What Makes a Remaster Matter? Inside The Talos Principle: Reawakened
The Talos Principle: Reawakened · published
Wow! The Talos Principle: Reawakened launches this week. It's been an incredible journey to this point. One that we wanted to take for several years now, because we felt like The Talos Principle - even if it stands the test of time - deserves to become something more.
When we set out to create Reawakened, we asked ourselves: what would we like to see in a remastered game, if we were buying one? An updated version of the game, sure, but what else makes this kind of project exciting? Behind-the-scenes commentaries and the Puzzle Editor were one answer, but what about returning to the world and story of the game itself? What about more puzzles? Another story to join the main game and Road to Gehenna?
That's where In the Beginning comes in.
We considered a variety of approaches to the story, but ultimately the Talos series has always been about character-driven storytelling, and it made the most sense to return to two of our main characters. In the Beginning is a glimpse of life at the Institute for Applied Noematics in the last days of the old world, a different look at Alexandra Drennan and the AI that would eventually become Elohim.
There are no great plot revelations or expositions of "lore" here; it's an intimate character piece about people facing the end and doing their best for the sake of the future, told through the first test run of the Simulation. After all, philosophy is the question of how to live a good life - even if that life is about to end.
Croteam has always had an amazing fan and modding community, and more than a few modders have actually joined the ranks of Croteam over the years. So to create the new puzzles, we decided to invite some of our most talented fans to contribute their designs - under the guidance of the original designers, of course, who selected and adjusted the puzzles to the needs of the game.
And yes, if you're wondering: everybody got paid for their work. Stay tuned for more on that tomorrow.