To this day, I’m still fascinated that The Talos Principle, one of the best, most thought-provoking and revered puzzle games of the last few decades, came from the same minds that gave us the Serious Sam franchise, a series of games known for being… the absolute opposite of everything The Talos Principle represents. With that little anecdote out of the way, I was somewhat skeptical about Croteam wanting to remake their 2014 original in the shape of The Talos Principle: Reawakened. The Talos Principle still looks, runs and plays fine as is, so would there be enough in this package to justify its existence as a fully-fledged remake?

Everything in this picture looks 100% Ancient Greek. The vegetation, the marble arena, the 1982 mainframe…

The answer is yes, and I’m really impressed with the work put into this remake, but let me add some slight asterisks to this comment. For all intents and purposes, it’s the same game as before. The plot remains the same philosophical mind-bender regarding free will, conscience, and what makes a human being an actual human being. This also means that the puzzles are mostly the same, and that’s not exactly a bad thing. There was no need to exactly fix what wasn’t broken in the first place, as the original The Talos Principle featured a fantastic difficulty progression, especially in the sense that you weren’t forced to finish all puzzles in a linear fashion.

There are three main additions in The Talos Principle: Reawakened. The first one is pretty obvious: the visuals. Just like The Talos Principle 2, this remake runs on Unreal 5, allowing for a much more realistic art style, with phenomenal usage of colors and lighting perfectly contrasting with the game’s Greco-Roman architecture. Two visual modes are available, a Quality and a Performance variant, but given how this game doesn’t exactly require a buffed framerate, set it to Quality and enjoy the sights. This is a game you can absolutely play at a locked 30fps without an issue.

I love long walks on the beach, and to ponder about my existence on the beach.

Another inclusion is a puzzle editor, clearly made for people who are way more creative than I’ll ever be with this game, and a brand new expansion, named In The Beginning. As to be expected, it functions as a prologue of sorts, explaining the origins of the game’s environment, and how everything is still wrapped up by the end of it. I don’t want to explain more about it due to not wanting to spoil the plot and twists that The Talos Principle offers to the half dozen people who still haven’t played the original. If you’re part of the demographic, why not just grab this remake in the first place?

It’s just like Peach’s Castle… with just some 400% more philosophy.

The amount of new gameplay elements and improvements featured in The Talos Principle: Reawakened are just enough to warrant its existence as a fully-priced, full-fledged remake. Beautiful graphics, a brand new expansion, and a scenario editor to pretty much ensure that the game will have a near neverending supply of new levels to enjoy. I don’t exactly know if the full package is enough for die-hard fans to consider spending bucks on, but newcomers to the franchise should definitely give this remake a go. Even if the original Talos Principle remains fun and enjoyable to this day, there’s no denying that Reawakened is the best version ever released for this instant classic of a puzzler.

The Talos Principle: Reawakened is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of The Talos Principle: Reawakened was provided by the publisher.