What is life, morality, truth or, indeed, the very nature of God? Weighty concepts for a philosophy degree, let alone a first-person puzzle game. Yet The Talos Principle fearlessly explores these themes and interweaves them with sublime level design and a prime mental workout. Awakening on a pedestal, a booming voice from the ether identifies itself as Elohim and instructs you to collect sigils. Truth is subjective, though, and while you chase the artefacts, utilising a variety of tools to reposition weights and lasers or avoid hazards, the nature of this testing environment begins to reveal itself.
There’s a disarming moment early on, signing into the first of the game’s anachronistic computer terminals. Your fingers, seen for the first time, are robotic, while QR codes graffiti the world, informing of AI experiments or myths from antiquity. With such masterful use of environmental storytelling, the mystery at the heart of Talos proves as compelling as mastering its dozens of puzzles.
