Review for The Talos Principle. Game for Android, PC, iOS, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Linux, the video game was released on 11/12/2014 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 13/10/2015 The version for Xbox One came out on 04/09/2018
It is said that it is experiences that form an individual, but wouldn't it be more correct to say that it is the interpretations that he gives to his experiences that form him? A situation can lead to different implications, depending on who is inside it, and the individual involved in the story can be changed, for better or for worse, depending on how he has dealt with it.
It is not uncommon that this can also be applied to books, comics, films, or as in this case, to video games. Everyone can naturally interpret any story told, by any means, in the way he wants without being changed in any aspect. But what happens when our interpretations, our ideas and our beliefs are tested and judged by something artificial?
We are here today to talk to you about a video game, an experience, which could really make you change your mind about yourself. Welcome to The Talos Principle.
Who are you?
As soon as you pick up the controller and press the "start" button you will find yourself catapulted into a splendid garden, lost and without the faintest idea of how you ended up in that heavenly Eden. It will take shortly before a resounding voice makes itself heard, thundering in your head with an almost fatherly attitude, frightening you but at the same time reassuring you and making you aware that everything you see around you has been built specifically for your coming. It will be clear from the outset that this figure is, or wants to appear, a God, your God. It is no coincidence that the voice belongs to an abstract entity named Elohim, the Hebrew name for God.
Basically we can therefore say that The Talos Principle it begins with your birth. But who will we play? In the game we will be nothing more than an empty shell, a robot that suddenly becomes aware of itself and has to continue within this Eden, with Greek hues, in search of itself.
To complete our task we will have to solve many environmental puzzles, and then appropriate fragments of special keys, located at the end of each room. Our advance will not be entirely linear. During the adventure it will not be uncommon to come across terminals, which will seem to contain all the information that men, in the past, have saved and shared. These are the two fundamental figures of the title: the terminals and Elohim.
Your alleged creator will never be hard on you, he will guide you and support all your choices, however much he tries to divert you from the futile objectives, or rather the puzzles that allow you to open rooms and obtain objects not aimed at completing the main plot. If for the case mentioned above, Elohim will limit himself to showing disappointment with our choices, there will be only one effective limit, beyond which his fury could unleash on us: his tower, which rises above the clouds and where we will never have to venture.
Our with terminals will be different, much more objective and that will limit themselves to obeying our orders, showing us, at least what remains, of the documents shared by human beings over the centuries. These files will tell many stories. Over U.S? on someone else? It is up to us to decide. Not all terminals are the same, some will be more eloquent and will ask us questions in order to develop our "personal account" within the system. Questions will range from "What is life to you?" up to “What would you do if walking through a desert with a single bowl of water, you came across a thirsty man?”. You understand well how the terminal aims to create a real identikit of the person who finds himself in front of him, trying to understand his reaction to multiple experiences that life can put in front of him.
As we have already said, the tower of Elohim is what represents for us what, for Adam and Eve, was the tree of life. It is up to us to decide whether, at the end of the journey, curiosity or respect for our alleged God will have to win.
And the "serious damage"?
No one would have expected such a deep, metaphysical and introspective title from the guys at Croteam, historical developers of the arena shooter Serious Sam. The project had in fact started as the fourth chapter of the main saga of the team, which decided halfway to change direction, continuing on the richest path of puzzle games and abandoning the historic, but now almost completely abandoned, via degli FPS arena.
Although new to this genre, Croatian developers have been able to create puzzles that border on perfection. Let's be clear, nothing too complex, but for what they wanted to achieve, you couldn't ask for better. The puzzles will have to be solved using logic alone, you will never have to resort to skill in jumping or shooting. All you have to do is move certain objects around the rooms and use them to incapacitate enemies, open doors and activate devices. The difficulty of the riddles will always be calibrated and exponential. They will initially be very easy, and then get to a very high level of difficulty, without ever being frustrating.
The choice to change the project during the race, however, brought with it all the technical defects of the Serious Sam saga. While Croteam's home arena FPS was a good product, it never shone on the technical side. Scarce animations and somewhat anonymous graphics have always been two trademarks of the series, which unfortunately have remained in this title as well.
Fortunately The Talos Principle he also manages to exploit his flaws, inherited from Uncle Sam. Animations aren't a problem, or at least they don't until you decide to enable third-person view. The graphics sector almost takes a back seat in front of the successful and highly inspired settings. Some glimpses will make you speechless, without paying attention to the not excellent graphics of the title.
The soundtrack is nothing short of perfect. The music will accompany your actions in a unique way and will be so well in tune with the settings of the title, that the notes will almost seem to leak from the walls.
Elohim gives you a second chance
If you haven't already played the title, Elohim gives you another chance. We are obviously talking about the Playstation 4 version we tested. The title was already available for almost a year on the PC market, but it has been available for just over a month on the Sony home console.
The port was done very well. The controls, although in rare cases will make us regret the mouse and keyboard, respond with precision. The title is stable and bug free. But it carries with it a flaw, which in this version seems even more evident. Already in the PC version, many users had experienced a feeling of motion sickness after prolonged gaming sessions. All this, according to users, seems to have worsened in the Playstation 4 version. Honestly speaking, we have not encountered this annoyance, but in any case it will be enough to enable the third-person view to enjoy the game without having to run to the bathroom for nausea. .
The title was brought to Playstation 4 with the words Deluxe Edition. In fact, the port also contains the expansion The Talos Principle: Road To Gehenna. We will not dwell particularly on this expansion, as any aspect that concerns it would be a spoiler for the plot of the first title. Suffice it to say that the stories are closely connected and many background will be revealed to the events that you will experience with the base game. The important thing is, however, that we are not faced with a normal modern DLC, Road To Gehenna it is not a mere add-on created to raise money, but in front of a real expansion.
The duration of the main story is around five hours (compared to about twenty of the base title) and from the beginning you will find yourself immersed in very complicated puzzles, as the developers assumed that those who would have ventured into this extra story had already thoroughly stripped the base game.
In conclusion we can say that The Talos Principle is not a game for everyone. The pace of the gameplay, very slow, and the gigantic philosophical nature of the title, could discourage most. But if you are among those who want more from the video game, who love to turn on the brain and think during their daily leisure hours, well you have found bread for your teeth. The Talos Principle is not to be underestimated even as a mere puzzle game. Even lovers of the aforementioned genre will find themselves satisfied by the puzzles that Croteam has created.
► The Talos Principle is a Puzzle type game developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital for Android, PC, iOS, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Linux, the video game was released on 11/12/2014 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 13/10/2015 The version for Xbox One came out on 04/09/2018
