I’m a big fan of Croteam’s 2014 puzzle game The Talos Principle, and so I think the new Mind-Bending Masterpieces collection at Humble Bundle is well worth some attention. It includes The Talos Principle and an impressive collection of other hit puzzle games including The Witness and Superliminal for just $10.
The Talos Principle is set in humanity’s far future, except humanity has wiped itself out and all that remains are the robots we left behind to carry on our legacy. First, though, they must undergo a gauntlet of puzzles, the idea being that “play” is a universal element of the human experience, all while learning about the last days of organic human life on Earth and hopefully absorbing the lessons therein.
It’s a very clever way to tie together an otherwise disparate collection of physics and logic puzzles, and I enjoyed the way the narrative unfolded as much as I liked solving the brainteasers—The Talos Principle strikes just the right balance of making me feel smart without requiring me to actually be smart.
It normally goes for $30 on Steam, so the $10 price for this Humble Bundle is a solid deal even without the other games it contains. But it does contain them—you’ll also get Superliminal, Manifold Garden, The Pedestrian, and The Witness, all standout puzzlers in their own right.
For $5 more, you can add a couple more games to the mix: Patrick’s Parabox, a wonderful Sokoban-style box pusher, and Taiji, which I haven’t played and so can’t comment on—but it’s got 93% positive reviews on Steam, so that’s definitely a good reference.
The Talos Principle is the big hook in this bundle for me, in case that wasn’t clear already, but all of the games in it go for more than $15 at regular price, so it’s hard to go wrong no matter which one you dig the most. Consider it a two-thumbs-up recommendation from me, and you’ve got one week to pick it up: The Mind-Bending Masterpieces Humble Bundle will be live until March 1.