the actual treasure, leading me to searching and digging aimlessly for something i couldnt possibly know was somewhere else without looking up a guide. Treasure hunt is a good name for dumb situations like these, just in tylers case the X just covers the entire map so he either has to dig aimlessly everywhere all over for a treasure he would never find on his own, or look up a guide.
@@jc_art_ well, put me in the category of “digs everywhere” because that’s what I did. And I had fun doing it. I know W2 like the back of my hand, and when I finally found the driller, I laughed because I felt so silly for not looking there sooner.
This isn't necessarily a defense of the Pandora star (especially since I had to look up the driller location myself after a lot of frustration), but I will point out that the metal wall is visible at 15:49 in this video. With the statue itself being a fun twist by having no receiver in the land of Activator puzzles and the wall being reasonably findable from the main path, I'd say the true problem of the star is the driller. As it is the driller is hard to find but easy to retrieve, but if it was easy to find and hard to retrieve then you'd know that you'd need to be on the lookout for a drillable wall and you'd have a (theoretically) fun puzzle in freeing the driller.
And the driller can be skipped by smuggling a blue activator out of Puzzle 6. The same goes for the Pandora Puzzle for South 3, smuggling can help there as well. Heck, even the North 3 Pandora Puzzle can be done by smuggling a connector out of Puzzle 4, which I did because I was a dumb-dumb who never saw the fixed RGB converter on top of a very conspicuous obelisk standing in the center of 3 puzzles.
I found the drillable wall first and bashed my head against a wall trying to find a driller. And then I looked up a guide. And the guide literally went "We have no idea what the intended solution for the puzzle is, but here is how you smuggle an activator out of a level"
That star puzzle really disappointed me as well. I saw the drillable wall while doing the normal puzzle route. I managed to exfiltrate a laser redirector out of a puzzle before I noticed that there was no receiver on the statue. I spent an hour or so running between puzzles trying to either get an activator or drill into the overworld. Super disappointed when I learned that the driller was not from a puzzle, but just hidden in a fold of a wall. I think the star puzzles are at their best when they incorporate the puzzles rather than items hidden somewhere. Hope they do more of that in the dlc.
Hey Tyler, Just wanted to thank you for doing and uploading lets plays such as this. It's not likely that I will be able to play this, as the specs are outside of my budget range. So I get to enjoy the game, through your efforts. Appreciate your work.
I have noticed something: The East side is Spring, the South side is Summer, the West side is Fall and the North side is Winter. Not sure if there's relevance in this, but it is something I've noticed.
Just wanted to thank you for continuing to upload this series, even though it seems you haven't been completely satisfied with the views the videos have been getting. I've been hooked on watching and following along with you as you solve and unlock the story. What a beautiful and well-designed game.
in my playthrough, that last star puzzle really reminded me of what i hated the most in Talos Principle 1. all the stars that involved running around the map, checking every corner for the one hidden path to get an item to solve the star puzzle
I find it a bit sad a lot of mechanics are extremely underused. The game gives you a ton of mechanics, but will oftenly forget about them. When was the last time we saw an RGB converter? Switching bodies? Teleporters and gravity shifters are quite rare to see, although to a lesser extent. They had so many opportunities to get extremely funky with 3 dimensions once they introduced walking on walls, which they did for only 1 or 2 areas (with the sideways house being probably the most creative design, and it really is great). They seem to come up with really great mechanics that can offer so much versatility, variety and imagination, yet they massively underutilise them. So much wasted potential
This actually reminds me a lot of the Single Player mode of Portal 2, which was strongly focused on the story but the puzzles weren't of the same challenge as the original. Portal 2 had the good puzzles in the Co-op mode. I've heard that The Talos Principle 2 will have good puzzles in a DLC at some point. The devs also want to add in a level editor, but it is difficult to achieve in the Unreal Engine.
No worries, they have explicitly said that they came up with many mind-bending puzzles with all the new mechanics, but decided to save those for the DLC.
@@Cklodar it's even more of a shame. If they have the capacity to make great and introcate puzzles, _and they even know it_ , why omit them from the base game?
@@methatis3013Because they want the game to be a wider success? Hard puzzles put off the majority of casual players, you know. Also kinda kills the flow of storytelling.
@@Cklodar clever and innovative puzzles don't need to be hard. Ill bring up the sideways house again. It is still the most memorable puzzle for me, yet it really isn't difficult. You don't need difficulty to make great puzzles, even Tyler said that few videos ago if Im not mistaken Edit: also, harder puzzles didn't seem to put off players of Patrick's Parabox...
It's been ages since I played 1, but yeah these puzzles don't seem as complicated as they probably should be for this point in the game. Maybe they want it to be more accessible, but I think they've done okay at introducing mechanics.
I think we have like 2-3 more videos for ttp2, depends on if he's gonna lump the pyramid in with the next one, with the gold puzzles, or have it be an independent video. (though it could be 4 if he scours for all Easter eggs)
the Talos and backpack hero are two of the best series you are already playing; there are many videos of backpack hero but none of them are as interesting as yours. I just wait all day so you upload your video
One thing I hated about the first game is the secret puzzles. I love secret puzzles, give me an extra challenge, but make it a damn puzzle and not a search expedition! When I heard you talk very well about the first game, I always wondered what your opinion was on the expedition puzzles, and I’m glad I got to see that opinion over the last few episodes. It’s not fun; it just forces you to look in stupid places. The environment is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t wanna search around for 30 minutes to find hidden pieces behind hidden walls etc etc
Well, to be fair the two “annoying” Pandora puzzles DO have a logical process to them - it’s just not a process many people will intuit, and those who don’t will inevitably become frustrated. Also people these days just don’t have enough f’n patience. I spent an hour going everywhere before I found the driller and I had a fun time doing it and laughed out loud when photo mode saved my ass.
@@Scuuurbswhat is the logic behind the driller being hidden in an insanely obscure place behind a random wall at a random puzzle (of which there are 8)
@@methatis3013 1. It’s the same puzzle where you get the beam, so it makes the most sense to look carefully in that area. 2. The activator can pick up the gate outside, and you’ll see it on the UI. That’s why all the other doors nearby are gates instead of doors, so you’re more likely to notice the 2nd gate appear. 3. Id have to go back and check, but I’m pretty sure you can actually SEE the blue of the outside gate through the architecture while inside the puzzle. I’ll admit I also checked all 8, tried climbing over statues and getting other object out of puzzles for over an hour. However, once I finally found it, the logical connections for how I should have found it were pretty clear. The reason this didn’t frustrate me is, I _expect_ to get stuck, and I _choose_ where I want to look. It’s my fault for not seeing the clues. People are too quick to blame external factors for their own failings.
All stars are about exploration rather than puzzle solving. Follow a spirit, enter a code, locate a switch, or find the ingredients for a green laser. I actually enjoyed exploring this level because of the epic vistas.
@@Capzielath64I just played that part the other day and I’m pretty sure it was just a log of Athena saying she made a functioning model. It didn’t have anything to download. You get in the chair via dialogue with the npc. He may have ruined his chances of using it by what choices he made earlier, idk.
I'm glad Tyler hated the pandora statue in this level as much as I did. I spent way too long looking for a driller that was hidden in a spot i never would have looked in, in a level that's already a huge pain to traverse.
34:05 Oh goddamit. This was the same shit I hated in the first game too. Having to look around big areas is one thing, but having to look around big areas for easily missable hidden corners and spots? Just a waste of time and doesn’t test my brainpower, just my patience
Again, spot on about the second star. I had even seen the drillable wall, and wasted so much time running around the zone and checking the levels that could reach it before looking it up and getting disappointed in the bad solution
I have to agree about the Pandora puzzle. When I played, I managed to figure out that you needed an activator, and knew it was hidden behind that drillable wall, but I gave up looking for the driller eventually. Such a bad idea for a puzzle. I thought games had moved past this time-wasting bullshit.
a mobile key is a really clever mechanic. Shame for the poandora puzzle, doing the step the activator has to be the receptacle was the puzzle and they marred it too much with unclear steps to get the activator needed.
It's funny how Tyler complains so hard about the "search for hidden items" puzzles when that was, like, every other secret puzzle in TTP 1. Not saying he's not allowed to be aggravated, it just seems like maybe the wrong franchise to bring up that complaint to.
To me it feels like they tried to hard to avoid "reset conditions". By avoiding almost all of those, it seems hard to make something actually difficult, as you never need to look ahead, but can basically trial and error your way.
Damn, I was looking for Tyler’s reaction to the somnodrome sequence, he had a speech a couple videos ago quite reminiscent of what happens in there. Hopefully he comes back to it before completing the game but I don’t see what would make him turn back. :(
If they're hiding things like that jammer & the actuator, then they needed to figure out a way to give clues within the puzzle or on the statue you're trying to solve. Because it really seems like there was no way to figure that out without looking it up.
While it is easy to miss, you can notice the blue wall outside of the level either while holding the Activator or by looking out of a small window at the right angle. And the drillable wall with the Activator is in view when you just follow the path from puzzle to puzzle (6 to 7 IIRC). So while this puzzle can certainly be annoying, it definitely isn't as bad as the one in the south with the wall that opens when you clear the puzzle.
Huh, I’m sure we saw this mechanic a few labs back. I wonder why it’s only coming up now? Like, shouldn’t it have been in the previous area instead of wherever it was?
I really enjoyed the puzzles in the next area, excited to see what you think about them in the next episode. You should go back to this area to try to use the somnodrone again
These maps are absolutely insane, and a massive step up from the previous game, i wonder if they used the same engine as Serious Sam 4, as this looks insanely good!
It's fun we see that leadership didn't come naturally to Byron, but immediately after Alcatraz called him a "natural leader". Really shows the small cracks in "truth" that come from biased perspective.
I never found that driller. You can just steal an activator from the puzzle next to the drillable wall you got the other activator behind. Edit: Still took me +45 minutes of running around to figure out, and I agree it sucks.
I think the exploring the map parts would be fine if there were some kind of indicator or guide to at least put you in the right direction, so you’re not spending hours combing every part of the map looking for a single driller hidden off the main path in a non obvious position, perhaps something like the data clouds or an ability that shows you nearby puzzle pieces
For such an overpowered mechanic they did a really good job restricting you. I still think the Jammer is single-handedly the most overpowered tool cause it doesn't require any power source to activate in the first place. Also you kept wondering if you can open multiple doors and the activators tell you at the bottom how many doors you open. Still an overall cool mechanic. Yeah, I think most people would agree. Hide and Seek is not a good puzzle mechanic. Yes the map is very pretty, but to look into every single nook and cranny is just tedious and becomes even more tedious the larger the map is. Hide and Seek is fun, just not in this context.
I think the hide and seek is worse due to the hiding spots being small and uninviting rather than the size of the map. Many of the corners hiding things look like dead ends rather than one that continues towards something which is what makes them truly infuriating in my opinion.
ok these overworld puzzle area huge dissapoitnment 2 fixes i can think off. 1. ,fast travel to solve puzzle, doesnt even need a map just a UI with 1-10 and the 2 secret dots 2. your companions help you if you did the first step. f.e. you light the blue recipticle. someone says: "hey i remember in puzzle X i saw behind it a blue gate that couldnt be actived, cant possibly be connected to this blue recipticle... " and when you get the driller: "a driller.. mhh i swear i saw somewhere in this area a drillable wall that was out of place" maybe better dialogue but you get the point
But imagine someone knowing about the gates and walls and would then just be mad the NPCs are not letting you figure it out and just spoon feeding intel of where to start and stuff.. like I'd be mad if I didn't even know there was a gate and a random NPC decided "hey yeah remember that thing you never saw? It's a secret, go there for a secret"
@@BaconNuke "look behind the waterfall" I get what you mean but its incompromisable with tylers problem. Either there exist hard secrets to find and there are no hints or there are. One could argue for a hint button somewhere that helps but thats a bit lazy.
@@BaconNukeIt could be an option to turn off. And it could be diagetic, maybe through the conversation right before you leave New Jerusalem for the first time
The puzzles are Intentionally easy. After all, ANY player is supposed to be able to finish the story! That’s why the more complicated puzzles were in a DLC in the first game!
Obviously the puzzles in this game are nowhere close to some of the pure puzzle games you’ve played, but the philosophy and story of this game more than make up for it in my opinion
The puzzles are prolly tuned down because they want more people to actually get through the game. Yes they could prolly make the puzzles more complex and harder, but that does limit how many people actually get through the game without googling all the answers.
They could make the meta puzzle actually meta and hard instead of finding hidden objects. You already have to search up the solution if you can't find the hidden objects
I very much agree that this game had a frustrating number of "Find the thing/pixel" puzzles. Easily the worst part of a great game, and where 50% of my time stuck on puzzles came from. Hopefully there's less of that in any DLCs that might come out.
Surprising how aliensrock didn't recognise this as wifi. Quite literally how some wifi work. Edit: it's also what I imagine a wireless radial power transmission to look like
Considering you don't care much for the story, you should come back for this somnodrome. There are some story important choices around it but attempting to use it would probably give most content for the audience.
i love puzzle games of all kinds and i actually really enjoy areas of puzzle games that require you to fully explore the area to find necessary tools or mechanics to solve larger scale issues. to me that is “cool” and “fun” and *is* a puzzle (rant at 34:27) , because if you were to stumble into it at an earlier time you’d be lead to wonder why that was placed there and what it could be applied to. your opinions do not dictate what is fun for everyone else. people need to stop gatekeeping puzzle games!! the gatekeeping is what ACTUALLY makes it unfun and uncool. this also can be applied so far as what you say you consider “easy” may actually be difficult for someone else, or vice versa. this game, to me, feels like one that puts its narrative at the forefront and the puzzles are a compliment and an aid to the storytelling. the puzzles are accessible to all, not just to those who only play puzzle games for difficulty’s sake.
It’s such a shame that these videos aren’t getting many views especially with all the effort you(aliens rock),Ben and Dan are putting into these amazing videos that have improved a lot from the already great videos a year ago.thanks for making every day better.
I find it quite relaxing with the puzzles being easier to follow and some people are mostly here for Tyler.Also it not being a great game is no fault of Tyler and his team especially with the extra long videos that still have editing throughout.
@@YungChitn but you're still here...?
@@YungChitnits a very fun game with great mechanics. They know how to make a hard puzzle game. For this game they are going to come out with a DLC using these mechanics with much harder puzzles. That way the casuals can complete the game and the puzzle masters looking for a challenge get their hard puzzle fix.
@@YungChitn difficulty is very subjective. All a puzzle comes down to is figuring out when to do what. “Challenge” is simply how many elements involved and how hidden are the steps. I found both this and Talos 1 to be very easy - only 1 or 2 puzzles from the DLC took more than a handful of minutes to figure out - but I’ve had a blast playing both.
A plus for the sequel is the sheer number of new elements we have to play with. The DLC has so much potential.
Only finding pleasure in “hard” puzzles is a pitiable way to play.
I blame the annoying androids. I skip half the vids to avoid having to listen to them.
Not noticing the Bubble connection icons but still getting the puzzle right every time is a very Tyler move.
He didn't even notice white icons indicating what is in the range of the activator while holding it, judging by his questions "is that in range?"
Yup, sometimes he's really good at looking past stuff.
im so glad this isnt patreon exclusive
don't jinx it
Yes please don’t
Maybe the DLC
Everyone I'd happy that it free to watch
@@avasam06hope not
This new mechanic is sick. If we can make our own puzzles,this mechanic is probably gonna be used a lot
Those puzzles probably also have pixel perfect placement
@@dzaki8331 Oh god, I do not want to imagine the kinda puzzles that would be created.
"Um, actually, you moved the fifth device not perfectly at the edge of the fourth, meaning your 20-long chain of devices does not reach the barrier, failing the puzzle."
Its a simple peice to make a puzzle with, its easy to use with a simple on and off state, and its easy to create artificial difficulty by making exact placement necessary. Personally i think the most interesting peice weve seen so far is either the clones or the gravshifter, and i would love to see a puzzle with both elements, as there are so many possibilities when working with other you's in different orientations. Also i feel like the blue gates themselves could be a decent tool, similar to the hard light bridges from portal maybe, being a blue surface that prevents objects and signals from going through, all itd need is to be moveable somehow and youve got yourself a working mobility mechanic. The game borrows so much from portal already, with the cubes, buttons, laser imputs and outputs, drillers, the beam from the gravity thing, the fans (launch pads), even the way the blue and purple gates work, are all examples, so why not go ahead and borrow the other features they missed?
The one thing good I can say about the star puzzle is that using the activator to turn on the statue is clever as hell. Other than that, it just feels like looking aimlessly for the stuff. I looked up two guides and neither had the intended solution.
It took me close to an hour, _scouring_ the level, until I finally found the driller. Luckily I hadn’t yet found the angle for the connector so I was using photo mode to get a bird’s eye of level 4 and happened to spot the hidden gate.
What did the guides say? Also.. "looking aimlessly".. when you are kickstarted via.. going around a corner.. like did lots of people just not explore?! Like you see a gate and are like "oh I can use the thing inside the puzzle to turn it off" (btw that is much better than the hidden compartment from last time since it isn't *inside* where you assume there isn't anything new) and then get a drill and are like "okay look for a drill wall" and thus look around for a vantage point, see it, get the activator and then see the statue has no receiver and piece it together..
Like people enjoy "Meta puzzles" yet this game seems to make people not enjoy the same concept?
It does look like there is a hint to finding the driller, because the UI shows what elements you are going to activate, but the issue is that the MAJORITY of people won’t notice the extra gate icon you get when standing in that corner.
But for the wall you need to drill, yeah that’s just “notice the metal wall in a very mountainous area”.
@@BaconNukethe lesson we get from this game is that environmental puzzles need to have a lot of cues in the environment to make them enjoyable and this game tries to completely hide it from the player, the witness teaches us very well how to hide environmental puzzles but still giving a lot of cues to make the player curious and thus make the completion rewarding, this game also did this very well in a lot of areas
@@F3XTAt least half of the environmental puzzles in The Witness are like 10 times worse than this.
Definately should come back for that chair in the lab before the end. It's easily the best sequence in the game.
I'd love to see Melville lose her shit again because of it
He can't interact with the "chair", because of the choices he made (and ignoring Social Media in-game).
Huh. I guess that makes sense. I didn't know that was missable due to player actions.
Him missing that is really sad. One of the best scenes in the game.
He also doesn't realize that the social media and dialogue choices is how the game in general decides between the 3 different endings for the city. Him completely ignoring all of that will probably make him get the boring ending there. He might not even get any of the three main endings for it and get the one where you don't even get an achievement? But not sure
@@sinom So you're saying we need to point this out so we can see the other endings?
In this star puzzle, I had the "huh" moments for both the drillable wall and the activator randomly activating 2 doors, so I had the intended experience with it. IMO the driller was in a well hidden spot and I would put it closer to a spot where you could see an extra door in the UI and it's not in a corner of a room
I first noticed the jammer could be taken out of level 7 (I think) and was questioning whether that was intended. Only once I opened that blue gate I noticed the activator radiating through the wall.
I can understand Tyler's frustration with the Pandora puzzle here. When I was playing the game myself, I wandered a lot taking in most of the scenery, (also looking for those bikes) and I stumbled across the drill wall before finding the Pandora puzzle. I guessed it had a use for a meta puzzle then spent 30 more minutes looking around, found Pandora's statue, and was even more confused. It took me 20 more minutes of looking only to find the driller when I was looking at every corner for a clue. 15 more minutes of walking to locate the drill wall and bring back the activator to the Pandora statue. Finding the wall and having some clue to go off of was nice, but the following hour of trying to even figure out how It would be opened was really draining. It gave me a sense of relief that I was finally done with it rather than a sense of accomplishment that I was able to figure it out.
I really enjoy the exploration that this game has and the beautiful locations that these puzzles are found in, but some of them are a bit too much, like the small outpost on north-1 that had a Trevor voice log. While it's nice that so much of the map is available to get to and explore, having too much can definitely hurt the experience.
I like how Tyler has no issue pointing out issues he has with a game and giving his opinion.
I couldnt agree more and I generally just look up solutions if I get stuck for too long.
Except in other games he's enjoyed the "meta puzzles" that require going between two corners on the map to get a collectible.. I think he is just big angry that he glossed over a bit of the map that would have caused the cascade of "oh okay a driller, look for the drill spot"
i agree, and i think the devs appreciate it too. feedback from a puzzle game connoisseur like tyler is valuable, and thanks to his platform all of us tend to pitch in with our own praise and criticism as well.
@@BaconNuke well no because people are consistent. I think he just thinks the driller should have been more obvious.
Like some of the feedback he gave before.
Essentially if I had to guess, he'd say these meta puzzles work best when a puzzle has an extra element that isnt required for completing the main puzzle, but is required for the meta puzzle. Just to subtly hint it has more use than it lets on.
I have to agree with him on the fact that it just being *hidden behind a random wall* isnt clever or interesting.
@@BaconNukehe praised a lot of the star puzzles on this game, what he hates is things being intentionally hidden with no clear ways to find out about it, in this games case not even the map design tries to point to the place, it's very intentionally hidden from the player
@@Yipper64it’s not hidden at random though. There are logical connections for both of the “annoying” Pandora puzzles. Every Pandora puzzle has had its required elements be either very obvious or hidden reasonably close. It’s our own damn fault for running around the entire map, lol.
I for one would hate having an extra element inside a puzzle - at best it would be some curious object that never got used or confused me into trying to use it. At worst it would help me unknowingly cheese the puzzle and then I’d leave thinking it was meant for that puzzle.
We are puzzle solvers, Croteam are puzzle creators. I trust them to make good puzzle decisions. If they give me a red herring or send me on a wild goose chase, so be it. I laughed out loud when I finally found the driller after more than an hour running around and trying to get the driller out of level 3 😂
The first game also had switches and tools behind hidden bends to get some of the stars, not to mention the true easter eggs.
Trevor continuing to be that tragic character, confessing his love for Alex & in the same breath explains how futile any emotion is given their circumstances. Great storytelling right there.
About Pandora's Star, I really liked the activator solution for it. And it it wasn't such a chore to get an activator it could been a very nice aha moment when you realize how you need the activate that statue.
Also, in Talos Principle 1 there were a few search the map meta-puzzles. But the maps were way smaller in that game. So an hidden cube in one side of the map was easily carried to the other side (except the axe in the hub-world, that one needed to be carried way to much tbh).
yeah, i was thinking "oh, having a statue without a receptacle in the activator world is pretty cool" but having to do a big chain of find the thing to get an activator is a bit iffy at best - i think that the smartest thing they could have done is put a puzzle involving the bubble going through walls directly next to the statue that you could reach it from to heavily imply - along with it not having a receptacle - the solution to it
Give your editors a raise, I’m loving the goofy ass cutaways and obscure references. Great series btw
I'm only half-way through, does Tyler figure out that the UI is telling him what's within the Activator's bubble? I'ma find out
... No he did not lol
Also wow does he hate treasure hunts
Same (halfway through rn), was thinking how many times he was shifting it around checking for the exact spots
Considering he still hasn't noticed that same ui element for connectors dimming/graying if they don't have line of sight to their connections it doesn't surprise me.
Tyler doesn’t hate treasure hunts, he hates walking. Arbitrarily hidden treasure triggers his hatred of walking 😂
@@Scuuurbsthat reminds me of my experience with sea of thieves, i spent over an hour in the tutorial because the X on the map wasnt near the actual treasure, leading me to searching and digging aimlessly for something i couldnt possibly know was somewhere else without looking up a guide. Treasure hunt is a good name for dumb situations like these, just in tylers case the X just covers the entire map so he either has to dig aimlessly everywhere all over for a treasure he would never find on his own, or look up a guide.
@@jc_art_ well, put me in the category of “digs everywhere” because that’s what I did. And I had fun doing it. I know W2 like the back of my hand, and when I finally found the driller, I laughed because I felt so silly for not looking there sooner.
This isn't necessarily a defense of the Pandora star (especially since I had to look up the driller location myself after a lot of frustration), but I will point out that the metal wall is visible at 15:49 in this video. With the statue itself being a fun twist by having no receiver in the land of Activator puzzles and the wall being reasonably findable from the main path, I'd say the true problem of the star is the driller. As it is the driller is hard to find but easy to retrieve, but if it was easy to find and hard to retrieve then you'd know that you'd need to be on the lookout for a drillable wall and you'd have a (theoretically) fun puzzle in freeing the driller.
And the driller can be skipped by smuggling a blue activator out of Puzzle 6. The same goes for the Pandora Puzzle for South 3, smuggling can help there as well. Heck, even the North 3 Pandora Puzzle can be done by smuggling a connector out of Puzzle 4, which I did because I was a dumb-dumb who never saw the fixed RGB converter on top of a very conspicuous obelisk standing in the center of 3 puzzles.
I found the drillable wall first and bashed my head against a wall trying to find a driller. And then I looked up a guide. And the guide literally went "We have no idea what the intended solution for the puzzle is, but here is how you smuggle an activator out of a level"
That star puzzle really disappointed me as well. I saw the drillable wall while doing the normal puzzle route. I managed to exfiltrate a laser redirector out of a puzzle before I noticed that there was no receiver on the statue. I spent an hour or so running between puzzles trying to either get an activator or drill into the overworld. Super disappointed when I learned that the driller was not from a puzzle, but just hidden in a fold of a wall.
I think the star puzzles are at their best when they incorporate the puzzles rather than items hidden somewhere. Hope they do more of that in the dlc.
I found a guide that funny enough straight up said "We have no idea what the intended solution is, but here is how we smuggled stuff out of the level"
Kinda surprized how long the last puzzle took considering the box and a fan combo was featured a few puzzles ago.
I was screaming at my screen because I knew the solution was to use the box as a mule
Hey Tyler,
Just wanted to thank you for doing and uploading lets plays such as this.
It's not likely that I will be able to play this, as the specs are outside of my budget range.
So I get to enjoy the game, through your efforts.
Appreciate your work.
I have noticed something: The East side is Spring, the South side is Summer, the West side is Fall and the North side is Winter. Not sure if there's relevance in this, but it is something I've noticed.
interesting
I love how the bike bit is still going
long live the totally not a bike bike jokes.
Towards the end.....that's a lot like point-and-click adventures, you just randomly click over and over again in the hope that something happens.
Just wanted to thank you for continuing to upload this series, even though it seems you haven't been completely satisfied with the views the videos have been getting.
I've been hooked on watching and following along with you as you solve and unlock the story. What a beautiful and well-designed game.
in my playthrough, that last star puzzle really reminded me of what i hated the most in Talos Principle 1. all the stars that involved running around the map, checking every corner for the one hidden path to get an item to solve the star puzzle
Im only at 4:10 but charge keeper + activator seems like it just beats every level immediately.
I find it a bit sad a lot of mechanics are extremely underused. The game gives you a ton of mechanics, but will oftenly forget about them. When was the last time we saw an RGB converter? Switching bodies? Teleporters and gravity shifters are quite rare to see, although to a lesser extent. They had so many opportunities to get extremely funky with 3 dimensions once they introduced walking on walls, which they did for only 1 or 2 areas (with the sideways house being probably the most creative design, and it really is great). They seem to come up with really great mechanics that can offer so much versatility, variety and imagination, yet they massively underutilise them. So much wasted potential
This actually reminds me a lot of the Single Player mode of Portal 2, which was strongly focused on the story but the puzzles weren't of the same challenge as the original.
Portal 2 had the good puzzles in the Co-op mode.
I've heard that The Talos Principle 2 will have good puzzles in a DLC at some point.
The devs also want to add in a level editor, but it is difficult to achieve in the Unreal Engine.
No worries, they have explicitly said that they came up with many mind-bending puzzles with all the new mechanics, but decided to save those for the DLC.
@@Cklodar it's even more of a shame. If they have the capacity to make great and introcate puzzles, _and they even know it_ , why omit them from the base game?
@@methatis3013Because they want the game to be a wider success? Hard puzzles put off the majority of casual players, you know. Also kinda kills the flow of storytelling.
@@Cklodar clever and innovative puzzles don't need to be hard. Ill bring up the sideways house again. It is still the most memorable puzzle for me, yet it really isn't difficult. You don't need difficulty to make great puzzles, even Tyler said that few videos ago if Im not mistaken
Edit: also, harder puzzles didn't seem to put off players of Patrick's Parabox...
I love this series!!! Thank you Tyler for bringing us so much amazing content.
I love how the pathways are carved into the statues.
I feel like TTP2 had an amazing team on worl design and then just kind off added in the puzzles to give their exploration game some content.
It's been ages since I played 1, but yeah these puzzles don't seem as complicated as they probably should be for this point in the game.
Maybe they want it to be more accessible, but I think they've done okay at introducing mechanics.
I literally had a nightmare of talks principle ending
ITS TOO GOOD TO END WHYYYYYY
I think we have like 2-3 more videos for ttp2, depends on if he's gonna lump the pyramid in with the next one, with the gold puzzles, or have it be an independent video. (though it could be 4 if he scours for all Easter eggs)
the Talos and backpack hero are two of the best series you are already playing; there are many videos of backpack hero but none of them are as interesting as yours. I just wait all day so you upload your video
One thing I hated about the first game is the secret puzzles. I love secret puzzles, give me an extra challenge, but make it a damn puzzle and not a search expedition!
When I heard you talk very well about the first game, I always wondered what your opinion was on the expedition puzzles, and I’m glad I got to see that opinion over the last few episodes. It’s not fun; it just forces you to look in stupid places. The environment is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t wanna search around for 30 minutes to find hidden pieces behind hidden walls etc etc
I only like those types of puzzles when the place you have to look brings attention to itself. It has to really make you think "Why is this here?".
Well, to be fair the two “annoying” Pandora puzzles DO have a logical process to them - it’s just not a process many people will intuit, and those who don’t will inevitably become frustrated.
Also people these days just don’t have enough f’n patience. I spent an hour going everywhere before I found the driller and I had a fun time doing it and laughed out loud when photo mode saved my ass.
@@Scuuurbswhat is the logic behind the driller being hidden in an insanely obscure place behind a random wall at a random puzzle (of which there are 8)
@@methatis3013
1. It’s the same puzzle where you get the beam, so it makes the most sense to look carefully in that area.
2. The activator can pick up the gate outside, and you’ll see it on the UI. That’s why all the other doors nearby are gates instead of doors, so you’re more likely to notice the 2nd gate appear.
3. Id have to go back and check, but I’m pretty sure you can actually SEE the blue of the outside gate through the architecture while inside the puzzle.
I’ll admit I also checked all 8, tried climbing over statues and getting other object out of puzzles for over an hour. However, once I finally found it, the logical connections for how I should have found it were pretty clear.
The reason this didn’t frustrate me is, I _expect_ to get stuck, and I _choose_ where I want to look. It’s my fault for not seeing the clues. People are too quick to blame external factors for their own failings.
Imagine you activate the boxes and they start talking to you like the companion cube did in Portal.
I think searching for hidden elements can be fun, but the map here appears to be way too large for it to be feasible without any clues.
All stars are about exploration rather than puzzle solving. Follow a spirit, enter a code, locate a switch, or find the ingredients for a green laser. I actually enjoyed exploring this level because of the epic vistas.
No idea why you couldn't, but you should've been able to use that somnodrome. Some pretty interesting lore when interacting with it.
He just didn't see the palm reader to the right of it. You can see the blue on the right side of the screen when he's near it
@@Capzielath64I just played that part the other day and I’m pretty sure it was just a log of Athena saying she made a functioning model. It didn’t have anything to download.
You get in the chair via dialogue with the npc. He may have ruined his chances of using it by what choices he made earlier, idk.
I've heard that this Somnodrome is not interactable if you fried the previous one.
I know I fried the first one in my playthrough and could still use it@@tachrayonic2982
@@tachrayonic2982 Mine was interactable, so no idea what happened in Tyler's game
This is my favorite world in the game. Looks the coolest and IMO has the hardest puzzles.
I'm glad Tyler hated the pandora statue in this level as much as I did. I spent way too long looking for a driller that was hidden in a spot i never would have looked in, in a level that's already a huge pain to traverse.
34:05 Oh goddamit. This was the same shit I hated in the first game too. Having to look around big areas is one thing, but having to look around big areas for easily missable hidden corners and spots? Just a waste of time and doesn’t test my brainpower, just my patience
Again, spot on about the second star. I had even seen the drillable wall, and wasted so much time running around the zone and checking the levels that could reach it before looking it up and getting disappointed in the bad solution
with the right choices beforehand, its possible to use the functioning somnodrome
I'm taking the night shift at a funeral rn, never been so early to an aliensrock video
Tyler calling the activator the accumulator for most of this was throwing me off lol
I have to agree about the Pandora puzzle. When I played, I managed to figure out that you needed an activator, and knew it was hidden behind that drillable wall, but I gave up looking for the driller eventually. Such a bad idea for a puzzle. I thought games had moved past this time-wasting bullshit.
a mobile key is a really clever mechanic. Shame for the poandora puzzle, doing the step the activator has to be the receptacle was the puzzle and they marred it too much with unclear steps to get the activator needed.
It's funny how Tyler complains so hard about the "search for hidden items" puzzles when that was, like, every other secret puzzle in TTP 1. Not saying he's not allowed to be aggravated, it just seems like maybe the wrong franchise to bring up that complaint to.
"lets continue this reach around"
Such an amazing series tho! Good job
4:17
bro casually said reach around and thought we wouldn't notice
To me it feels like they tried to hard to avoid "reset conditions". By avoiding almost all of those, it seems hard to make something actually difficult, as you never need to look ahead, but can basically trial and error your way.
Damn, when Tyler doesn't enjoy something, he doesn't mince words! Makes for good feedback on what does and doesn't work for him though!
Damn, I was looking for Tyler’s reaction to the somnodrome sequence, he had a speech a couple videos ago quite reminiscent of what happens in there. Hopefully he comes back to it before completing the game but I don’t see what would make him turn back. :(
I have finished this entire game, and i can tell you, its amazing, what an experience of a game!
A new talos principle upload, my day is saved!
If they're hiding things like that jammer & the actuator, then they needed to figure out a way to give clues within the puzzle or on the statue you're trying to solve. Because it really seems like there was no way to figure that out without looking it up.
While it is easy to miss, you can notice the blue wall outside of the level either while holding the Activator or by looking out of a small window at the right angle. And the drillable wall with the Activator is in view when you just follow the path from puzzle to puzzle (6 to 7 IIRC). So while this puzzle can certainly be annoying, it definitely isn't as bad as the one in the south with the wall that opens when you clear the puzzle.
Huh, I’m sure we saw this mechanic a few labs back. I wonder why it’s only coming up now? Like, shouldn’t it have been in the previous area instead of wherever it was?
At @11:34 would I be the only one who saw someone run left behind the gate?
It certainly looks that way at first glance! If you slow the video you can see it is just the activators range indicator though...
Indeed! That glance made me rewind it multiple times until I found a good tag point to share it :)
This was the mechanic in the lab! The two bubbles chaining and opening the beams!
I really enjoyed the puzzles in the next area, excited to see what you think about them in the next episode.
You should go back to this area to try to use the somnodrone again
I am sure that you dont need the star puzzles to complete the game. So for just completionism sake you should look for It all over the map.
These maps are absolutely insane, and a massive step up from the previous game, i wonder if they used the same engine as Serious Sam 4, as this looks insanely good!
They used unreal engine 5
tyler continuing the reach around ;) @4:15
So disappointed you didn't get to use the real somnodrone!
30:30 Oooooh, somebody has a cruuuuuush!
It's fun we see that leadership didn't come naturally to Byron, but immediately after Alcatraz called him a "natural leader". Really shows the small cracks in "truth" that come from biased perspective.
I never found that driller. You can just steal an activator from the puzzle next to the drillable wall you got the other activator behind.
Edit: Still took me +45 minutes of running around to figure out, and I agree it sucks.
Loving this series it seems like a major upgrade graphics and development wise from talos 1.
Ben's Comments:
If an Accumulator is a mobile Emitter, then an Activator is a mobile Receiver!
I stare at the clock waiting every day.
You are wildly good at puzzles
fr man I was stuck in "Slide" for nearly an hour
I think the exploring the map parts would be fine if there were some kind of indicator or guide to at least put you in the right direction, so you’re not spending hours combing every part of the map looking for a single driller hidden off the main path in a non obvious position, perhaps something like the data clouds or an ability that shows you nearby puzzle pieces
RIP Somnodrome sidequest.
the meta puzzles are really starting to go down the shitter
This game gave me motion sickness something fierce but the final puzzlequest was awesome!
Level scenery design sure is impressive in this game
Nooo does he not use the palm reader of the psychedelic machine???
Missing out on the single best character in the game... What a shame.
Tunnel vision on the chair be real
34:05 They seriously pulled that shit again...?
you could actually steal an activator from a certain level for the star. I never found the extra driller to solve this one.
For such an overpowered mechanic they did a really good job restricting you. I still think the Jammer is single-handedly the most overpowered tool cause it doesn't require any power source to activate in the first place. Also you kept wondering if you can open multiple doors and the activators tell you at the bottom how many doors you open. Still an overall cool mechanic.
Yeah, I think most people would agree. Hide and Seek is not a good puzzle mechanic. Yes the map is very pretty, but to look into every single nook and cranny is just tedious and becomes even more tedious the larger the map is. Hide and Seek is fun, just not in this context.
I think the hide and seek is worse due to the hiding spots being small and uninviting rather than the size of the map. Many of the corners hiding things look like dead ends rather than one that continues towards something which is what makes them truly infuriating in my opinion.
ok these overworld puzzle area huge dissapoitnment
2 fixes i can think off.
1. ,fast travel to solve puzzle, doesnt even need a map just a UI with 1-10 and the 2 secret dots
2. your companions help you if you did the first step. f.e. you light the blue recipticle. someone says: "hey i remember in puzzle X i saw behind it a blue gate that couldnt be actived, cant possibly be connected to this blue recipticle... "
and when you get the driller: "a driller.. mhh i swear i saw somewhere in this area a drillable wall that was out of place"
maybe better dialogue but you get the point
But imagine someone knowing about the gates and walls and would then just be mad the NPCs are not letting you figure it out and just spoon feeding intel of where to start and stuff.. like I'd be mad if I didn't even know there was a gate and a random NPC decided "hey yeah remember that thing you never saw? It's a secret, go there for a secret"
@@BaconNuke "look behind the waterfall"
I get what you mean but its incompromisable with tylers problem.
Either there exist hard secrets to find and there are no hints or there are.
One could argue for a hint button somewhere that helps but thats a bit lazy.
@@BaconNukeIt could be an option to turn off. And it could be diagetic, maybe through the conversation right before you leave New Jerusalem for the first time
Bro, I can't stop thinking about ball bearings even until now bruh.
The puzzles are Intentionally easy. After all, ANY player is supposed to be able to finish the story! That’s why the more complicated puzzles were in a DLC in the first game!
I think the mechanics in the labs are what's going to be shown in the NEXT area
if it was just "get an activator outside of a puzzle" it would have been perfect
Obviously the puzzles in this game are nowhere close to some of the pure puzzle games you’ve played, but the philosophy and story of this game more than make up for it in my opinion
The puzzles are prolly tuned down because they want more people to actually get through the game. Yes they could prolly make the puzzles more complex and harder, but that does limit how many people actually get through the game without googling all the answers.
Patrick's parabox has some pretty tough puzzles, but a very large percentage of people completed it
They could make the meta puzzle actually meta and hard instead of finding hidden objects. You already have to search up the solution if you can't find the hidden objects
ah yes, so many accumulators in this vid
Bad drinking game: take a shot every time he calls the new mechanic an accumulator
I very much agree that this game had a frustrating number of "Find the thing/pixel" puzzles. Easily the worst part of a great game, and where 50% of my time stuck on puzzles came from. Hopefully there's less of that in any DLCs that might come out.
calls the activator accumulator 23:40
and proceeds to do so for the rest of the video
The mayor sounds like Julius Caesar from Monty Python.
Surprising how aliensrock didn't recognise this as wifi. Quite literally how some wifi work.
Edit: it's also what I imagine a wireless radial power transmission to look like
THANKS for continuing the serieseven tho it doesent recieve as many views as it deserves
Considering you don't care much for the story, you should come back for this somnodrome. There are some story important choices around it but attempting to use it would probably give most content for the audience.
i love puzzle games of all kinds and i actually really enjoy areas of puzzle games that require you to fully explore the area to find necessary tools or mechanics to solve larger scale issues. to me that is “cool” and “fun” and *is* a puzzle (rant at 34:27) , because if you were to stumble into it at an earlier time you’d be lead to wonder why that was placed there and what it could be applied to. your opinions do not dictate what is fun for everyone else. people need to stop gatekeeping puzzle games!! the gatekeeping is what ACTUALLY makes it unfun and uncool. this also can be applied so far as what you say you consider “easy” may actually be difficult for someone else, or vice versa. this game, to me, feels like one that puts its narrative at the forefront and the puzzles are a compliment and an aid to the storytelling. the puzzles are accessible to all, not just to those who only play puzzle games for difficulty’s sake.
Wait, did Tyler play through the entire game without learning that symbols show up when holding a device to inform you what it is powering?
Once again, i ignored the way the game puts hidden objects so you get the star, and instead smuggled an activator out of a puzzle
A speed run for this game might be interesting
Melville is the GOAT
That fan was me fr.