The Most Underrated Video Game of the Last Decade 

Talos 1 was, to me, less of a game and more of an existential experience. I can't put into words how I felt playing it and reading the terminals, its special to me.

I love how disobedience is a running theme in the series, much like how it is in many ancient creation myths.

I love everything about the game, but the thing that catch me was the feeling of calm and loneliness.. it make me remember myst. Another gem of a game.

Both Psychonauts games got railed by underwhelming sales and I'll never not be upset about it.

Talos Principle series is a game that I will never forget. It was my game of the year when it first came out. The announcement of the second game had me questioning how it was going to happen. Talos Principle 2 did not disappoint. It feels so surreal to see the fruits of labor from the efforts humanity made from the story of Talos 1, come to complete fruition. Absolutely love where the writing went and of course the solid game play. These games are masterpieces and I push them to everyone I talk to. They need to be experienced.

Talos Principle 2 was my first ever pre-order. And thankfully i didnt regret it. It was amazing. I even bought the digital artbook and soundtrack to further support the devs. I spent first 3-4 hours just running around New Jerusalem talking to all the robots. It was so refreshing to have all the voiced characters, i loved it. Thank you for this video. This game needs more love, its so differernt from the 1st game and that's what makes it special. The 1st game was about self, while the 2nd is more about society and our role in it.

Talos 2, BG3, DOOM Eternal, and Elden Ring are the 4 S+ tier games of this decade so far. Talos 2 is a technical and game design marvel, BG 3 is the best RPG ever, DOOM Eternal has the best combat system ever put inside a game, and Elden Ring is the peak of open world design.

Shortly after The Game Awards, I left a comment on their Discord mentioning that this game deserved to be there. Someone replied that it's already in our homes, which is what truly matters.

This game is something else, I played the first one and its DLC and it was brilliant, but now that I am playing the second one is on another level, I didn't think it was possible for them to deliver a sequel with this quality but they did, I was losing hope in humanity, but with this game my faith was restored, it's good to see that you are one of the few people who played this game.

Talos Principle is very special it's an incredible experience both for gameplay and story/atmosphere

Talos Principle is the most beautiful gaming experience I've ever had - the sequel was purchased on Day 1, but I'm still waiting for the right time to really just relax and enjoy.

Another fantastic video, I think I will give both games a try. You always justify our support of you, thanks for your own optimism and insight.

Leaving a comment for visibility and because I want to commend you for this video. You did an awesome job discussing this amazing, underrated game. The Talos Principle 1 and 2 are both some of my favorite gaming experiences over the past year and I would recommend them to anyone who likes games and thought provoking narratives. The first game is such a vibe, too. The Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greek/Roman architecture and setting is such an interesting atmosphere for the puzzles and contrasts the modern technology that is used throughout the game.

I love original TALOS... as much as this sequel answered many of the questions of the first one, other dilemmas emerged that might have answers in another sequel. I love so much The Talos Principle franchise, not only from a game or philosophy perspective, but it is an experience that won't be repeated. Thank you for this amazing video.

I loved the first game and its incredible music. I had given up hope that we would ever get a sequel. Then out of nowhere like prometheus, it suddenly arrived. Loved the puzzles, especially the world puzzles. And a very interesting continuation of the story and philosophical discussions. It makes me sad it got burried in all the mainstream games. It deserves so much more.

I’d love a part 2. This series sounds incredible!

I love your videos dude, would love to see a part 2 to further explore the topic and the game !

Ôkami, kagerô deception 2 (+ trapt), drakan are criminally underrated I'd say.

I definitely would love to see a part two of this video (assuming it's worth it to you Max) The philosophical concepts explored in this video and the Silent Hill series on your channel really are helping me come to terms with the validity of my existence. It most definitely helps with the existentialism and makes me feel less alone at the end of the day.

Part two please! Also, thank you for introducing the game to me! I played both games after watching your video about TP1.

I quit gaming years ago, but watching your videos gets me the same feeling of playing, accompanied with lots of food for thought, which is my preference nowadays. Awesome job as always, greetings from Argentina 👌🏻✨🔥

When you said it is basically the puzzles from Portal (2) combined with the phylosophical depth of SOMA, my whole body shivered and my eyes teared up! Fantastic (and very accuracte) description for such a great game which is The Talos Principle.

Thalos Principle is one of the games that really cannot be forgotten once you truly experience it. I still remember expecting a simple puzzle game and catching myself philosophically challenged in a discussion. I remember one RU-vid creator making a video with other creators with a task of picking one game to represent the humanity. I couldn't think of a better game than Thalos Principle

I didn't even know there WAS a sequel... which probably didn't help. I'll remedy my error immediately.

Puzzle games like The Witness, Talos Principle 1 & 2 are masterpieces, but we cant deny the fact puzzle is a niche genre in gaming, yet I like to recommend these types of games whener I get a chance, such underrated gems.

only negative i can say about Talos Principle II is that puzzles are too easy compared to the first one. Would love to spend more time solving them, unfortunatelly I could count challenging ones on one hand. I hope for a DLC wtih harder ones as was for the first game. Both games are underrated, great, fun to play and I absolutely love the concept of semi-corrupted data with text that player have to translate for himself. I still remember scanning every QR code in the first game just to check if the in game translation is accurate and complete :)

Thanks for the amazing video as always man! Love hearing your analysis on anything philosophy lol

Hey friend, love your videos. I just want to put out there that without your videos I wouldn't be exposed to a lot of these video games, and in many of the cases I don't have the equipment to play them. Please don't be afraid to spoil anything, I love the way you paint a narrative.

Loved this, of course we need that part 2 video.

Man, I'm aghast that this game only sold 240,000 copies! I was in the same boat, where I was excited that a sequel was coming out, but I was unsure how they could build upon it. And it went above and beyond in every aspect compared to the first one.

I definitely was apprehensive of a sequel to the first game and I had no idea how they would follow up on its story but I was so impressed by how the second game handled it. I would love to hear you talk about it more Max.

I still need to play this. It’s on my backlog. It’s funny how you mentioned SMT - because I’d still put Digital Devil Saga as one of my top underrated games of all time. Especially since you have mentioned the philosophical implications of the nature of consciousness.

The Talos Principle was already one of my favorite games of all time. The Talos Principle 2 is my absolute *favorite* game of all time. It gave me a faith in humanity I had never felt. The different perspectives of the cast constantly kept me thinking, kept me reevaluating my principles and reconsidering my values. Every single one of the main cast are some of my favorite characters ever, especially Byron and Yaqut. The puzzles were engaging in the extreme, never did I have a dull moment solving any of them. It arrived during a less-than-great time of my life and made me weep real tears of hope as I realized that life really could be beautiful, that life was worth living, that the world was worth improving, that people were worth believing in. That sheer optimism was something I desperately needed, and I hope to carry that with me until my dying breath. One line Prometheus says after getting one of his stars stuck with me after the credits rolled. It went something like this: "Not everything needs to be balanced. When weighing good against evil, put your thumb on the scale."

I love that you mentioned Soma as well. I had played TP1 but didn't finish it and last week purchased both TP1 and 2 because it's been on my mind for years because I've got played anything like it since.

I can’t wait to play this one. Great job covering it 😎

Liking and saving this one for later as i haven't finished Talos2 yet😢. Talos 1 will forever be the pinnacle gaming experience in my heart, all the way up there with bloodborne and the playdead games... It may even be top1 because it's one of the rare games that embodies so much hope, rather than painting a hellscape to invoke contemplation.

I was so excited to see you doing a Talos Principle 2 video, since I just finished the game myself a little over a week ago. I really don't get where you're coming from saying that Athena set up the Goal as something to be disobeyed. They make it very clear that Athena never meant for the plan to make 1000 humans to be a capital g "Goal", just something to aim for at the start of their society. The whole reason she left New Jerusalem was because other people had turned her into "The Leader" and that simple plan inti "The Goal," mythologizing her in the process. I'm pretty sure that in one of her logs she even says straight out that she never meant for it to be a stopping point.

Even to this day I play talos principal

7th playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3? Those are rookie numbers, son. You gotta bump those numbers up.

Absolutely fantastic video. Nice job once again Max! Would love a follow up.

Please make a part 2! Even though the games have been spoiled for me already, I'll be starting TP1 tonight!

With you covering this game Max I'm surprised you haven't made a video on The Witness yet. I highly recommend it if you haven't checked it out already

So glad you finally got a chance to play the sequel. I was sure you'd love it.

Thank you so much for making this video Max!

I ADORE TTP2. I was just scrolling through my RU-vid recommends when I saw a channel playing it ... WAIT WHAT?? THERE'S A SECOND GAME?? And within 30 seconds it was downloading. I distinctly remember the progress marker saying 25% and I genuinely got sad that there was only 75% left. That right there is how you know it's a fuckin' banger of a game. I love my philosophy robots so much! A friend whomst I hadn't spoken to in a while, when he saw I was playing it, he said "Y'know when I heard Yaqut's voice, I thought of you!" and that's just ... so neat.

Really love all your analysis !!! I’m not a gamer never have been but I am a huge fan of psychology and philosophy!! Thank you ! Very cool and defiantly gives me more intrigue about games and the intricacy involved !!

Thanks for spreading the good word about the Talos princible, lovee 1 & 2 ( even tho i wish the robot faces were more robotic & not so uncanny) Great stuff, keep it up

I started TTP 1 yesterday and today i stumble upon your video. :)

I remember this game. It reminds me The Witness. It's an abstract puzzle game.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is one of the best games that did not sell what it deserved. Master piece.

That's because you haven't played Panzer Dragoon Saga yet...I suppose that came out in the 90's though. Seriously, the story of Team Andromeda itself is interesting enough. Panzer Dragoon Saga is just melancholic in every aspect, including its creation.

TP2 turned out to be so incredibly human. I have so much to say about it! And you made a great point about TP2 putting everything from TP1 to the test. The topics of grief, love, family, friendship, humanity have been brought onto a whole new level in this game. It's so beautiful, it's so, so painfully human, everything they do. I think, despite the trouble they've gone through, humanity-as-seen-before should be proud of this new community.

Been meaning to check out Talos Principle.

I would love to see another video on Talos Principle 2!

You said yourself, you do not want the game to fall into obscurity.. Part two is inevitable

I think Lefthrasir’s existential monologues and speech manner is a hilarious nod to a german filmmaker Werner Herzog. "The Talos Principle" is an outstanding game series with immense depth, which will surely create more waves with time. They became one of my all-time favourites. Many thanks to Croteam and their writers!

Love The Talos Principle. Completed it on PC years ago and now have it on my Switch. Very relaxing with great puzzles and story. It's like spending time in a place out of time.

Ah, Talos Principle. Slightly less nauseous to play than The Witness, thanks to twiddling the options. But it wasn't enough to actually play. Ten minutes and I'd be suffering the rest of the day.

I adored both games but hey i also have Asperger's and LOVE solving puzzles as well. And the storyline added was engaging and mysterious. The mystery of how these structures got there, and the the different types of puzzles was great all the new mechanics were great. I love that they allowed you to go third person even though I never used it an engaging with other robots took away the loneliness the first game had. I have a routine, i sit down next to my cat, i put big bang theory on the laptop and i watch while i solve puzzles.

I LOVED this game. This and a game called Echo by Ultra Ultra (sadly defunct) but that game was heavily underrated, sadly.

I also wondered how a sequel could possibly work. I played TP2 on day one, and I was not just pleasantly surprised; I was honestly amazed. It's on par with the first game, and easily one of the best games I've ever played. And yet, it was half the price of a standard AAA game. But the most impressive thing about it to me is (spoilers below): That there is no villain in the story. No dark lord, no betrayals, no mysterious puppeteers operating behind the scenes, no hidden shame in the characters' past. Just life's problems and the difficulties of navigating them, with tense disagreements between friends. How fitting that a video game about robots learning to be human has the best portrayal of human experience that I've seen. And I don't think a game has made me sit and think the way TP2 did. Otherwise, the only things I didn't like were: 1) The lack of easter eggs. One of my favourite things in TP1 were the crazy things you'd find by "breaking" the map. There wasn't much of that in TP2. 2) The bridge puzzles. Not very fun in the first person, and far too many of them.

Damn you really know how to sell a game. I wanna play both of these now

the Talos Principle 2 was my GOT. It has the best narrative of any 2023 game by far

Throughly enjoyed both games and helped me remember my philosophy studies in college 😂. Also a great intro for people who haven’t taken any philosophy courses just to understand the atmosphere within debating and coming up with choices on their own. I know we have a dialogue wheel which kinda gives structured answers so I technically isn’t an original thought but it feels like you’re coming up with your own answer in a weird way. Here’s some other games that are sort of similar to this that I enjoy: The Turing test, The Witness, Return to Grace (not many puzzles), Pneuma Breath of Life, Deliver Us the moon, Deliver Us Mars, Chants of Sennaar, Transference, Observer, Observation, North

This game was a crazy experience for me just from the story and dialogue.. I gotta play it again and then the sequel next I'm very excited!

But isn't what Athena wanted, disobedience, the same thing as what Elohim wanted during the first game? He even said "You were always meant to disobey me." or something along those lines.

Love your content man. Keep it up. If i may, I strongly recommend a custom map (wad) for Doom called myhouse. You won't regret it.

Thanks for another awesome video! Looking forward to more

Wow, I'm impressed someone is talking about this game. I loved it, I'll do it all over again once I forget enough because it was a sublime experience.

I actually teared up by the end of your explanation. I hated SOMA for a long time, because I get into hopeless spirals enough as it is on my own thinking similarly to that game. But this is a treasured opposing hopeful philosophy only three other games (Dark Souls 1 & 3 Xenogears and SMT: Strange Journey) have given me. Thanks for bringing it light.

Crosscode.

Aw man an actual game on my wishlist, well off to "watch later" this video goes !

In robots with human-like conscious but near eternal life, there is both time needed to accept responsibility though introspection and insight to not make decisions that will have short term benefits as if the robot would not be there to face the consequences in the future.

I know it's not inherent, but will you ever talk about Beastars and his philosophy? I know, there are some parts really "manga", but the way that the characters are written and the situations that happens really made me think of the philosophical war between Aristotle (man is a social animal) and Hobbes/Plautus (man is a wolf against other wolwes/Homo homini lupus). I really liked the fact that instead of talking about a certain situation through the eyes of collectivity it use the eyes of single characters, with same situations explained with differents ideas, depending of who is under the spotlight. Anyway great video, The Talos Principle has got a special place in my heart, beside another game that "appears", Prey.

Well, thanks the first 2 minutes of this video, I bought The Talos Principle 1. I'm enjoying this game so much!!

Thank you for this video. Glad to see this game get the recognition it deserves.

Left a like, leaving aa comment, coming back after I've gone through the first one, thanks Matt!

I loved The Tales Principle, the puzzles are great and the philosophical texts are mind-blowing. I need to play the second game !

What music starts around 16:50? So familiar

I bought The Talos Principle 2 expecting more of the same, but the writing blew me away. This is the best writing and best dialogues that I have witnessed in any game, and I've been gaming since floppy disks. Puzzles not so much unfortunately, they are often confusing more than puzzling. And it looks gorgeous while running smoothly, making it the best UE5 showcase to this day in my book.

lol, I'm less than 10 seconds into the video, and I recognized The Talos Principle's music. I haven't played the second game yet, but that first game was ABSURDLY great, and few folks talk about it. Like one of the current top commenters says, Talos is an incredible experience, and every time I play it, it only grows in beauty. It is a living piece of art. I have never felt this way about any other media. To me, this game is more important than the Bible or other texts considered to be sacred. It is absurd. I'm pausing your video at 7 minutes in, so I can play Talos 2. Sorry, I'll come back later.

just bought the talos principle bundle thanks to you. will tackle it after dd2

I can't recall if youve ever done a playthrough and analysis of Arcanum, if Steamwork and Magic Obscura. It seems like you have but i could also just be imagining it as its right up your alley and i can think of a few things you would have to say about it. It has great free will choices for an older game and many options while offering a good story that goes from a steampunk noir detective story and introduces us to a civilization existing with the duality of alchemy/magic and the industial revolution.

I love sirius sam series , Talos Principle 1 and corteam as a developer. Didn't know Talos Principle 2's sales counts are this low. After waching the first 4 minutes of your video i decided to buy it. I hope 2024 will be a turning point for this game and more players find this game worth playing at least.

As a truly religious person, I LOVED this game. It made me think and question things, it never condescended or enforced ideas. Masterpiece.

Wow, I never heard of this series! The way you laid it all out in this video had me so interested the entire time! I hope you make a sequel to this video ❤🎉

I love talos that was the 1st game i beat in pc when i was 14. Made ne who i am today. I haven't gotten the chance the play the 2nd. But this got me hyped

Can't believe one of my favorite channels , talk about my favorite game which non of my friends played

I would love a part 2 on Talos 2. You captured my attitude toward the sequel announcement: enthused but apprehensive. How could they possibly follow Talos 1? And I was wildly surprised. It is even more ambitious than Talos 1 or the DLC and it delivers on it all. It seems almost impossible to cover all the aspects of how this game is exceptional. Every character has a genuinely distinct and identifiable 'voice', even the social-media posting characters with no voice lines. There's the balance-yet-imbalance that is set by the Entities [Prometheus / Pandora / Sphinx] - they stand as voices of optimism / pessimism / aporia, but also two always address you as "creature of clay" while Prometheus always calls you "son of man". There's more Straton to listen to. There's Trevor, sort of filling the Drennan role from the first game as a voice from inside the IAN group representing their goals, yet from a new angle. Every time I listened to a new Lifthrasir recording I thought "surely THIS time the contrarian won't surprise me anymore" and he got me every time, yet still came across as a consistent character. Yaqut philosophically grills you the hardest of anybody, and that's entirely because he himself is genuinely grappling with these things in real time. I almost didn't feel that much about until he showed up right afterward and made me struggle with it. Multiple social media posts are purely devoted to art criticism, totally disconnected from your quest, and are still thought provoking. Environment design is stunning. Every zone is like 3 times as large as the average zone in Talos 1 and manages to have a unique architectural style. Were you aware that, for Talos 1, Croteam decided to get Tom Jubert to write because of his writing on The Swapper, and then Jubert specifically asked to get help from Jonas Kyratzes to co-write because of a short little flash game called The Infinite Ocean? I just learned that recently from watching one of Croteam's interviews, and I remembered playing that game ages ago. It's incredible to consider how far that influence has come. Did you also hear (possibly a different interview) Kyratzes really wants to write a Talos 3 ??? At this point I simply believe in his wisdom. I noticed you included cinematics (and scenes from New Jerusalem) that I haven't seen, so you must have made choices / done endings that I didn't. I'm interested to know who Doge matched you with, and also to know if you had the foresight about the story branchy-ness (and the will to re-solve puzzles) to manually backup earlier save files in order that you could get other endings and other conversation interactions by replaying. Also whether you complete all the gold puzzles (for one kind of bonus), and all the star puzzles (for another). I can't say it enough. It's a truly ambitious game. And it delivers.

The Talos Principle was my all-time favorite game. The Talos Principle 2 now is. It's a brilliant game.

2nd part ? I'll take 3 and a half, maybe 5. This is a great analysis ❤

WE NEED A PART 2 THE MASSES DEMAND IT!!!

The Talos Principle is brilliant. Although, even though it's T rated, it certainly requires a college reading level in order to consume and comprehend it. Amazing puzzles as well! I'd like to meet the person who can complete the entire game and Gehenna without a guide. As a Christian, I have no problem at all with the game. I really enjoyed the thought provoking arguments on both Christianity, Atheism, and other religious subjects. Once I have a console to play Talos 2, I will absolutely dive right in.

While we are on the topic of underrated, this video should have 500k or more views. I've never even heard of this game series but you still managed to completely captivate me the entire length of the video.

I think you're mixing up underrated and underappreciated

We spend our entire lives learning how not to get burnt and how not to burn others

I tried giving the Talos Principle a try back in the day when it came out, my peewee brain couldn't do the puzzles lol!

I loved it, I'm playing it again right now after like 6 years The philosophical aspects of it, and the messages from Alexandra blew my mind

I think you'd appreciate the phylosophy of sentience in the HBO series of "Westworld." It too focuses on creating artificial intelligence with the capacity for growth more human than human.

I would like to see a part 2!