![]() The game was released for the PS4 on 13 October 2015, bundled together with the DLC. His mission is to free the entities which have been imprisoned there. The player takes the role of Elohim's messenger, Uriel, on a quest through a hidden part of the simulation. This is interspersed with a disembodied voice calling itself Elohim that claims to be the creator/maintainer of the world (and you) while speaking remarks of an overtly religious bent, and a librarian program criticizing what Elohim says and arguing philosophy with you.Ī DLC expansion, Road To Gehenna, was released on July 23, 2015. In it, you are a robot exploring a series of ancient ruins, solving puzzles in order to collect the tetrominoes (referred to as sigils in-game) needed to unlock subsequent levels. But I’m going to follow this thing to its end, whether what awaits is enlightenment or simply more questions.The Talos Principle is a first-person puzzle game by Croteam, developers of the Serious Sam games. I don’t know what the answers to these questions are, and I’m not even sure the Talos Principle does, either. It wants you to ask questions of yourself, to want to think on these implicit questions while you’re slowly stumbling through its more explicitly positioned challenges. ![]() They’ll send you back to the start of the puzzle if you get too close.Īnd what is the self? What is consciousness? Is what I’m experiencing, what I’m typing right now, real? Or is it a digital construct intended to merely simulate the self? How can I prove either way is correct? These are questions rarely put forth by a game, this kind of self-reflexive Socratic dialog, and the questions posed by the Talos Principle are absolutely fascinating.Īfter spending a few hours in this strange world filled with brain-teasers and puzzles of several kinds, I’ve walked away more befuddled than I was going in. Messages of prior “players” line the walls, each one dealing with their own philosophical hang ups as they come to grips with this weird digitized world. There are hints of a cataclysmic event found in the different terminals. The drive to find out what these newly acquired keys will unlock is fierce, but the real carrot on the end of the proverbial stick is the fantastically written story. The tetrominoes, once collected, must be pieced together at special terminals to unlock gates or grant you new abilities. Each prize you earn is a piece of a key to a new implementation or area. Electronic jammers, light beams, fans, boxes and more must be utilized while you avoid turrets and roving sentries that are out to “kill” you–though they merely reset you to the beginning of the puzzle if you get caught. Each area has several individual rooms, and you have to manipulate a growing set of tools to make it to the puzzle piece waiting at the end of each one. The overall concept might be a bit heady, but the actual gameplay is very simplistically structured. And after playing for about three hours, I can’t wait to see how far this rabbit hole goes. The last thing I’d expect from the team behind a hyper-violent shooter was an introspective philosophical puzzler, but here we are. It’s the brainchild of Croteam (the studio behind first-person shooter throwback Serious Sam) and writers Tom Jubert (FTL, The Swapper) and Jonas Kyratzes (Infinite Ocean). This is the Talos Principle, and I have no idea what’s going on.Įach puzzle is distinct and tricky in its own way Its responses to my queries make me question my own replies, my own ideas on the concepts of personhood, and even whether or not this Elohim has my best interests in mind. A psychoanalysis informs me that my idea of consciousness is irreconcilable with the laws of physics. But the tower? Stay away.Ĭomputer terminals bleep and bloop to inform me a new message awaits. The rest of the world has been designed just for me. He assures me that these puzzles are here to challenge me, that all will be revealed in time. A booming voice overhead claiming to be Elohim (Hebrew for God) speaks to me, congratulating me on my new prize. I zip around, placing items, manipulating light beams, and finally, the puzzle piece is mine. ![]() I flit between pressure plates and electronic gate jammers, slowly making headway toward a floating tetromino, gated off in the distance. I stare at the quandary before me, its various tools strewn about in such a way as to be difficult to attain, and yet subtly instructing me on how to solve it. ![]()
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