With The Talos Principle, Serious Sam developers, Croteam, ditched the mindless (but fun) violence of their previous endeavours. Instead we have a philosophical game that ponders about sentient A.I. and features some neat puzzles.

Despite being a few years old now, fans of The Talos Principle have been crying out for a virtual reality version of the game. Having been teased by Croteam and their Serious Sam VR releases, it was only a matter of time until we were given the opportunity to return to The Talos Principle in VR.

And that time is now. HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality equipped PC owners can now fully immerse themselves into the VR version of this award-winning puzzle game.

The Talos Principle VR is identical to the flat version but, as an added bonus, this new release includes the Road to Gehenna expansion.

Players take on the role of an un-named android charged with completing a serious of puzzles under the guidance of a god-like disembodied voice that calls itself Elohim. The open 3D world is restricted by barriers with empty slots for Tetris-style shapes that form keys.

In order to progress, these key pieces need be picked up from the centre of a series of puzzle. By relocating prism-topped tripods players can manipulate light beams to lower forcefields, knockout motion-sensing machine games, stop exploding drones and unlock gates.

At any one time there are a number of puzzles available, allowing players to leave a puzzle for later and try another.

The puzzles are set amongst the backdrop of what could be the ruins of human society. Reading optional information available on terminals players can read the personal accounts of the people that witnessed the end of humanity.

As you progress through the puzzles you open up new areas moving from lush vegetation, to desert and onto stone ruins. At the centre of the game world is a tower. Elohim forbids you from climbing it. But, of course, you are going to do exactly that.

The game offers up a very poignant question of what it is to be alive. The story is one that will keep you thinking long after you’ve finished the game.

In 2D The Talos Principle is a masterpiece of story-telling and puzzle gameplay. In VR you become that android A.I. exploring Elohim’s world first hand.

The VR game looks every bit as beautiful as it’s flatter brethren. The game gives players the choice of using DirectX or the more efficient Vulkan API. You are going to need a beast of a machine to run the game with the graphics turned up, so I’d suggest selecting the Vulkan graphics option.

The game can use a supersampling option to sharpen the visuals, but even with a i7 7700K and a GTX1080ti GPU you are not going to get much over x2 without some serious nausea-inducing juddering. Various locomotion methods are offered, with the smooth movement only recommended for players that are well and truly over their VR sickness.

The Talos Principle VR is a great use of virtual reality that really fits the story being told. It’s also a relatively mellow, though-provoking experience, rather than some twitchy affair that need lots of arm-waving. You are unlikely to push your fist though the wall, or you monitor as use casually make your way through Elohim’s trials.

If you have the rig and the VR kit to play it, I’d recommend The Talos Principle VR in a heartbeat.

The post The Talos Principle VR (HTC Vive) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

This review could be very short. Do you like Portal? Then play this game. It doesn’t reach the same heights as Valve’s revolutionary game, but it’s pretty good.

Okay, so you probably want some more information than that. The Talos Principle is a puzzle game developed by Croteam and published by Devolver. It’s a strange diversion from their Serious Sam series, though I’m not complaining. The Talos Principle was released on PC last year, and is making its move over to PS4 in October 2015.

You, an unnamed and silent robot have been called by Elohim – or God – and He tasks you with collecting “sigils” from the world that He has supposedly created. These sigils look like Tetris blocks, locked behind a series of ever more complex puzzles spread across different worlds. The world act like mini theme sets, similar to Super Mario Bros 3 with about 10 areas that each contain about four puzzles.

As you progress you unlock an increasingly complex series of tools to use in the puzzle arena, from boxes (I did say it was similar to Portal didn’t I?) to reflectors and more. This leads to a game that is great for picking up, doing three of four quick puzzles and then being able to put down again.

This also gives you quite a high degree of freedom in which to tackle the puzzles, so if one is too hard, then you can always come back to them later. In particular I found the Red Levels hard, and the semi-secret stars harder still.

In developing its world and creating a meaningful backstory, Talos draws heavily on Hebrew and biblical history with mentions of Gehenna, Elohim, covenants and other Judeo-Christian references. This is meant to make the world interesting and “deep”, but I found that it all adds up to the developers taking themselves a bit too seriously.

It fancies itself as a bit of a philosophical type game, reminiscing on what it means to be human, but in the end it’s still a puzzle game.

Much of the story is told via terminals found throughout the game worlds. Reading emails off an Apple II style command prompt was never fun, especially on a large TV which is generally unsuited for blocks of text. I found the story and the game itself was too far apart and other games, such as Portal, did a better job of integrating the story into the gameplay itself, with a bit more humour and self-deprecation.

At least the worlds are gorgeous, with the surprisingly robust Croteam’s Serious Engine 4 technology looking stunning and in full effect. The worlds are a bit empty, but that’s part of the mystery of the game, one that is revealed later on.

Even better, it runs at a native 1080p and 60 frames per second, a feat that many other current gen console games haven’t been able to reach. It’s actually a bit overkill for a puzzle game but it’s nevertheless great to see.

You can decipher the puzzles in first person or in two modes of third person, which you are able to switch on the fly. Given that many of the puzzles are on a relatively 2D plane, getting some height above your character can be quite helpful in determining the lay of the land. Another small benefit is that your robot moves quite quickly, and the run button is more of a sprint which is useful for crossing between puzzle arenas and for repeating a puzzle you’ve stuffed up a few times. If you are truly stuck you can reset the entire puzzle too.

The Talos Principle is a smart, sometimes intriguing tale told through puzzles that will keep you on your toes for hours on end.

The PlayStation 4 version also includes the Road to Gehenna DLC, a series of more complex puzzles with a connected but separate story. For a puzzle game The Talos Principle is deceptively deep. While Portal was content to make its mark and then leave, The Talos Principle lingers longer, drink in hand and ruminating on what it has just done.

If you enjoyed Portal 1 and 2, then you will like this game. I would even suggest this is the type of game non-gamers can get into; I was able to intrigue my non-gaming housemate into helping me with the game. Now I can’t wait to see the Serious Sam themed sequel.

The post The Talos Principle Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Existential game label Devolver Digital today shared the news that award-winning philosophical puzzler The Talos Principle is heading to PlayStation 4 on October 13th, 2015. The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition for PlayStation 4 will include the critically acclaimed first-person puzzler and the divine expansion pack The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna.

Alongside the digital version, introspective PlayStation fans will be able to make a holy pilgrimage to a game retail store and get their hands on a special boxed release of The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition courtesy of BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment in Europe and Australasia, and Nighthawk Interactive in North and South America.

“I have it on good authority that those dedicated fans that purchase both the digital and retail versions of The Talos Principle Deluxe Edition will become omnipotent,” commented Devolver Digital CFO Fork Parker. “That’s not a guarantee but certainly something to consider.”

Created by the reflective souls at independent developer Croteam and written by Tom Jubert and Jonas Kyratzes (Infinite Ocean), The Talos Principle Deluxe Edition asks the big questions as players connect the metaphysical dots through the ruins of humanity’s once great civilizations. Solving increasingly complex puzzles through the eyes of a sentient robot is just the first step on the greater path to enlightenment.

As if that weren’t enough, the additional Road to Gehenna content will show players an entirely new side of disembodied guide Elohim’s world: a completely new set of characters with their own society, history and philosophy to unravel.

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