Full Circle Magazine FR

Who are you? Who will you become? Where do you come from? Where are you going? Who put us here? These are but a minuscule grain of questions either asked, insinuated or derived from the game The Talos Principle which was simultaneously released on December 2014 for Microsoft Windows, OS X & Linux. The Talos Principle is a first-person puzzle game developed by Croatia's Croteam and distributed by Devolver Digital. The game aims at making the player think not only through the puzzles it offers, but also through the story-line which is very philosophical in nature. When you first begin the game, in its default first-person view, it seems like you play the role of a human being awakened in an ancient Greek city-state, but, after solving a handful of puzzles, you begin to question your own existence as it is hinted that perhaps you're either a robot or a computer program which was created by……? Well, that's yet another question the game forces you to ask – who created you? The Talos Principle can be bought for around $40 by going to www.croteam.com/talosprinciple/, or from Steam. There's also a demo available with only four puzzles – that will leave you wanting more. By the time I found out that I could have installed the demo, I had already solved twice as many puzzles as the ones included in the demo.

Originally conceived to be played on computers, The Talos Principle can best be played with a mouse/keyboard but there's also the option of using a game controller if you're so inclined. Movement is controlled via the standard WASD keys and to look around you use the mouse. The mouse's left-click/right-click buttons are used to interact with various objects throughout the game. If you like Portal or other similar puzzle games, then you'll feel right at home with The Talos Principle. Being a fan of the Portal games and having seen the overly positive response from critics and players around the world, I decided to buy The Talos Principle. It was money well spent. Since I bought the game, there has been one more DLC released, The Road to Gehenna, which includes more playable content and is selling for around $15 at the time of this writing. However, there are other DLC packages available which are smaller in both size and price. Playing The Talos Principle is pretty straightforward for anyone who's ever played a first-person shooter in the past. The main difference is that you're not shooting anything. At the beginning of the game, you walk around what seem to be ancient Greek ruins in search of tetromino (think Tetris) shaped “sigils” which you must collect. However, your quest becomes much more demanding because, in order for you to reach each one of these sigils, you have to avoid being spotted by sphere-shaped drones and wall-mounted turrets, both of which will fire at you if they happen to spot you. It's literally impossible to reach the sigils without setting off either a spherical drone or a stationary turret; so, in order to advance, you have to find and pick up portable, yellow jammers which will jam the drones or turrets thus rendering them useless. These yellow jammers also work on some seemingly electric gates that, unless deactivated, will not let you through. The real challenge is using the jammers properly to reach each one of the sigils. Some levels, for example, will have one spherical drone, one turret and one electric gate, but only two jammers, so it's up to you to figure out how to make two jammers work against three devices when each jammer can work against only one device at a time. Eventually, there are other devices introduced, both as tools you get to use or obstacles you need to overcome.

The color-coded sigils you collect are also part of a greater puzzle. For example, some doors can be opened only by solving a sigil puzzle. Also, there are elevators that cannot be accessed unless you solve these sigil puzzles. When you have collected all sigils of the same color for a particular puzzle, then, when you reach its pertaining door or elevator, you will be required to solve the puzzle in order to make the door or elevator functional. To solve these sigil puzzles you must arrange the tetrominos in such a way as to form a square, rectangle or whatever shape is presented to you. After completing a fair number of puzzles, you begin to see that all along you've been playing in the first of four worlds. Your quest begins in world A, but when you unlock the first elevator you're able to reach worlds B, C and Elohim's Temple Tower, which is forbidden to you when you first discover it. The Talos Principle feels as if it were made to be played on Ubuntu. I encountered zero glitches on this game. There were some random graphics & sonic static stuttering that, at first, I thought were glitches but turned out to be hints relating to the story and intended to make you question the reality of your surroundings. The graphics, though not extraordinary, were above average, and in fact every now and then had an uplifting ray of sunshine or a dark depressing storm which most certainly affected my mood. It almost feels like it would be a crime to not have The Talos Principle available for Linux since you're constantly interacting with computer terminals that not only look but also work very much like a common Linux terminal. These terminals serve to better develop the story as you progress through the levels. Although the interaction with these terminals can be completely ignored if all you want is to solve the puzzles, it is through these terminals that the story is being told and it is through this story-telling that life's deepest questions remain with you even after you exit the game. The main story-line is of a deeply philosophical nature and this is enhanced by the meditative soundtrack which is ideal for problem solving and for pondering life's greatest mysteries.

As much as I like playing first-person games, I cannot play them for an extensive amount of time because I, like many other people, suffer from the motion sickness associated with FPS games. The Talos Principle has a medically comforting solution for the motion sickness problem by switching the game from a first-person perspective to a third-person perspective. If you suffer from motion sickness with FPS games, or you just prefer to look at your robot while playing the game, all you have to do is go into “Options,” then you'll find a section fittingly labeled “Motion Sickness Options” which can be automatically set to minimize motion sickness, or you can fine-tune it by adjusting the available parameters, one of which is setting it to either first-person perspective, looking over right shoulder, or looking over left shoulder. Other options that caught my attention were the ability to run a benchmark as well as the option of showing the frames-per-second on the top right corner of the screen. The commonly found options of “graphics, sound, mouse/keyboard, controller and language” are also available along with the DLC, Workshop and Reward options. All in all, the added extras take The Talos Principle from being a great game to an excellent game. I strongly recommend The Talos Principle after playing it over the last couple of months. It is an entertaining game that will challenge you in ways you never expected. Solving each puzzle gives you a deep sense of accomplishment, and, instead of making you put it away for another day, a puzzle solved encourages the player to keep playing and solve yet another puzzle. It plays remarkably well on Ubuntu via mouse/keyboard, but may require a compatible game controller if that is your cup of tea. Puzzles can be solved in a matter of minutes, which keeps the game's progress moving at a fast pace. The underlying story-line, which ties the puzzles together while also giving them more meaning, will indubitably make the player ponder humanity's ancient philosophical questions as they intertwine with sci-fi's ethical & improbable controversies. If you want a second opinion you will discover that critics have given The Talos Principle high scores across the board.

Minimum System Requirements: • OS: Linux Ubuntu 12.04. • Processor: Dual-core 2.2 GHz. • Memory: 2 GB RAM. • Graphics: nVidia GeForce 8600/9600GT 512MB VRAM, ATI/AMD Radeon. HD2600/3600 512MB VRAM. • Hard Drive: 5 GB available space. • Sound Card: OpenAL Compatible Sound Card. • Additional Notes: OpenGL: 2.1 or higher.