The Talos Principle Review

The Talos Principle is a puzzle game similar to Portal wherein you have to solve rooms of increasingly challenging logic puzzles. What differentiates The Talos Principle is the layer of existential themes about the nature of reality and what it means to be human. Didn't expect that, did you?

Gameplay wise The Talos Principle is quite simple, small rooms are cordoned off each with a challenge to solve within. Your reward is a puzzle piece that when combined with other pieces allow you to access other areas of the game with even more puzzle rooms. The overall objective becomes clearer as you progress but it does start with being an agent of God. Where it goes from there is quite mind blowing and ultimately up to you to discover. Every once in a while as you progress through the game you'll hear the voice of God as he encourages you and seeks to commune with you once you've satisfied the specific number of puzzle piece requirements (don't ask). He only asks one thing, do not enter the mysterious tower in the center of the world. The only other piece of the narrative is relayed through computer terminals in each new area, each one has notes you can read and eventually an unknown entity begins to speak with you through these terminals allowing you to respond as you see fit.

The Talos Principle is a weird game. On the one hand it's a fairly straightforward and enjoyable enough puzzle platformer akin to Portal. On the other it's this interaction with a few different figures, all of whom have very different views on the world. It's these interactions, be it with God or the voice in the machine, that elevate this game beyond a simple puzzle game. They are genuinely brilliant interactions that force you to question things about your life, it psychoanalyzes you and argues with you on questions such as faith, purpose, humanity, human nature, etc. These are lofty and impossible questions and that's what makes those interactions so fun.

The Talos Principle is an exceedingly clever puzzle game that is plenty fun on it's own but the philosophical questions it poses push it over the edge. The way it forces you to meditate on some of the harder questions about the reality of our existence and human nature are very lofty for a video game. The two things don't meld well at all and really the puzzle aspects feel like something to do while the game poses these big questions. The Talos Principle never melds together it's to diametrically opposed pieces and feels like two distinct game, but it's still two very entertaining pieces regardless of whether they fit together or not.

(4 out of 5)

Cradle Review

Originality is difficult, it's easy to fall into cliched tropes because they're reliable. There's a reason they are cliched, they've been used time and time again, sometimes even to great effect. It's also difficult because seemingly everything has been done before, or at the very least you can trace anything back to a familiar idea.

That long introduction is necessary for a game like Cradle which on it's surface seems very familiar
but quickly reveals itself to be something quite special and has a story and a world that has stuck with me long after I completed it. Cradle starts with the biggest trope of all, amnesia. You have no idea who you are or where you are. I hate this trope. And yet Cradle uses it to great effect, it's a way to introduce the player to this bizarre world, a way to make everything seems alien, and to make discovery that much more rewarding.

I want to focus on the world of Cradle which I found to be one of the most intricately detailed and fully realized I've ever seen. Questions start spinning around your head as soon as the game starts and the most satisfying thing about the game is that everything is explained. That is, if you have the patience to sift through everything in the game world to learn everything. It helps that Cradle's world is fascinating and I was eager to learn more but if you don't have the patience to read every little thing in the environment a lot of the appeal of this game will be lost on you. The game boils down to an adventure game as you find items and solve small puzzles. But it's the intriguing world and the thousands of questions you'll find yourself having that keeps you engaged. Who is this robotic woman sitting on your workbench? What are these numbers displayed on certain things? What happened to the world? Where is everybody? Who am I?

If it wasn't for such a fascinating world the games questions would be less interesting to pursue but I'm happy to say the games mystery's are compelling and so are the answers. The games tone also helps create an atmosphere of increasing dread as the truths of this world are revealed. Finding the items you need to progress can be really unintuitive as you desperately search for a single small items in a large incredibly cluttered room. Even distinguishing between what is a texture on the ground and what is a legible item that will help flesh out the world can be difficult. Their is also an uninteresting puzzle mechanic that repeats a few times and feels like padding and also tonally disparate with the rest of the game. It's the one real criticism I have with the game are these odd challenge puzzle room sections.

Cradle is a game I want to envelop myself in, I want to read books set in this world, play sequels tot his game, just spend hours examining everything I can about this wonderfully realized world. It's a shame then that some of that lore is needlessly obscure and these out of place puzzle rooms spoil an otherwise fantastic exploratory adventure game.

(4 out of 5)

Her Story Review

Her Story puts a spin on every aspect of itself. It's a video game were you don't play a central role in the story. It's crime fiction in which the events have long since taken place. Its interactivity is limited to navigating an old PC with ancient and half broken programs. It's a game that requires extensive note taking outside the game to follow along and solve the mystery. It's a game without an ending, you simply decide when your satisfied and walk away. And finally the entire story is told through live action video clips with a single actress. Her Story is wholly unique, that term gets used far too often when it's entirely untrue, it's entirely true in this case and it makes Her Story a fascinating and potentially frustrating experience that anyone who loves games should try.

You spend the entire game sifting through video clips and taking notes (in the real world) trying to piece together the story. The program you are using searches a database of these clips through keywords. Any word uttered by the woman in the clips can be searched, searching for the word 'was' is going to turn up tons of videos and be pretty useless. But the name of a month, a person she mentions, a particular item these sorts of clues may lead to clips that start putting the story together for you. The note taking you'll undoubtedly do is to keep track of characters, dates, and things that seem suspicious or contradict you'll want to search later. And that's it, that's all you do. You type in your searches and then you watch the video clips. But it's this sense of really putting this story together that is so engaging. With zero help or hints you have to put together the story and decide where to focus your interests, it feels like being an actual investigator. The game begins to elevate beyond the computer screen and a meta-game of sorts start playing out within yourself, are you following the right clues, are you being lied to, how can you factual prove any of the things that are being said. When you are three pages of notes in and your frantically flipping through them trying to link things together and replaying the same video clip trying to read the actress facial expressions and body language for any sort of clue that is when you realize you're playing something that likes of which has never been done before. And it's awesome!

But it's not entirely positive, since there's no help whatsoever you may hit a wall several times or simply end up going in circles missing some key piece of information that will help you reach some understanding or at least point you into a new line of thinking. The issue with criticizing this aspect of the game is that it's not the games fault, it's your own. You, the player, has not put the pieces together, you are the ineffective investigator. You feel like you've failed but you put the blame on the game when it's all your fault. In that way the game can be frustrating but I feel like it's part of the experience and unless you give up it's just a hurdle that once finally crossed is immensely rewarding.

Her Story is a difficult game to talk about, their isn't much to it and any enjoyment stems entirely from personal experience and the story so any real breakdown of the game results in spoilers of the story or just of the potential experience. Suffice to say I adored this game and I wish more experimental games like this existed. You can easily get lost in the experience of Her Story, the game is a catalyst for the experience you will have, how obsessive, frustrated, satisfied you'll be. Her Story feel impossible to review, it's the most subjective experience you'll have with a game since how much you get out of it is entirely based on you.

(Just Play It)

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture Review

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is a profoundly sad game and that's not necessarily a bad thing in fact it's that aspect of the game that saves it. Because while the central mystery of why or even how everybody has disappeared in this sleepy little English village is the driving force of the story it quickly falls to the wayside when you catch glimpses or more accurately echoes of the lives people had in this town. The game is what has become known, facetiously, as a walking simulator. Basically it means that your interactions with the world are limited, in this games case it's limited simply to opening doors, turning on lights, and listening to radios and telephones with messages on them.

The games story is told through mysterious balls of light that wander around certain areas of the village leading you to points of interest. Once you get close enough silhouettes of light appear depicting moments in the lives of the people who lived in this town. These scenes and the stories they tell are the real strength of the game, phenomenally well voice acted and written, these people and their interactions feel real and relatable. Each area of the game, there are 6 in total, you follow a specific character; they may drift in and out of other characters stories but each area tends to focus on one character and their final days in the village.

The thing that ties all these little scenes and characters together is the focus on relationships. Not just of a romantic nature but familial, friendships, or even with god. I guarantee at least one of the characters or one of the relationships depicted will strike a chord with anybody who plays this game. And these are complicated stories, their isn't the happy one, or the tragic one, they are all messy. Everybody shares the same moments of sadness, regret, hope, fear, joy. This game was an amazing experience, one of great joy and at the same time, sad reflection because it forces you to think about similar moments in your life.

The truly wonderful thing about Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is that these are topics video games don't ever delve into and it's a game like this that reminds me why I love this medium so much. It's the only interactive storytelling medium and that is such a powerful device that it's astounding more games don't take advantage of it. But that's a topic for another post. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is not what I was expecting, it sets up a big mystery about a potential Rapture that; minor spoilers: is quite dissatisfying. But instead serves up this incredibly poignant interweaving story of people and their relationships. I loved every second of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture but not for any of the reasons I thought I might.

(5 out of 5)