The Talos Principle Review
The Talos Principle is a surprise in many ways.
For one, it comes from CroTeam, the developers behind Serious Sam; philosophical puzzle game is quite a change of pace (for a developer known for their fast-paced first person shooters). Secondly, it manages to not only be an excellent puzzle game, but also tackle philosophical themes in a way that isn't overly pretentious.
But before we delve into the deep, philosophical questions, let's talk about the game parts of this game. It revolves around you (a robot dude—or robodude—if you will) primarily picking up and placing objects to solve its many puzzles. Throughout the game, you unlock more and more of these objects, ranging from simple cubes to devices that record your actions, thus allowing you to cooperate with your past self. Naturally, this adds complexity to the puzzles, although I found that even in later sections of the game it only took a few minutes to figure out the more simple ones—even past the rooms meant to teach you the latest mechanics as they were introduced. Despite the occasional feeling of “Is that it?”, I still enjoyed my time with the game, and figuring out these puzzles was a satisfying experience.
The first prominent thing I noticed in the gameplay department was the sheer speed of movement; CroTeam might have switched up genres, but the serious speed of the Sam games is well and alive here. While I can't personally comment on the state of the speedrunning community of The Talos Principle, I would assume that this momentum makes it perfect for such things. In relation to speed running, I experienced very few glitches. The only one I can recall is when I was able to grab a jammer from the other side of a door and pull it through.
The overall presentation of the game is fantastic with a slick, customisable UI, excellent (if slightly repetitive) sound effects, and a tiny yet talented voice cast for a mere two characters. Because it's from CroTeam, you can be sure that there's an insane amount of tweaking you can do in the PC options to get the game exactly how you want. The Talos Principle also looks beautiful for the most part, with plenty of detailed textures and only a few out of place ugly ones. The environments are just varied enough, with each of the 4 worlds consisting of a different theme: a forest (with castles and other such structures), Egyptian, Greek and... some snowy place.
Elohim is the omnipotent voice guiding you through the game as a god of sorts, claiming that you are his child and able to gain immortality by collecting all of the sigils: Tetris pieces rewarded after every puzzle. While this simple goal allows you to jump right into solving puzzles, the game manages to open itself up to many philosophical debates such as: what is life's propose? What is a person? And what exactly is consciousness? All these topics could easily venture into the realms of pretentiousness, but The Talos Principle simply presents these questions and allows you time to ponder them, rather than forcing a single answer down your throat.
Aiding this is the way the game handles its pacing. The majority of the story unfolds whenever you decide to investigate the terminals. With one in every sub-world, you can choose when to read experimental logs and Greek philosophy. I settled on saving the story as a reward for after I had completed every puzzle in the area. This optional reward for getting further in the game is enhanced with the introduction of another character: the MLA (Milton Library Assistant). This character opens up arguably the most interesting aspect of the game by directly addressing you, the player, making you question aspects of humanity such as consciousness. While you're given around four choices at maximum to respond, there were only a few times I personally felt that I couldn't enter the rebuttal I wanted. The MLA is constantly finding flaws in your choices and logic, even if many of these "flaws" are based around fallacies of their own, which seems to prove how futile this line of questioning is, while simultaneously showcasing how fascinating it can be. I'm sure some will simply be infuriated by it, but when a game gets me to stop playing and truly consider things I haven't before, there's something incredible about it, something special and something to drive me forward.
All in all, The Talos Principle was a pleasant surprise for me it gave me challenging puzzles to conquer at a satisfyingly quick pace on top of a thoughtful story, containing plenty of morally ambiguous questions and just enough intriguing, well-written characters to maintain my interest in the core plot underneath. If any of these aspects interest you, then I urge you to give The Talos Principle a shot.
