The Talos Principle - Part II



Last week I wrote an article about the Talos Principle, a philosophical puzzle game in the vein of Portal. I originally thought I'd only write that article and this followup , but after playing nearly to the conclusion I decided it would be better to write a three part series.

First, let me apologize for my first mistake on this blog (unless Ted Cruz wins the Republican nomination). I said last time that there were three hub worlds; ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, and Medieval Europe. In those three worlds there are seven levels with roughly 4 sigils between them. These sigils are colored green, yellow, and red for unlocking different sections and increasing difficulty. There are three endings and I predicted that only the greens and yellows were required for the easiest ending. I was wrong. You need all of the green, yellow, and red sigils to unlock the first ending. This surprised me a bit, since some of the puzzles in the final world of Medieval Europe were quite difficult. It would seem reasonable to not require the player to acquire 100%, but instead set a goal of 75%, or 90 %. This would give the player a bit of leeway in finishing. Alas, it is the age of the information and so I suppose if a player became stuck, the developer assumed they could resort to the hub of all knowledge. I am speaking about the internet.

Let's review where we left off. Worlds A,B, and C had been opened and a number of puzzles completed. There are three main characters, Elohim (the god/supercomputer), the deceiver (Satan-like), and the leader of a project to protect the knowledge of humanity during the disaster. Her name is Alexandra Drennan. There are others as well; other members of the project, other robots that have left QR codes, and anonymous authors of text messages in the terminals scatter about, but they are not as germane to the main plot. There is one space left unexplored, the Tower. Elohim forbade the main character from climbing it, and offered eternal life instead if only I would collect all the sigils and go through the massive doors in World C (Medieval Europe). I will come back to this ending in a minute, but I want to explain what these three characters said during the collecting of the sigils

As you collect more and more sigils, Elohim occasionally congratulates you and offers encouragement to finish. Elohim offers very little in description of what will happen, except that you will attain eternal life. He does not approach any conversation with philosophical detail. The deceiver, also referred to as the serpent in the game, continues to contact you through the terminals and discuss philosophy, all with the intent of persuading you to ascend the forbidden Tower. He is not as vague in his discussion. Because it is done with the computer terminal, there is a series of back and forths, where you choose responses to his questions and statements. In the end you can choose to agree with him, disagree with him, or shut him off. I don't believe that any choice impacts any of the three endings, but I'm not certain.

Alexandra is not involved in their debate. Her audio files are littered throughout the levels and she explains her situation as the world ends. More on that later.

Back to the first ending. After completing all of the green, yellow, and red sigils a great doorway opens and Elohim beckons you to enter. If you pass through there are golden stairs, leading up through a golden gate, to a golden pedestal with a golden terminal. All surrounded by puffy white clouds. The allusion is as obvious as can be. When you activate the terminal, Elohim congratulates you, as a series of messages flash across the screen.

Suspend Active Process
Collecting Experiment Data
Storing Memory Dump
Erasing Memory Banks

There are a few other lines, but if we take just those four I think we can make a stab at the intent of the ending. By the way, there is nothing after that. The lines end, and you wake up at the beginning of the game with all the puzzles reset. This was a very short ending.

I think it means that the robotic body that you inhabited has been wiped clean. It was being used for an experiment, to test the trials that were set before you. This was hinted at by some of the QR codes. Occasionally a QR code would say, version whatever had been reset, when it failed to progress further. But, before your memory was wiped clean were you brought up to the great database in the sky? I don't think its clear. Either way the real problem with this ending is that it is quick, boring, and unfulfilling.

Why is it like this? I can think of two reasons. I sort of covered it in the last article. One, the author's want to leave heaven undescribed because they couldn't think of anything to add to the concept of heaven. Two, they want all the endings to be equally approachable. They don't want Elohim or the serpent to be preferable. We will see after viewing the last two endings.

But, even if it was one of those two reasons I think you can come up with a better ending. I thought of one although it wouldn't follow through on the promise of eternal life. First, it's important to remember that though the main character is a robot, he really isn't. Wait, hold on, this will make sense. You play as a robot, but if I understand the game correctly, you are actually the digitial representation of a robot in the bowels of a giant computer program. So you aren't a physical robot, just data. If that is true, consider this ending.

After completing the collection of the sigils you walk through the door. There is still all the gold, and the terminal which you sign into. Your informational self is downloaded, but instead of the vagueness of where you go, you become conscious in a real body on earth. Now you area real robot enjoying the grass and the sunlight of an earth renewed but without humanity. Or even better, Elohim has found a way to create human bodies and is able to place your consciousness into a new body. Elohim has rewarded your perseverance with a physical robot body, or even a biological human body. He has been a guardian, allowing those who have completed his trials to become fully human. Sure his trials don't test any moral sense, but at least it would be a cool reward. Also, it requires a high level of Sci-Fi, but so does the rest of the game. 

So the first ending is unsatisfactory. Lets see the second. Let us climb the forbidden tower. This is pretty easy to do. You needed the red sigils to unlock each floor. On each floor was a puzzle, all of which were fairly simple. After completing the puzzle a terminal would await. It would unlock the next level of the elevator and so on. Surprisingly the deceiver never speaks to you on the climb, and neither does Elohim. Your only companions are the QR codes of The_Shepard, Samsara, and Sheep. More crucial are the audio files of Alexandra Drennan. If her earlier audio files were more lighthearted (but still serious), these become darker as the end of the world and her life approaches. Her story is the emotional weight of the story and it is well done.

After completing all the 5 floors the final stairway to the top of the tower awaits. But, I didn't want to finish until after writing this article.


Lets look at the questions from last time.

  1. Does the game explain the disaster? (not really necessary)
  2. Are there any humans left alive somewhere?
  3. Was this project supposed to be run as it is, or is there a glitch?
  4. Assuming there are only two computer programs talking to me, Elohim and the tempter which is right?

1) The first seems a bit more clear with further audio files from Alexandra. It seems to be a gradual disaster, and it may only effect humans. Otherwise it is still unexplained.
2) Not clear about this either.
3) This one has a better answer. Alexandra says in one of the audio files that she has discovered a flaw, and she is not sure if she will be able to fix it before the end. But how different is the final product (that you experience as the player) from the one she intended as the project lead? Did she design an interactive database of all humanity's achievements, but it somehow evolved into a supercomputer with delusions of grandeur? Not clear.
4) Also still unclear. This one should be easier to answer after viewing all three ending.

A few further questions to wrap this up.

  1. If Elohim created the world, and he doesn't want you to be able to climb the tower, why make the tower, and why allow the red sigils to open doors for the tower?
  2. Why does Elohim allow you to read text files about what happened in the real world, or listen to audio files from Alexandra?

These two questions stem from the problem that Elohim isn't a fleshed out character. He commands and he congratulates and that's about it. He doesn't talk about himself, and you can't discover anything about him, so these questions hang there awkward and unanswerable.

Next week, after completing the last two ending, we'll compare the three of them, as well as the three contrasting view points of the main characters (Elohim, serpent, and Alexandra) and wrap up this game. If we are lucky we'll also receive answers to some of the questions that have been posed.

Talos Principle Series:

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