The Talos Principle

Already tested on the original release platform almost a year ago, The Talos Principle went first from Android and, an expansion later, also reached the Sony console, enriched precisely by the recent DLC Road to Gehenna.

The title of Croteam comes in fact in a sumptuous Deluxe edition that includes both the original game, which can be completed in its main storyline in about twenty hours, as well as the full-bodied additional content lasting just under five hours, based on the events narrated in the plot original, but complementary and collateral to them.

For those who missed it at the time (here is our review, to which we refer you for all the more general evaluations on the game), The Talos Principle leads the player to play the role of an android with a semi-human consciousness that awakens and takes self-awareness in a heavenly, futuristic and dreamlike environment, where nature has taken over and the only manifestations of civilization are electronic terminals, complex puzzles and the mysterious ethereal voice of such an Elohim.

To understand what has happened to the world, the player will have to find out something about who he is and what is happening around him, in a fragile universe that seems to not always be exactly what it appears to be. By solving the puzzles organized by rooms that Elohim will propose, they will in fact earn seals, that is pieces of modular keys necessary to open doors capable of making progress towards new discoveries, exploring threatening and crumbling environments, but with their own mysterious poetics. In all this, the protagonist will also discover that Elohim claims to have built all these worlds for him, but that the highest floor of his dark tower, whose summit vanishes in gloomy stormy clouds, is forbidden and that he will not have to venture up there .

Needless to say, the Elohim tower will be the very last step of the course and it will be up to the player to choose whether to contravene Elohim's warnings or give way to human curiosity and need for knowledge.

The puzzles, the heart of the gameplay of The Talos Principle, are complex and of progressively increasing difficulty and increasingly complex composition, calling into question a number of elements to be used and with which to interact with each other, between speakers, reflectors of laser flows and energetic rays capable of opening plasma doors or of numbing drones or turrets: the latter will otherwise try to blow us up when we get close.

Despite the goodness of this component, the main content of the game, I must point out that, for my part, I found an annoying sensation of motion sickness capable of making it impossible for me to play sessions longer than forty minutes at a time.

As our Fabio Bortolotti suggested in his review of the PC edition of the game, it is in fact possible to switch the chosen view between the first and third person to avoid these unpleasant situations, but despite having played from the first minute always in the third person, there is no it was a way for me to get around this problem, perhaps also because of the alienating physics adopted by our avatar in some movements.

Fortunately, the controls are few and simple, with a leap only for particular situations and specific occasions and movements facilitated by the possibility of running using one of the DualShock 4's back buttons, so as to streamline the repetitive situations that certainly will not be missing in the puzzles anymore arduous. A little less fluid is the system for collecting, pointing and positioning the objects present in the rooms, which is immediately felt to have been designed for a mouse and only subsequently adapted to an analog stick. Aiming and grasping an object or connecting it to another in the course of work is not always so instinctive, due to hitboxes that are fairly small for each element that can be interacted on the screen, especially when it is the umpteenth time that we repeat the pattern and we are trying to replicate all as quickly as possible in search of a solution, which tends to create even more complex situations when it comes to relating to distant objects or to multiple elements close to each other.

Once this is removed, everything works as it should without any technical problem and the visual rendering of The Talos Principle is very satisfying, clean and resolute, with bright colors and fluid images that allow you to appreciate the characteristic setting in which Croteam wanted to drop the patrons of the its title. Between one puzzle and another to collect the precious seals, dedicated terminals will also allow you to venture into the details of the fate of humanity, so close, but so far throughout the duration of our stay in the game universe, coming across a slice of plot meticulously reconstructed almost in mockumentary style, through the imaginary testimonies of researchers engaged with artificial intelligence and with the prospect of the abyss in the future of the human race.

MODUS OPERANDI
I played The Talos Principle on my PlayStation 4 thanks to a code kindly provided by Croteam, spending a few hours admiring the environments, deciphering the indecipherable situations and elaborating rooms full of deadly puzzles on which I sometimes lose my mind, occasionally stopping at computer terminals to look for some further answers to the thousand questions that often the game brings to ask about what happens.

In the beginning was the Word. That's what the Bible says. It is the same in The Talos Principle puzzle game. We wake up in a garden that screams for ancient Greece with its columns, ornaments and buildings, but the first thing we hear is a voice. She describes herself as Elohim (Hebrew term for God) and poses as our creator. You can take that quite literally, because we control a robot.

Now, at Elohim's behest, we set out to pass a series of trials. The voice promises us immortality if we should master all of them. A robot that can become immortal? Does that also mean that he is alive?

The question of the meaning

The Talos Principle is not called that for nothing. Based on the Greek legend about the giant Talos, who was actually a bronze statue but was brought to life by a blood channel flowing through it, the title raises the question of whether we are ultimately just machines. Is there a distinction between man and machine? We are concerned with this and more during and even after the test.

On our journey through the world we keep finding voice messages from a scientist and computer terminals where we find mysterious e-mails. Some give us insights into philosophical ideas, others report on a research project that seems to be connected with us.

Now and then something or someone communicates with us via the computer and confronts us with philosophical questions. Is awareness enough to be considered a person? What about an artificial intelligence that thinks independently? Are we really free if we can do everything but a special tower is taboo?

The game never strains the news and the voice of the creator, but always gives us enough time to think for ourselves. Above all, it cleverly interweaves the philosophical theses with the storylines about the research project and the search for immortality and does not appear pseudoscientific. The different levels of the story keep us busy even beyond the game. As in real life, there is no right or wrong answer.

Trials for Immortality

The good thing about The Talos Principle is that it also works for anyone who just wants to puzzle. The over 100 puzzles can be enjoyed regardless of the sub-plot. In essence, every puzzle is about getting a seal stone. The way there is blocked by traps, energy barriers or drones. So that we can still get to our destination, we find equipment such as jammers and connectors along the way.

With the former we break energy barriers or paralyze enemy machines, with the latter we connect energy beams to open doors, for example. As the game progresses, the puzzles become more and more complex because we are constantly unlocking new puzzle elements and the levels make extensive use of them. The puzzles are pretty crisp towards the end. The tips function doesn't help either. Because it only helps us out when we find an image of another player in the world who has already solved the puzzle.

I think I see double

Later in the game, for example, we acquire the ability to record a doppelganger of ours at a terminal, almost like with a video recorder. Our goal now lies behind a series of barriers that can be deactivated partly with an energy beam and partly with simple pressure plates. So in the recording of robot one we switch off barrier one with a connector, put a box on the first pressure plate and place ourselves on the next.

Then we run back to the box and stop recording. As two robots, we now observe how the first barriers automatically open. The trick here is that all objects, i.e. the box and the connector, also double. So we get the last barriers open and reach the puzzle piece. A wonderfully satisfying feeling.

Exciting emptiness

The world seems static and empty, but it creates a mood that plays into the hands of the narrative part of the game, you inevitably feel a bit reminded of Myst . The soundtrack is also melancholy and supports the action appropriately, even if it has only a few tracks and little recognition value. Between the puzzles we move in quite free and quite uneventful areas. After all, we discover messages from other experimental robots. Or we can leave messages on the walls with paint ourselves, which other players can then read.

Because not all puzzles fit into one area, we travel from one temple to different areas. If we solve enough puzzles, we will open doors to two more scenarios with the stones we have earned. In addition to the Greek islands, it goes to ancient Egypt and a medieval world. Both are harmoniously designed and wonderfully staged, especially the crisp textures remain in our memory.

The truth is within us

All in all, The Talos Principle is entertaining both on the playful and on the narrative level. It combines a simple plot with philosophical theories without completely confusing non-specialists. Which conclusions we draw from this is up to us. The three different endings do not give definitive answers either. Just like philosophy.