He serves to be sort of the snake figure in The Talos Principle’s fall of man, pushing you to doubt Elohim and climb the tower.

You’re soon led to doubt Elohim and his promises by the Milton Library Assistant, an AI you can occasionally engage in conversation with. It warns you against climbing the puzzle-ridden “tower”, and instead tries to usher you through to its promised land. The premise of the whole thing is that you are a robot that must undergo trials (puzzles) in order to prove itself worthy to Elohim, a disembodied voice that considers itself your god. If you’re having trouble obtaining one you’ll probably be able to find it elsewhere. Progression is forgiving, as many of the puzzles give duplicate sigils and signs indicating which sigils can be found where are scattered all around the world. Each hub is a giant chamber lined with seven or so teleporters to individual areas containing the puzzles. The Talos Principle is composed of three hub worlds: a tropical coastline, an Egyptian kind of desert place, and snowy mountains. These puzzles can unlock the way to new hubs, the next level of the tower, and unlock new mechanics. This sigil will contribute to a specific set, which you can use to solve the set’s corresponding sliding block puzzle. The goal of each puzzle is to connect power, open doors, fling yourself, and avoid terrifying little patrolling enemies in such a way to clear the way to collect a tetronimo, called a sigil. Puzzles often involve combining objects in unexpected ways, like setting a connector on a box on a fan. The puzzles themselves are often astoundingly clever, and a few in particular got an audible ‘wow’ from me once I figured them out. There’s also the good old recorder device indie puzzlers are so fond of that allows you to have multiple versions of yourself running around the map. One tripod redirects lasers into receptacles to provide power and another, the Jammer, cuts the power to doors, roving enemies, fans, etc. The game’s puzzles revolve around the placement of various tripods and manipulation of boxes and fans, instead of revolving around a single central mechanic like Portal or The Ball.

It functions as both a heaping pile of clever puzzles and as a sort of thinking prompt for things you thought you had pinned down. It’s a thoughtful, meditative puzzle game that strives to challenge your problem solving skills as well as your deepest-held beliefs and moral codes. The Talos Principle is about as much of a 180 degree turn from that as they come.

Gratuitously violent, abrasive, and as old-school first-person shooter as can be. This is sort of a common sentiment concerning this game, but it needs to be said: Croteam has spent the entire 21st century making Serious Sam games. The Talos Principle, however, stands out as some of the best the genre has to offer, and one of the best games of 2014. One would have expected that in the wake of Portal’s success there would have been at least a few real gems, but outside of the occasional copycat of questionable quality and the occasional acid trip, the genre has been quite sparse. The Talos Principle fills a surprisingly sizable void in the market: the void of quality first-person puzzlers.

Talos principle unlock tower level 2