Consistently mindblowing

[76561198018245183]

Consistently mindblowing - that's how I would describe The Talos Principle. From the initial version, with its stunning graphics, wide array of visual settings, and a surprisingly-competent philosophical storyline, to the current version, where the starter world, thanks to better foliage and foliage placement, coupled with the simple ability to allow everything to cast and receive shadows, is now a stunning, believable, and almost mystical place.

First, the puzzles. When I played them for the first time, I discovered two things: a single device can do many things, and what seems like stupidity is, in fact, enlightenment born of struggle. To illustrate the first, with the first puzzle, I was having difficulty trying to move the two jammers through the shields, only to unintentionally have the in-game benchmark's version of Croteam's puzzle-solver AI show me that multiple jammers can be used on a single shield. After that bit of enlightenment, I started thinking differently about the puzzles. With the second, after trying in vain to keep the red laser's shield down in the exit puzzle from the starter world, I decided, on a whim, to see if the propeller fan could be used instead of the beam splitter. Lo and behold, it worked!

Second, the photorealistic buildings, ruins, and scenery the worlds possess are simply incredible, yet built in a way which enables you to meditate on the problems and philosophical questions presented. The last point is why I disagree with PC Gamer's notion that the game's environments have no purpose - in a traditional sense, yes, the environments serve as nothing more than a frame for the puzzles. In the context of this game, however, this is exactly what is needed. I only wish that tessellation was an option instead of strictly parallax or depth relief mapping on DX11 and OpenGL 4.x-capable systems. It would allow the absurdly-high-res textures to come alive with true shadow casting and receiving (due to the raised surfaces being real geometry), rather than faked through novel shaders, making the world come even more alive!

Third, the way the story unfolds is very clever. First, you're led to believe ELOHEIM is your creator and god, and you must prove your worthiness before gaining the right to eternal life. Then, you meet the MLA, and ELOHEIM scolds you, saying the MLA is the "deceiver lurking in the hidden words", and that ELOHEIM shall reveal the librarian AI's lies in time. Some things don't make sense, though (large spoiler block ahead): the MLA mentioned that all this is merely a testing program, and that resetting the MLA's settings now would force everyone to start over. Second, after collecting the first secret, the path to the MLA, which you might've ignored in lieu of the puzzles or a false sense that the path was merely part of the scenery and not travelable, is made plain by a sign - one that glitches out occasionally, as though it weren't real. Then, if you collect enough stars, the world glitches out, and the truth is revealed in a startling moment of revelation: ELOHEIM is neither God nor a god, but an AI believing himself to be a god - probably, as hinted by ELOHEIM's error message-like statement when you approach the world boundary, he controls and constructs all you see, the gamemaster for what is clearly some sort of program.

Unfortunately, the third point is also what keeps the excerpt from the full story from ascending to greatness IMO. If one is to truly make a good decision, one must take in all sides as equally as possible, regardless of whether you agree with one or both sides, carefully and thoughtfully examine all the evidence, then make your decision. Instead of being allowed to take in all sides equally for the game's argument, which seems to be that science sees while faith blinds (would you know the true nature of the worlds or of your so-called god if you strictly followed ELOHEIM's instructions?), an overwhelming amount of the quotes and text seems to lean towards the "science sees" side, such as the early revelation about the worlds, ELOHEIM, and his fear of the MLA, but also of the woman not wanting to lie to herself about the true nature of man as revealed by the Talos Principle, the strikes against philosophy made by the young man being mocked by his teacher for asking a valid question about man's subcreations[tolkiengateway.net], AIs, and of philosophy being implied to being so short-sighted as to be incapable of accepting the Talos Principle. I'd be more that willing to take all these excellent ideas into full consideration as part of the whole, but the bias on display in the public test's except of the full story makes me question whether this will be possible in the full game.

Mind you, I hope I'm wrong and this particular section as showcased in the public test is merely a poor representation of the rest of the game. I seriously hope there'll be a good leadup to the finale, where, if I've interpreted the hints laid out correctly, you must choose to either embrace ELOHEIM, enter his realm, and achieve eternity (as far as can be gotten in a virtual simulation, which, much like the mad AI AM[en.wikipedia.org], can only last for so long), or rebel by activating the lift in the back of ELOHEIM's temple and escaping to the surface/reality (yes, I noclipped :/ ).

I can't wait to get The Talos Principle - it's a metaphorically-mindblowing game from a company known for making games where you literally blow up aliens' minds with guns, guns, rockets, and guns.