This review contains spoilers
Spoilers only discussed at the very bottom of the review
What does it mean to be human? This is a question that has plagued man since the days of antiquity, pondered over by such thinkers as Aristotle, David Hume, and of course Nietzsche. It’s a hypothetical that will never get an adequate answer because no interpretation is universally accepted: is it our genetic make-up, our physiology, our sapience? Each of these seems sound till presented with a theoretical counter-example: the singularity, brain in a vat, personhood, etc….and while one may be able to devise an appropriate response, the reality is it doesn’t matter because there is no objective truth.
It was only natural that video games would tackle this subject matter, and though there have been a number of ventures over the decades, The Talos Principle always struck me as the best one. Centered on an unnamed android attempting to achieve transcendence in a virtual reality, the game’s philosophy came from numerous texts strewn across the world, the bulk of these on terminals operated by a sentient Turing Machine. They were engaging, thought-provoking, and more than made-up for the fact that the puzzles in-between had nothing to do with the ideological discourses going on.
Released about six months later, Road to Gehenna serves as an expansion pack to the original game, taking place directly after the Messenger successfully escaped Elohim’s Paradise. In light of the simulation collapsing, Elohim has a final task for a new messenger, codenamed Uriel; free the inhabitants of a secluded area called Gehenna before everything disappears. Why are they here and how do they feel about leaving? Well, that’s up to you to figure out should you embark on this journey.
It’s been years since I beat The Talos Principle, but to the best of my recollection RtG isn’t too different in terms of its technical facets, which is not a bad thing. The vanilla game was a great creation from developer Croteam, providing them a chance to showcase the fourth iteration of their Serious Engine, and what you consequently get is a product visually indistinguishable from Unreal. Assets, from stone formations to vegetation, are heavy on realism; clouds on high burst god rays, and small physics animations like head bobs and air resistance have been implemented.
Unfortunately, these are partially offset by two major flaws: the first is a general fuzziness that envelops all surfaces upon closer inspection (fine at a distance, but not point blank); the second is more subjective, but it pertains to a lack of any stylizing by Croteam. What I mean is we’re supposed to be in a digital rendition of Shangri-la, yet the landscapes look rather ordinary -- there’s no artistic flair, no sense of spirituality, nothing. Nothing but generic fields, deserts, and fountains. I suppose, from a lore perspective, it technically makes sense due to the planes being constructed by an AGI who wouldn’t be channeling Picasso; however, this is one of those areas where poetic license should’ve been invoked as the environments are otherwise pretty forgettable.
In addition, I had some performance issues: draw distance, especially while running, would load literally like an ocean wave pushing outwards; the game crashed thrice on me; and even on the highest settings I noticed clipping from the confetti on fans. It should also be mentioned that RtG has a major motion sickness problem to the point where the devs actually implemented an in-game menu with options to alleviate it. My personal recommendation would be to turn-off the aforementioned head bobbing, decrease mouse sensitivity, and increase the field of view to around 110 (thank you Cassandre on Steam for the tips https://steamcommunity.com/app/257510/discussions/0/1640919103693884479/).
Sound-wise, RtG is good. The only voice acting are a few brief monologues from Elohim, who certainly sounds deific enough (even if he does come across like a 90s PnC narrator). Noise effects have been tuned for every tool you’ll utilize, and while I would’ve liked some variation as far as laser collision and terminal velocity impact, the reality is you won’t spend a considerable amount of time in each stage to warrant it being distracting. Lastly, the score by Damjan Mravunac is excellent, taking the stringed exploratory cues that dominated The Last of Us, replacing them with brass instruments, and expanding their melodies into atmospheric tracks whose loops never get tiresome to listen to - an admirable feat, considering you’ll be spending close to eight hours solving areas, which brings me to the gameplay.
Look, if you beat The Talos Principle, you’ll know what you’re getting into. The endgoal of each level is to activate a switch usually hidden behind a series of barriers opened via some combination of panels and platforms. It’s a simple framework used to conceive a multitude of puzzles, and the original game was fantastic in this department: progression was smooth, new mechanics easy to understand, and solutions mostly deducible (more on that shortly).
Road to Gehenna’s quandaries revolve around it failing to replicate those first and third bullet points. With the former, if you’ve taken a significant break from the main title (as I did), then expect to experience a bit of a learning curve as you readapt to systems previously introduced in a more layered manner. While that is understandable (most fans who beat the OG are likely to immediately move onto RtG), the latter criticism doesn’t get the same protections as I genuinely felt a good chunk of RtG’s puzzles rested on contrived workarounds. Let me put it this way- to the best of my knowledge, there were only three stages in The Talos Principle that I googled the answers to, and it turned out their resolutions involved you placing rods at very tight angles in order to successfully connect multiple lasers. RtG is, unfortunately, filled with a greater number of these remedies, and it’s disappointing because it’s like the game is asking you to cheese it -- those types of tight-knit placements are the kind of thing you’d see done on a Speed Run, NOT a conventional playthrough
Granted, it’s very much possible the learning curve qualms contributed to this hurdle (or that I’ve gotten worse at such video games in the years since beating Talos), but I like to think I’m objective enough to view RtG as its own product, and there were definitely plenty of times where I was reminded why I enjoyed the first game so much. It’s just those good moments were sadly infringed upon by the other instances of frustrating game design.
One aspect that RtG has unequivocally improved upon from its predecessor is the narratorial relation between the puzzle solving and gameplay. While your actions still don’t correspond to any philosophical colloquies (save the overarching label of “freedom”), they at least serve a tangible purpose wherein you’re emancipating these “inmates”. The terminal system also returns, albeit modified in a unique way: you’re now privy to discussion threads posted by the inhabitants of Gehenna. Whereas The Talos Principle (to my memory) had vague ruminations from prior Messengers, in Gehenna you’re now witnessing actual discourses that occurred, and continue to occur, between these AIs, and they are honestly a treat to read. From reflections on their exile, to musings on their state of being, to their artistic attempts at coping with what was effectively a prison, it was all fascinating to digest and genuinely got me invested in the world Uriel was “liberating”. These are not a bunch of faceless peers, but a full-fledged cognizant community that was genuinely thriving in some capacity of the term. I highly recommend browsing through EVERYTHING the terminals offer as the pieces are memorable. That said, I did have a few quandaries in the narrative department: one, the game doesn’t mark forums you’ve already viewed, two, there is no escape function should you accidentally click an old post, and three, the ending is pointlessly multilineared+.
In conclusion, though, I can neither recommend nor deter against playing Road to Gehenna. My aforementioned ravings about the plot are counterpoised by performance defects, as well deficiencies with a good chunk of the level layouts. Make your decision accordingly
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+It turns out there isn’t enough bandwidth for Uriel to leave with the rest of the Gehennians, forcing him to stay back whilst the others transcend. It’s cliche, dumb, and doesn’t serve any thematic purpose. Alternatively, if you actually collect every star, you unlock three other endings wherein the head administrator of the world or Uriel can sacrifice themselves to allow the other to depart with the flock (or you can both stay back as mutual destructees). First of all, if it was possible for an extra person to join in, why in the other finale is there conveniently not enough bandwidth for Uriel? Secondly, what bearing will any of this have on the sequel (I sincerely doubt The Talos Principle II will transfer over save files given the gap between releases), and would Uriel’s assimilation even make a substantial impact on the narrative? All these alternate premises are inherently silly and were clearly implemented just to give some minor reward to those players who opted to spend time finding each star.
What does it mean to be human? This is a question that has plagued man since the days of antiquity, pondered over by such thinkers as Aristotle, David Hume, and of course Nietzsche. It’s a hypothetical that will never get an adequate answer because no interpretation is universally accepted: is it our genetic make-up, our physiology, our sapience? Each of these seems sound till presented with a theoretical counter-example: the singularity, brain in a vat, personhood, etc….and while one may be able to devise an appropriate response, the reality is it doesn’t matter because there is no objective truth.
It was only natural that video games would tackle this subject matter, and though there have been a number of ventures over the decades, The Talos Principle always struck me as the best one. Centered on an unnamed android attempting to achieve transcendence in a virtual reality, the game’s philosophy came from numerous texts strewn across the world, the bulk of these on terminals operated by a sentient Turing Machine. They were engaging, thought-provoking, and more than made-up for the fact that the puzzles in-between had nothing to do with the ideological discourses going on.
Released about six months later, Road to Gehenna serves as an expansion pack to the original game, taking place directly after the Messenger successfully escaped Elohim’s Paradise. In light of the simulation collapsing, Elohim has a final task for a new messenger, codenamed Uriel; free the inhabitants of a secluded area called Gehenna before everything disappears. Why are they here and how do they feel about leaving? Well, that’s up to you to figure out should you embark on this journey.
It’s been years since I beat The Talos Principle, but to the best of my recollection RtG isn’t too different in terms of its technical facets, which is not a bad thing. The vanilla game was a great creation from developer Croteam, providing them a chance to showcase the fourth iteration of their Serious Engine, and what you consequently get is a product visually indistinguishable from Unreal. Assets, from stone formations to vegetation, are heavy on realism; clouds on high burst god rays, and small physics animations like head bobs and air resistance have been implemented.
Unfortunately, these are partially offset by two major flaws: the first is a general fuzziness that envelops all surfaces upon closer inspection (fine at a distance, but not point blank); the second is more subjective, but it pertains to a lack of any stylizing by Croteam. What I mean is we’re supposed to be in a digital rendition of Shangri-la, yet the landscapes look rather ordinary -- there’s no artistic flair, no sense of spirituality, nothing. Nothing but generic fields, deserts, and fountains. I suppose, from a lore perspective, it technically makes sense due to the planes being constructed by an AGI who wouldn’t be channeling Picasso; however, this is one of those areas where poetic license should’ve been invoked as the environments are otherwise pretty forgettable.
In addition, I had some performance issues: draw distance, especially while running, would load literally like an ocean wave pushing outwards; the game crashed thrice on me; and even on the highest settings I noticed clipping from the confetti on fans. It should also be mentioned that RtG has a major motion sickness problem to the point where the devs actually implemented an in-game menu with options to alleviate it. My personal recommendation would be to turn-off the aforementioned head bobbing, decrease mouse sensitivity, and increase the field of view to around 110 (thank you Cassandre on Steam for the tips https://steamcommunity.com/app/257510/discussions/0/1640919103693884479/).
Sound-wise, RtG is good. The only voice acting are a few brief monologues from Elohim, who certainly sounds deific enough (even if he does come across like a 90s PnC narrator). Noise effects have been tuned for every tool you’ll utilize, and while I would’ve liked some variation as far as laser collision and terminal velocity impact, the reality is you won’t spend a considerable amount of time in each stage to warrant it being distracting. Lastly, the score by Damjan Mravunac is excellent, taking the stringed exploratory cues that dominated The Last of Us, replacing them with brass instruments, and expanding their melodies into atmospheric tracks whose loops never get tiresome to listen to - an admirable feat, considering you’ll be spending close to eight hours solving areas, which brings me to the gameplay.
Look, if you beat The Talos Principle, you’ll know what you’re getting into. The endgoal of each level is to activate a switch usually hidden behind a series of barriers opened via some combination of panels and platforms. It’s a simple framework used to conceive a multitude of puzzles, and the original game was fantastic in this department: progression was smooth, new mechanics easy to understand, and solutions mostly deducible (more on that shortly).
Road to Gehenna’s quandaries revolve around it failing to replicate those first and third bullet points. With the former, if you’ve taken a significant break from the main title (as I did), then expect to experience a bit of a learning curve as you readapt to systems previously introduced in a more layered manner. While that is understandable (most fans who beat the OG are likely to immediately move onto RtG), the latter criticism doesn’t get the same protections as I genuinely felt a good chunk of RtG’s puzzles rested on contrived workarounds. Let me put it this way- to the best of my knowledge, there were only three stages in The Talos Principle that I googled the answers to, and it turned out their resolutions involved you placing rods at very tight angles in order to successfully connect multiple lasers. RtG is, unfortunately, filled with a greater number of these remedies, and it’s disappointing because it’s like the game is asking you to cheese it -- those types of tight-knit placements are the kind of thing you’d see done on a Speed Run, NOT a conventional playthrough
Granted, it’s very much possible the learning curve qualms contributed to this hurdle (or that I’ve gotten worse at such video games in the years since beating Talos), but I like to think I’m objective enough to view RtG as its own product, and there were definitely plenty of times where I was reminded why I enjoyed the first game so much. It’s just those good moments were sadly infringed upon by the other instances of frustrating game design.
One aspect that RtG has unequivocally improved upon from its predecessor is the narratorial relation between the puzzle solving and gameplay. While your actions still don’t correspond to any philosophical colloquies (save the overarching label of “freedom”), they at least serve a tangible purpose wherein you’re emancipating these “inmates”. The terminal system also returns, albeit modified in a unique way: you’re now privy to discussion threads posted by the inhabitants of Gehenna. Whereas The Talos Principle (to my memory) had vague ruminations from prior Messengers, in Gehenna you’re now witnessing actual discourses that occurred, and continue to occur, between these AIs, and they are honestly a treat to read. From reflections on their exile, to musings on their state of being, to their artistic attempts at coping with what was effectively a prison, it was all fascinating to digest and genuinely got me invested in the world Uriel was “liberating”. These are not a bunch of faceless peers, but a full-fledged cognizant community that was genuinely thriving in some capacity of the term. I highly recommend browsing through EVERYTHING the terminals offer as the pieces are memorable. That said, I did have a few quandaries in the narrative department: one, the game doesn’t mark forums you’ve already viewed, two, there is no escape function should you accidentally click an old post, and three, the ending is pointlessly multilineared+.
In conclusion, though, I can neither recommend nor deter against playing Road to Gehenna. My aforementioned ravings about the plot are counterpoised by performance defects, as well deficiencies with a good chunk of the level layouts. Make your decision accordingly
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+It turns out there isn’t enough bandwidth for Uriel to leave with the rest of the Gehennians, forcing him to stay back whilst the others transcend. It’s cliche, dumb, and doesn’t serve any thematic purpose. Alternatively, if you actually collect every star, you unlock three other endings wherein the head administrator of the world or Uriel can sacrifice themselves to allow the other to depart with the flock (or you can both stay back as mutual destructees). First of all, if it was possible for an extra person to join in, why in the other finale is there conveniently not enough bandwidth for Uriel? Secondly, what bearing will any of this have on the sequel (I sincerely doubt The Talos Principle II will transfer over save files given the gap between releases), and would Uriel’s assimilation even make a substantial impact on the narrative? All these alternate premises are inherently silly and were clearly implemented just to give some minor reward to those players who opted to spend time finding each star.