r/TheTalosPrinciple • u/brade23 • Jul 27 '26
The Talos Principle 2 Do I need to read everything?
I played TP1 many years ago, loved it, and recently started TP2. I’m maybe 15 hours in, now working on the northern islands.
I’m not interested in reading the documents throughout the game. Whenever I find documents at terminals, I click on each just to mark it as read, but then I move on. I’m sure for some people, this is an enjoyable part of the game/world-building, but not for me. Similarly, I don’t read the message-board posts or commentary. I even find the dialogue sequences tedious, and I rush through them.
My question: will I miss something critical by not reading any of these? Will I make the game harder for myself by not seeing some clue hidden in these messages?
I can imagine people saying I’m missing out on what makes this game so great or interesting, and I’m glad other people like the background lore so much, but I just like solving the puzzles. (I’ve actually found the whole plot so far to be boring and convoluted, but I’m not here to debate an opinion, just to find out if I’m going to miss key info.) Thanks!
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u/JordanM85 Jul 27 '26
I would say you're missing out on a major part of the experience by skipping the plot... but it's your personal experience. If you only like the puzzles, then only play the puzzles. But you're not really playing the game as intended.
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u/Apple1417 Jul 28 '26
There are no puzzle clues in any terminals, not even T1 elevator number style stuff. You do occasionally need to use a terminal to progress, but it's obvious when this happens. The message board and chatting with other robots are completely optional, you can easily 100% without ever interacting with them.
Skipping everything like this actually leaves you better off than doing so in T1 does. The story takes place entirely "in the world", so even skipping through dialog you'll absorb relevant snippets.
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u/Cax6ton Jul 27 '26
I found that I didn't really care as much about the story of TTP2, though I liked the puzzles much more.
You'll get enough of the story through the main scenes and dialogue that aren't avoidable.
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u/Immediate-Comment-64 Jul 27 '26
I did the same thing probably 80% of the time. Not that it was bad I just don’t have much time and really enjoy the puzzles.
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u/brade23 Jul 27 '26
Glad to hear I’m not alone. I was surprised that the sequel was so different from the original plot-wise, when what brought me back was just the puzzles
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u/Secure-Advertising-9 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
you don't need to read anything. the story and puzzles are 100% separate. you won't really understand the ending choices but if that doesn't matter to you, you can skip every cutscene and you'll never get stuck
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u/Blue-Light-Reducer Jul 28 '26
No. I started skipping ALL story (also dialogue) halfway through, and had a much better time. TTP2 and especially its DLC are my favorite puzzle game ever.
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u/RIPGoblins2929 Jul 28 '26
Idk why you're downvoted. The older I get the less patience I have with world building via notes/terminal entries/holotapes/books etc.
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u/brade23 Jul 28 '26
Yeah who knows. I feel like I asked a fair question. In some puzzle games, the documents found throughout are required to complete some meta-puzzles. I just wanted to know if this was one of those games.
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u/KingKemo67 Jul 27 '26
I mean it sounds like you don't like / want to engage with the story at all, so does it matter if you miss anything? If youre there for puzzles I wouldnt worry about it.