A remastered version of the original game, The Talos Principle: Reawakened, including both Road to Gehenna and a new chapter In the Beginning, along with a community level editor, is planned for release in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S.

[2][3] The player takes the role of a robot with a seemingly human consciousness[4] as they explore a number of environments that include over 120 puzzles.

[7] The puzzles require the player to collect tetromino-shaped "sigils" by navigating enclosed areas and overcoming obstacles within them.

The player's progress is limited by doors or other security systems that require the collection of a number of specific sigil pieces.

In addition to these puzzle elements, the player can explore the open environments to find computer terminals that include additional narrative and further puzzles, as well as signs from previous adventurers in the world in the form of QR codes left as graffiti on various walls, and holograms that once collected play audio recordings.

Within the computer terminals are news reports and personal logs of the last days of humanity, driven to extinction by a lethal virus that had been dormant in Earth's permafrost and released as a result of global warming.

One researcher, Alexandra Drennan, launched a companion "Extended Lifespan" program to create a new mechanical species that would carry on humanity's legacy, but this required the development of a worthy AI with great intelligence and free will for its completion, something she recognized would not occur until well after humanity's extinction.

Several texts discuss or are written by the fictional Straton of Stageira, a materialist Greek philosopher who in 260 BC pondered the nature of the mythical automaton Talos.

The Shepherd attempts to aid the android, knowing the ultimate goal of Extended Lifespan, while Samsara hinders its progress, believing the world of puzzles is all that now matters.

In the game's downloadable content Road to Gehenna (released on 23 July 2015), the player takes the role of one of Elohim's Messengers, Uriel.

Uriel is instructed by Elohim to free a number of other AIs, all of whom had been imprisoned in a portion of the computer's database called Gehenna.

With the simulation having served its purpose, the computer servers are shutting down, and Elohim wants Uriel to help these other AIs prepare for "ascension": uploading their knowledge and memories into the main plot's protagonist.

Uriel can observe the communication of the AIs through their makeshift message board, where they discuss the nature of Gehenna, as well as their understanding of humanity, which some of them try to express through prose and interactive fiction.

[13] Croteam used an array of automated and in-place tools to help rapidly design, debug, and test the game for playability.

Overall, Croteam estimates they logged about 15,000 hours with Bot before the release of the public test version, and expect to use similar techniques in future games.

Croteam appreciated Jubert's previous narrative work in The Swapper and contacted him, and he in turn brought Jonas Kyratzes to help him with his writing, being overburdened with other projects at the time.

Croteam regarded their setting as being part of an odd computer simulation that is "about robots and sentience and philosophy and God".

[16] Kyratzes also stated that he was fascinated by the Garden of Eden concept originating from the Bible and re-envisioned many times over in other works.

[17] According to Jubert, the works of science fiction author Philip K. Dick served as a significant influence to the motif of the game.

[18][19] The two were also brought on to help on the story for the expansion Road to Gehenna, though while sooner in the development process than the main game, still at a point where many of the puzzles had been completed.

[16] The Talos Principle was shown in Sony's E3 2014 presentation,[20] after which Time featured the game as one of its "favorite hidden gems from 2014's show".

[38] The PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and the virtual reality ports included the "Road to Gehenna" DLC as part of the package.

[39][31] A remastered version of the game, The Talos Principle: Reawakened, is planned for release in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

"[57] Praise was also given to the variation and ingenuity of the puzzles with one critic mentioned that "The variation and imagination in these puzzles is fantastic and the difficulty curve is one of the most finely crafted I have ever experienced..."[58] Chris Suellentrop of the New York Times praised the writing of the game by stating it was: "...one of the most literate and thoughtful games I’ve encountered".

Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft, wrote: "Finished The Talos Principle, and I award this piece of fleeting entertainment five points out of five.