The Talos Principle: Reawakened
Review
A Profound Philosophical Puzzler
by JamesWorcester
reviewed on PC
Genesis
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Firmware initialising... child process starting... birthed from holy heavens and damned dust... and born henceforth into the protective garden of the maker... Elohim. You arise and find yourself strayed out of thought and time, wandering between stone columns and keystones, pausing to gander at the sculptural and architectural beauty of the ruins of Rome. Ahead a puzzle awaits, the first test of many for this organic synthetic. Your "hands" grasp a soon to be familiar companion, a jammer.
Puzzles of the Mind
I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.
At your disposal, a jammer that jams forcefields, enemies and sentries; a hexahedron for stacked elevation and weighted plates; a surveying laser to connect generators and receivers; a fan to jettison anything or anyone; a recorder to record and playback actions to be carried out by your ethereal doppelganger; and a platform for your future self to stand on.
In your way, energy walls; exclusion fields; pressure plates; locked gates; generators; receivers; wall switches; and your lack of creativity and imagination.
The Land of Ruins, the Land of the Dead and the Land of Faith house worlds and puzzles that reward Tetris shaped sigils of varying degree and difficulty, and secret stars if you can extend your consciousness. For each abstraction you are given all the components you will ever need; your ingenuity questioned by how you choose to combine them; and your derived satisfaction nothing short of ambrosia.
Think vertically, think with angles, think with two of the same tool, think through time, think with enemies, think with lasers blocking lasers, think with standing on yourself. Your mind will bend upon itself as the spicier puzzles bore into your brain throughout the day until you return to solve them. Sometimes you will be stuck for an hour, and you will love every minute of it.
Man-Machine Interface
Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.
Interactive Linux-like terminals appear in each world documenting the well-written and well-worn worldbuilding of the Institute of Applied Noematics and the allegorical implications of historical and philosophical ideas as they apply to Artificial Intelligence. Initially just repositories of information, you quickly discover that there appears to be a way to communicate with someone or something on the outside. Can you prove and reason to them that you can think? That you are alive? That you are a person? A human? Can you offer proof of your existence?
You remember those time capsules we all made as children, to bury and open up when we were much older? Those will be your only connection to a human voice, a real human voice, someone you can and will care deeply about as they pierce through your abstract isolation.
Peaking Behind the Curtain
Do not give up eternal life for the promises of curiosity.
Behind the gorgeously Unreal landscapes and the hauntingly ethereal score, and between the coded messages, hexadecimals and QR codes left behind, you will be left with nothing but questions, and maybe a desire to truly understand the nature of your reality. If your curiosity gets the better of you, as it did me, then a colossal tower awaits that climbs as far as the eye can see and ends in a spinning vortex of darkness. If not, you may prefer to stay within this walled garden.
The Complete Package
The Talos Principle: Reawakened remakes and reanimates the 2014 original for a new generation and a new generation of players. Beyond the extraordinarily deep and dense puzzles, beyond the expertly written story and philosophy, and beyond the beautiful art and audio direction, lies a game that succeeds in bridging people's understanding of what a game can be. It is the kind of game I would recommend to anyone, regardless of if they play videogames or not.
Aside from the original campaign, The Talos Principle: Reawakened also includes the critically acclaimed Road to Gehenna expansion, and the all new In the Beginning chapter. Alongside them, it offers an in-game Developer Commentary that I am going to love sinking my teeth into. But the thing that I'm most looking forward to is seeing what the community can come up with in the in-game Community Puzzle Editor, which is where The Talos Principle might truly become an infinite game.
I also really, really hope that they bring across the Serious DLC from the original. I would kill to have Elohim's excellent script, voice and delivery completely replaced by the asinine Serious Sam.
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9.5
fun score
Pros
Perplexing puzzles, Provocative philosophy, Well-written worldbuilding
Cons
Needs more Sam
