The Talos Principle
| The Talos Principle | |||
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| Studio |
 Croteam
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| Publisher |
 Devolver Digital
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| composer | Damjan Mravunac | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Windows , macOS , Linux December 11, 2014 Android May 28, 2015 PlayStation 4 October 13, 2015 iOS October 11, 2017 Nintendo switch December 10, 2019 |
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| platform |
Microsoft Windows macOS Linux iOS Android PlayStation 4 Nintendo Switch |
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| Game engine | Serious Engine 4 | ||
| genre | Puzzle game , adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| language | English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Czech | ||
| Age rating |
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| information | Plot written by Tom Jubert and Jonas Kyratzes | ||
The Talos Principle is a video game that was developed by the Croatian development team Croteam and published by Devolver Digital . It was released on December 11, 2014 for Linux , macOS and Windows simultaneously . It was released for Android on May 28, 2015, for Playstation 4 on October 13, 2015. and for Nintendo Switch, the game was released on December 10, 2019. It is a puzzle game with a philosophical plot. The name " Talos " comes from a mechanical giant from Greek mythology who protected Europe and Crete from pirates and other intruders.
Gameplay
The player takes on the role of an android with an apparently human consciousness and explores several worlds, which together contain over 120 puzzles. These worlds mix nature and stone ruins from different epochs ( antiquity , ancient Egypt , the Middle Ages ) with futuristic technology.
The player must collect various tetromino- shaped "seals" by searching through mazes. These include various obstacles such as computer-controlled drones that explode as soon as the player gets too close, as well as wall-mounted turrets that shoot the player down if they are detected by their motion sensors. If the player dies in one of these ways, he will be revived at the beginning of the current puzzle. Drones and combat towers, but also force fields that block the player's path, can be deactivated by jammers. As the game progresses, more puzzle elements become available, such as portable light beam refractors, boxes, large fans and devices with which the player's actions can be recorded and repeated.
The player's progress is restricted by various doors or other security systems, which require that the player first collect certain seals. As soon as he has all the required shapes of the seals together, he has to arrange them in another tile puzzle in a certain way to open the door. In addition to the normal seals, special star seals can also be found in order to achieve an alternative ending. It is necessary to collect all the normal seals in order to play through the game, but the puzzles do not have to be solved linearly, but can be completed in any order. In addition, the player can also find so-called "messengers", which are other artificial intelligences (similar to the player) that can provide a tip for a puzzle.
In addition to the previously described puzzle elements, the player can freely explore the worlds and find computers in them, which reveal additional plot elements and contain further puzzles. The worlds also contain messages from previous visitors in the form of QR codes , as well as holograms with audio recordings. The incorrectly appearing positions in the form of hex numbers in text messages can be converted into words with a hex-to- ASCII converter to reveal additional story fragments.
action
The nameless android protagonist gains consciousness in the midst of abandoned old stone ruins. A voice that calls itself Elohim (voiced by Christian Jungwirth) tells the robot that it has created this world - which it calls "his garden" - which the protagonist is now exploring as a test and the seals placed in the To find puzzles in order to ultimately achieve enlightenment. During this exploration, the protagonist finds a huge tower. Elohim forbids him to climb it.
While the protagonist explores the world, he finds numerous messages from other robots who have previously traveled through this world, in which they question the garden and Elohim. The protagonist also repeatedly discovers various glitches that suggest that this world is a virtual one .
The protagonist learns about the fate of humanity through computer terminals: In the past, a deadly virus spread across the earth. Therefore, all human knowledge began to be stored in databases in the hope that one day extraterrestrial visitors could use this knowledge. The protagonist also finds segments of an audio diary of an engineer named Alexandra Drennan (voiced by Inga Interwies), who led a project to create artificial intelligence in the hope that it would be the last great achievement of mankind to assign a new mechanical species generate in order to then use the knowledge in the databases and live on after people. Through the audio diary, Alex talks directly to the artificial intelligence (the protagonist) and wishes she could meet them, which is no longer possible because the project would not be finished before the end of humanity.
As soon as the protagonist has collected all seals, Elohim offers him to ascend into eternity and thus to get to it. On the other hand, there is also the possibility for the player to climb the tower. By collecting additional star seals, it is also possible to discover another secret inside the tower.
If the player decides to move up, he will find himself as a new robot at the beginning of the game and a text on the screen indicates that the player has not passed the “child program independence test”. If he collects all the star seals and finds the secret in the tower, he becomes a "messenger" who should help future androids with the puzzles.
If, on the other hand, he climbs the tower, the player finds out that this world is a test environment in which new variations of artificial intelligence are continuously generated, whose acuteness and independence are tested (similar to evolutionary algorithms ). In addition, the player learns from Elohim that he has passed the last test. The protagonist finds another computer terminal in a sky- like place, via which he starts the process of “transcending”. In doing so, his consciousness is uploaded to a physical robot in the real world and the simulation is ended. The robot leaves the system and steps into the world now abandoned by humans.
reception
The Talos Principle received many very good reviews. GameRankings gave the game a score of 86.76% (34 reviews), IGN 8.3 / 10, on GameStar a score of 85/100 and the Metascore is 88%. Various video game programmers and designers have also commented positively on the game. So have Markus Persson , the creator of Minecraft , and Alexander Bruce, the developer of anti Chamber , expressed very positive about the game.
The Talos Principle was a finalist in the categories “Excellence in Design” and the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize” of the Independent Games Festival 2015 and was also nominated in the category “Excellence in Narrative”. The game received the award in the “Game, Special Class” category at the 2015 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers awards ceremony .
Extensions and sequels
On July 23, 2015, the expansion "Road to Gehenna " was released, in which the player takes on the role of another android named " Uriel ", who is sent by Elohim to use artificial intelligences that passed Elohim's tests but did not climb the tower have to free so that their knowledge can also be uploaded into the real world.
In May 2016, it was announced that Croteam was working on a sequel called The Talos Principle 2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Mike Mahardy: The Talos Principle Releases in December. In: IGN. November 3, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ First-Person Puzzle Game The Talos Principle Comes To The SHIELD Tablet, SHIELD TV, And Nexus 9 . In: Android Police. May 28, 2015, accessed May 7, 2017.
- ^ Metacritic: The Talos Principle . Retrieved May 7, 2017.
- ↑ Alessandro Fillari The Talos Principle hits the Switch today. By: GameSpot. On: December 10, 2019. (Original in English)
- ↑ The Talos Principle underwent 15,000 hours of playtesting - but not by humans (interview). In: VentureBeat. November 4, 2014, accessed May 7, 2017 .
- ^ Croteam gets serious about philosophical first-person puzzler The Talos Principle - AdventureGamers.com. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
- ^ Philosophy, puzzles and Tetris in The Talos Principle next month. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
- ^ The Talos Principle for PC - GameRankings. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
- ^ Leif Johnson: The Talos Principle Review. In: IGN. December 9, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ The Talos Principle (PC) - test, download, system requirements, release date, demo - GameStar. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
- ^ Metacritic: The Talos Principle. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
- ↑ 2015 Winners | National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Corporation. Retrieved May 7, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ The Talos Principle: Road To Gehenna on Steam. Retrieved May 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Alice O'Connor: The Talos Principle 2 Discreetly Announced. In: Rock, Paper, Shotgun. May 20, 2016. Retrieved May 7, 2017 (American English).