![]() ![]() "The Talos Principle is an excellent open-world puzzle adventure that is just jaw-dropping beautiful on your iOS device."Īs if awakening from a deep sleep, the player finds himself in a strange world of ancient ruins and advanced technology. ![]() And another broken-down computer with fragments of nothing."If you're yet to experience one of the most intriguing puzzle games of its generation, then picking it up for your iPhone or iPad is pretty much a no-brainer." And another voice telling me I’m special. (And the game is humble enough to laugh at its own structure: “Oh look, another puzzle. Even when the game’s philosophical readings get tiresome and overly didactic, the constant puzzling informs the questioning and vice versa. In short, critics who claim the puzzles and philosophy of The Talos Principle aren’t complementary have explaining to do. By connecting the repetitiveness and artificiality of game design to an instinct for order and completeness, The Talos Principle goes even further than the smart but limited The Matter of the Great Red Dragon, which didn’t attach its philosophy to play. This deity-human comparison explains more than The Stanley Parable’s snark and smugness about illusion of choice (how many players need such an obvious lecture?). The Talos Principle suggests that regardless of one’s belief or lack of belief in God, humans resemble the entity upstairs in playing and succeeding at games, creating order from chaos (though Jazzpunk makes a strong case that chaos is more refreshing than order). Engaging with the game’s text, however, amplifies this celebration in existential terms. Gamers will be pleased to know The Talos Principle celebrates the beauty of puzzles extensively (at least 15 hours of guessing and solving). ![]() Secularists need not huff or smirk at Satan playing the voice of reason, though: Kyratzes and co-writer Tom Jubert use Adam and Eve’s inquisitiveness, not their sin, to illustrate the universal struggle of humankind. Similarly, The Talos Principle puts tradition to the test with interrogation from a skeptic, a sly parallel to the serpent (Satan) in the Garden of Eden story. ![]() Earlier this year, one of the game’s writers, Jonas Kyratzes, released The Matter of the Great Red Dragon, a choose-your-own-adventure that questioned whether traditional morality can survive over centuries. In a way, The Talos Principle’s emphasis on these subjects is not surprising. The Talos Principle gains more punch with its third-person option, which better forces the player to observe the mechanical side of humanity and its relationship to the accounts of our creation. Some critics have called The Talos Principle a first-person puzzler, but the label is nothing more than part of an urge to compare this game to critical darling Portal and continue the contact high caused by Grand Theft Auto V’s “next-gen” conversion to the first person. To frame this conflict, The Talos Principle updates the Garden of Eden story from Genesis with Isaac Asimov’s speculation on the blurring of humans and machines. Not falling for the latter’s button-pressing nihilism, The Talos Principle uses voice-overs to set the stage for ages-old philosophical conflict: the pursuit of knowledge through skepticism vs. The Talos Principle’s examination of faith, doubt, rationalization and purpose is very welcome a year after the intellectually insulting The Stanley Parable HD. Going well beyond the spiritual tokenism of Always Sometimes Monsters, The Talos Principle stands among the brave, contemplative few ( Earthbound, The Shivah, Proteus) that seriously consider a greater power and the realizations that consideration can bring. The largely secular, apathetic and bitter videogame industry too often ignores what providence can mean to human experience and thought. It’s a miracle when a videogame dares to address the voice of God. ![]()
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