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This post is by guest writer Hyung Lee.
Food for Thought
The Talos Principle is a thought provoking philosophical storyline played via a series of logical puzzles. It sounds great on paper, and the game is mostly on-point in execution. The conflict exists between the deep intelligent conversations in the game, and the simplicity of the obstacles, that much of the game felt like a chore to go through in-between the juicy tidbits of a rich background. The difficulty at the endgame does get turned up considerably (which unfortunately required a lot of time with pen and paper), and as with the theme of the game, you get to “decide” how your future is realized. Overall, it was a very rewarding experience and a fantastic display of storytelling that left me feeling smarter than when I started.
The 1 Hour Review
Many sites heralded the game as one of the best games of 2014 and the unanimous praise really did capture my interest for this game. I really didn’t have much more than that to go on since I avoid spoilers like punches to my face, but it was marketed as a puzzle game so it wasn’t a difficult choice for me to take the plunge into The Talos Principle.
With high expectations of the game quality yet zero expectations of the gameplay, I purchased the game on Steam and kicked off the game with giddy excitement.
The game started in a garden – where “I” woke up all alone from a pedestal. The serene and tranquil setting is quickly dispersed by the voice from above who is there as a guide, who has provided me with a world filled with challenges I must overcome to obtain eternal life. I love eternal life! Sign me up! The first hour was very disorienting. The background music clashed with the immersion and was quickly turned off, but the lack of ambient sounds and the awareness of an observer often gave me chills throughout the game. The “slow” walking speed I originally set to enjoy the scenic view and beautiful graphics was also set to “fast” as I uncovered the vast space which needed to be covered.
Challenges were logical puzzles utilizing on/off switches of various kinds, and were a familiar cousin to Portal games. You manipulate these switches in order to unlock the final barrier that is guarding the sigil (Tetris-like pieces to be used later). It is not necessarily a bad thing that the bulk of the gameplay would be simple mechanical exercises, but a tinge of disappointment definitely washed over me as I got the hang of the different variations. With hints turned off, this was also when I looked frantically to turn off the title of each zone which often gave away too much.
I appreciated the depth of intelligence and philosophy, and couldn’t wait to dive deeper into finding out the truth.
The story however, was a pleasant surprise. It makes you think twice about what thoughts or actions define a person, whether artificial beings that “live” and “think” are real (derived from the Greek character Talos), and the evolution of humanity with machinery. The game puts you in charge of figuring out the background — where you are, what you are, why you are there, and what has happened. The answers to these questions are hinted at throughout the land via a computer terminal that provides you with pieces of written history in a humorous, thoughtful manner. I appreciated the depth of intelligence and philosophy, and couldn’t wait to dive deeper into finding out the truth.
The 5 Hour Review
The excitement built up considerably during this segment as I started to figure out the environment. I never really got acclimated though to the seclusion and solitude, and the booming voice as well as screaming bots have made me jolt on a handful of occasions.
The exploration of the trek-able universe has also revealed the scope of the game during this time by hinting at the number of puzzles I must solve for that elusive eternal life. A clear purpose is also given to you as a gamer, and yet, conflicting messages are sent from above.
The story continued to engulf me in wonder and interest. Often I found myself staring at an email or a terminal, recalling discussions and passages about philosophy/AI and analyzing the “real” world as what it could have been. The terminal UI was a very interesting one too, and I would have loved it if it was fully functional instead of having only preset actions associated by my choices.
The 15 Hour Review
Welcome to the grind. The “ah-ha” moments you get from cleverly utilizing seemingly single-purpose mechanism were far too few and between, both in terms of the game universe, as well as puzzle solutions. Answers were slight variations of things you have already done, and the sprint key was depressed permanently (why isn’t there an option for this?) to get through the action as soon as possible. It was ironic that a game debating the ideas of purpose and fate had me simply going through the motions towards the final goal, but pushing through was my only real option.
It was extremely disappointing to realize the longest part of the game had the least amount of positive experience. Sure, it feels great to “solve”something, but you aren’t coming up with the solutions. What you are doing is applying a known solution in different situations, and the game became nothing but a test of mechanics. I understand you can only do so much with specialized tools and on-off switches, so the solutions can’t continue to be novel throughout the game, but it could have either been expanded via additional tools/usages, or through heavily cutting the number of puzzles with similar solutions.
Again, the highlight was the storyline. What I really looked forward to was my next session at a terminal — the “beep beep boop” that scopes me up like fish bait and getting excited at the 3-5 tidbits of a rich and dramatic backstory the game has in place for me. Puzzles were simple speed bumps to my next fix, and the chase kept me powering through. The downside was the preset answers, with some resulting in unintended responses, but it still was an exciting session every time.
The 20 Hour Review
The difficulty suddenly seemed to have been dialed to 11 during this phase. Many puzzles required me to physically draw out the environment and I longed for a bird’s eye view function. It took away from the game experience as I focused on capturing the layout and pondering on the solutions outside of the game. It was even tempting to use one of my secret weapons but I wanted to hold onto them until absolutely necessary.
I hadn’t even attempted to get all the optional and brain-boggling stars yet, finding only two coincidentally on my attempts to retrieve the sigils. I do appreciate the challenge and definitely was looking forward to figuring out a solution. Some seemed nearly impossible, foreshadowing that there might be a super-power waiting to be unlocked, and giving me hope that I can do more than picking things up.
Finally at around 20 hours, I was able to view two different endings. Mentally, I was too exhausted to go back and see if there’s a “best” ending by finishing all the side quests, or see if there really will be powers I can obtain. But for now, the journey is complete, filled with awe, surprise, fear, frustration, enlightenment, and a sense of pride.
While I still had a ton of questions running through my head during the final cutscene, it was with a satisfactory sigh that I moved on from The Talos Principle.
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