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.
- Does the game explain the disaster? (not really necessary)
- Are there any humans left alive somewhere?
- Was this project supposed to be run as it is, or is there a glitch?
- 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.
- 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?
- 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:
Comments
Post a Comment