![]() For the most part, the puzzles are all fair, and the nonlinear nature of the game rewards those who attempt the more difficult puzzles first with visual demonstrations and hints toward earlier ones (such as noting the various objects that a jamming device can interact with, or illustrating where a hexahedron can be placed). Only rarely does The Talos Principle get too ambitious for its own good. Beyond the names of each room (some, like “Above It All,” are more helpful than others, like “The Four Chambers of Flying”), there are no instructions an early README found on a malfunctioning terminal states only that “The world doesn’t come with a manual figure it out.” But is Descartes’s assertion, “I think, therefore I am,” enough in a world of advanced A.I.? Or might we concede that given enough time, Watson might also learn to think outside the box in solving these 150-odd puzzles? Whereas The Stanley Parable didn’t feel enough like a game, Antichamber sometimes came across as too self-aware, and Portal’s serious testing chambers were at odds with its comic antagonist, The Talos Principle presents itself as philosophy in action. It’s a brilliant concept, and one that cleanly unites both the narrative choices and the puzzles. The Talos Principle, then, is a Turing test in reverse, with you (a human playing the part of a robot) attempting to convince the game (a robot playing the part of a human) that you are in fact more than a machine. Solving puzzles may demonstrate that you have “predictive capability” and “spatial awareness,” but the scattered text and audio logs question whether such feats demonstrate consciousness-and if not, if anything can. ![]() ![]() ![]() The content isn’t religious or preachy (it’s far more passively philosophical), but it does begin with your unnamed robotic protagonist awakening in a garden at the foot of a forbidden Babel-like tower, choosing between the booming instructions of the omnipresent Elohim and the serpentine suggestions of the Milton Library Assistant. Croteam’s The Talos Principle has an answer to the age-old question of “Why do we play games?” The answer, simple enough to understand, is that “They make us human.” The trick is that The Talos Principle then sets out to prove that point, crafting a first-person puzzler that’s bibilical both in terms of its epic story and 20-plus-hour playtime. ![]()
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