![]() Croteam stated it specifically deals with issues of transhumanity. Similar to Jonathan Blow’s The Witness, as well as classic game Myst, The Talos Principle has a world to explore in a nonlinear fashion.ĭetails on the specific themes of The Talos Principle are fuzzy right now, but it will deal with philosophy. Finding the solution to a puzzle in Portal brings a sense of momentary accomplishment, but if you’re stuck, you’re barred from progressing forward. Puzzle games can be irritating when they are presented in a linear fashion and you cannot find the answer. ![]() The game feels like a mix of Portal and The Witness, so expect a lot of puzzles. You should also probably know who Jeff Goldblum is.The Talos Principle won’t hold your hand, but it won’t crush it either – it will work your brain, though.Ĭroteam, the developer for Serious Sam, showed off The Talos Principle at E3, offering a peak at the philosophical game to come. There's also a heaping helping of transhumanism inspired by the stories of Isaac Asimov. There's the story of Talos itself - a bronze statue given life in Greek mythology. It explores the nature and importance of religion, couching its narrative in the trappings of the Judeo-Christian story of Adam and Eve, though this time, the forbidden fruit isn't an apple, but the potential knowledge that comes from ascending the tower. There's a lot to take in, especially if many of the concepts it presents are foreign to you. But there's also a tranquility, a quiet, to solving these puzzles that allows you time to ruminate on the latest developments in The Talos Principle's head-spinning narrative. The puzzles are incredibly well-designed, forcing you to consistently think outside the box as you guide laser beams to gate-opening contact points, or move boxes around to enter previously inaccessible areas. ![]() It's incredibly heavy stuff for a video game to ask a player to deal with, but The Talos Principle is paced in such a way that it encourages you to take the time to really think about these existential quandaries. And all the while, a 'snake' inside these computer terminals continues to ask you questions - Who are you? How do you know you're human? What does that even mean? - to get you to doubt your own, deeply rooted beliefs. The puzzles you're solving are actually tests created by the institute to instill a sense of cognitive reasoning and logical deduction in the artificial intelligence they created. You learn that the human race died off a long time ago thanks to a terrible plague - Was it hundreds of years ago? Thousands? - and an institute of scientists were working to preserve humanity by researching a way to transfer consciousness and knowledge into a robotic body. These terminals, you learn, house an immense wealth of human knowledge and experience, from news reports, to the writings of philosophers like Immanuel Kant, to blogs, forum posts, and Jeff Goldblum jokes. ![]() But as you play and interact with other terminals that you find, you discover more clues that start to piece together the mystery of where you are, what your purpose is. In fact, you don't even discover you’re a robot until you access the first computer terminal and see your metal hands clacking away at the keyboard. It's also one of the most mature games I've ever played. Maybe there's a swear word or two in there somewhere. It's rated "Everyone 10+" by the ESRB for "mild violence" - basically, there are a few obstacles you'll come across in your puzzle solving that will 'kill' your robot body, sending you back to the start of the puzzle. It's written by Tom Jubert and Jonas Kyratzes, writers known for their work on contemplative games like The Swapper and The Infinite Ocean, respectively. Meanwhile, Croteam's latest game, The Talos Principle, is essentially a 180-degree turn. They're the posterchild for the term 'mindless shooter'. These games are rated "M for Mature" in North America by the ESRB for their cartoonishly ludicrous levels of hyperviolence. Croteam is a small, independent studio best known for a series of games called Serious Sam first-person shooters that harken back to a simpler era of games, where all you needed were big guns, bigger explosions, and headless goons that charge screaming at you full bore while holding two Looney Tunes-sized bombs.
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