The Talos Principle is a philosophical puzzle game where you play as an android, though my description really doesn’t do it justice.  Considered one of the best obscure games of all time, you can read Cary’s review here.  I was fortunate enough to catch The Talos Principle on sale for roughly $5.99, and little did I know that it came with some DLC called Road to Gehenna.  The DLC doesn’t really offer any new scenery (in terms of theming, anyway) or mechanics (as if my brain could handle anything new), but there are four areas with, if I recall correctly, roughly four puzzles each (if you’re not including all the secrets).  This time around, you play as one of the Messengers, Uriel, and are tasked with freeing the androids trapped in a place called Gehenna.

First off, the puzzles in Gehenna were much more difficult than that of the base game, which was…good and bad.  Some puzzles were bigger and more interesting than those found in the main game.  For example, there was this rather unique one in the Egyptian section where this whole platform in the air can expand and contract depending on whether or not the fan was on, which was unlike anything else I had encountered prior.  On the other hand, this also meant that some puzzles could be frustratingly difficult for my apparently small brain.  As for what tools will be at your disposal, you’ll mainly be dealing with jammers, connectors, and fans.  Thankfully, I don’t remember too many puzzles where you needed to work with a recording of yourself (those always confused me), and I don’t believe any had you utilizing the portable platform.

It wouldn’t be The Talos Principle without some secrets, so as expected, the DLC also features 16 hidden stars, none of which I could find on my own without some, well…cheating.  Finding these unlocks a hidden world with even more challenging puzzles, which I also couldn’t solve without…you get the picture.  The extra content was most certainly appreciated, even if I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around it.

While I really enjoyed Gehenna, despite the more difficult puzzles, I would say the best thing that made it stand out from the main game was the story.  It’s still very philosophical, but instead of being completely alone, you’re rescuing these fellow androids from their cells at the end of every main puzzle.  And these guys have basically made their own little online society, where they can chat and tell stories and play games.  Reading their conversations, along with slowly climbing the ranks, was quite amusing, and although I enjoyed the puzzles more in the main game (because they were easier for my feeble brain), I enjoyed reading the posts of Gehenna’s residents more than I did the many philosophical articles from the base game, as interesting as they might have been.

There’s also a good deal of humor in this game, as some of the stories and games the androids have made can range from mildly amusing to totally absurd, such as the adventures of Jefferson Goldboom or the androids’ understanding of human beings, whom they refer to at one point as “food-processing machines”.  How unflattering!  As for the aforementioned games, I am referring to these silly text-based games, which I quite enjoyed, such as Underwater Knight Quest and a brief one about Serious Sam, the titular character from another series made by Croteam, which can be unlocked by finding a hidden floppy disk.  There are multiple of these, but so far, I have found two.

So if this sounds like your thing, the Road to Gehenna DLC sells for $14.99 and can take about 7-13 hours to complete, though as mentioned before, I got it alongside The Talos Principle as part of the Deluxe Edition on sale for $5.99, though it normally sells for $29.99.  The Talos Principle is available on PC, PS4, Switch, and XBox One.