A little while back I started a single
article on The Talos Principle that grew to into three. Before
reading this I recommend reading the first
and second.
Today I want to wrap up by; discussing
the second ending, examining the philosophical tension between
Elohim/serpent and Alexandra, and answering the questions posed
earlier.
The Ending:
Well, if you played the game and read
my prior article of Talos Principle you might have been surprised by
something I said. After finishing the 1st ending, I said it was
quick, empty, and boring. I laid out a better ending in which Elohim
rewards your digital self with a physical robot body on earth. And
that is the better ending. But let me step back a minute.
To achieve the 2nd ending you need all
the sigils; green, yellow, and red. Instead of entering the door to
paradise that Elohim offers you, climb the forbidden tower instead.
Elohim offers no insight until you succeed in a number of puzzles.
Passing through a menacing thunder cloud, you're astonished to see a
brilliant sun and a roughly constructed modern tower rising higher
into the sky. Elohim begins in earnest to persuade you to return.
At first his tone is curious, but quickly turns to condemning. Do
not go onward, or you shall forsake eternal life, he tells you.
Obviously, I'm not going back. From here to the top are a few
puzzles, but these have a twist. First, its one extended puzzle with
stages. Along the way you encounter two of the QR code writers;
The_Shepherd and Samsara. They are completely silent but Shepherd
helps complete tasks, while Samsara attempts to foil them. Its an
interesting dynamic, because the puzzles change and fight back. The
other quirk, the tower is fall apart as you ascend. If you wait too
long at any part the corruption catches up, and requires a restart.
The restart is a little frustrating because it resets the entire
puzzle and it is pretty long.
As you near the end Elohim's tone
changes. You don't know what you're doing. The whole experiment
will fall apart if you keep going. At last though, you ascend
the final elevator and stand above the clouds. It is then that
Elohim tells you that you have completed the final challenge. You
had to defy him to reach your full potential. He then beckons you to
continue to a scene much like the other ending. Golden stairs,
golden gates, while clouds, and golden terminal. The serpent and you
debate once more, but he seems to have mellowed. This time, when the
game ends, it is exactly as I said it should be. You wake up on
earth, now in the actual body of a robot ready to explore the ruins
of humanity's civilization.
Better ending? Much better. Note:
There is also a third ending. The hardest to get. I watched the
ending and it doesn't add much to this topic. Become a guardian to
help others on the path. Anyway. I like the ending. I think its
quite good. It is still a lacks some essential details (for
instance, what is on earth?) but it feels rewarding.
Philosophical Debate:
There are three people who offer
thoughts about what it means to be human throughout the game. Elohim
explains that to be human is to follow orders, persevere, and be
virtuous (though this last one only means collecting sigils). We
have to equate these puzzles with the work of life, they are an
analogy for the trials we face in our own lives and how we overcome
them. His is the shallowest philosophy, not because there is
anything wrong with what he says, but the game does not delve into it
in any detail.
The serpent/deceiver originally
introduces itself through the computer terminal. It has no audio,
rendering it less significant. But unlike the other two characters
its is the most interactive. It starts by questioning you on the
basic concepts of consciousness, truth, humanity, and value. The
console offers multiple choices on how to answer the deceiver. For
my play-through it repudiated my ideas and argued against everything
I defended. Meanwhile, it encouraged me to ascend the tower and
discover what Elohim was hiding up there. As you near the collection
of all the sigils it has a final conversation, in which you can agree
with it, disagree, or refuse to listen. I chose the second and it
offered at a parting shot its ultimate philosophy as:
You are not conscious
There is no real world
No Purpose
No Choice
In was a nihilist,
seeking for nothing, disobeying everything, and eager to bring
everyone down with it.
Interestingly,
the central conflict of Elohim vs Serpent did not interest me as much
as the monologue of Alexandra Drennan. While the other two waged a
war for your obedience and approval Alexandra discussed what she
thought it meant to be human. Her audio
files communicated
the evolution of the project of which you are a part, from the
difficult beginning to the ending full of both horror and serenity.
Though her files are full of complex musings I'll try to sum them up
here. Humanity is curiosity, the desire to play, the fullness of
love, the frailty of physical being, and the transcendence through
civilization. We set ourselves apart from the rest of the known
universe by the first three, while experiencing it all through a
physical body that will eventually die. Culture and civilization, as
long as there is a memory somewhere to experience it, lends us a
sense of immortality that is beyond our individual ability. She
approaches the end with a broad swath of emotions; explaining the
death of a friend, sacrificing a final view of her family to complete
the project, and ultimately contemplating her physical death which
she views as the end to her consciousness. Yet she does not despair,
in spite of the natural disaster which has nearly concluded
annihilating humanity from existence. She believes that her
existence was worth living even though death comes to all, and that
the knowledge of humanity has value, as long as a conscious entity
exists to observe it.
It our case, this
entity is a robot constructed by her project.
Questions
If you remember,
there were a number of questions posited in the prior two articles.
- Does the game explain the disaster?
- 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?
- 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?
There is no answer to the 1st,
except that in the end you awake on a earth with the remains of human
architecture and covered in plant life. Sort of like a pre-fall
paradise.
It doesn't appear there is anyone
alive. My question is, are there multiple robots, or are you the
only one?
At the end it becomes obvious that the
goal of the project was to create a sentient robot to explore the
ruins of humanity. But was there supposed to be a god-like master in
the machine. Alexandra mentioned a glitch, and I assume that their
supercomputer acquired an inflated ego. Elohim mentions near the end
that he doesn't want to die. He has been trying to stop the digital
robots from reaching the end.
It appears that both were working
together, pushing and pulling the player, testing their resolve.
Ultimately, the ending justifies Elohim and repudiates the deceiver's
nihilism, as you are born onto the earth.
The final suggests that although Elohim
is fearful of ceasing to exist, the goal was for you to ascend the
tower. This is a little troubling. On the one sense, the disobeying
of Elohim represents the growing up, the reaching of adulthood. But
it doesn't fit logically. He has been telling you the entire game to
obey, be virtuous, and attain eternal life. He's been lying to you
and then does a complete 180. You should disobey someone if they
command you to act in unethical manner, but to disobey someone for no
reason is foolish. Elohim offers no reason to disobey.
Finally, its clear that Elohim allows
you to read the text files because he is preparing you to enter the
earth.
Review:
Was it a good game? Yes. It had
excellent puzzles, strong voice acting from Alexandra, lots of good
philosophical reading, interesting interactive conversations with the
serpent, and superior visual design. The weakness was the replay of
Adam and Eve through the persons of Elohim and the serpent. That
part was devoid of uniqueness and Elohim lacked any flesh. The
endings as well could have used some work. The first was weak and
the second left a few nagging questions (like – What am I, a single
robot, going to do now?). Definitely recommended, but I am unlikely
to play it again for awhile. It still has a collection of super-hard
puzzles available to acquire the third ending, but the game has no
replay value beyond that. There is a DLC which reviews say adds
quite a bit of content. I will pick that up when its on sale.
I recommend this game for players
interested in puzzle solving, and philosophical inclinations (though
it is not as deep in this area as might be first thought). Think of
it as a mix of biblical history/philosophy 101.
Talos Principle Series:
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