The Turing Test (Xbox One) Review
On first impression, The Turing Test might seem eerily familiar. After all, it features a female protagonist being guided through a scientific facility by a mysterious artificial intelligence as the player has to solve a variety of clever puzzles. Despite these outward similarities to Portal, this game by Bulkhead Interactive manages to do enough maintain its individuality and separate itself from other titles in the genre.
The puzzler largely takes place on a research station on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, and puts the player in control of an International Space Agency engineer called Ava Turing. After being awoken from a cryogenic sleep, the AI T.O.M. informs you that you have to get to the research lab to contact the crew who have cut off communication. When you arrive after a brief tutorial section it is apparent that the researchers have changed the station so that it now incorporates a vast array of chambers with puzzles that can obstinately only be solved by a human, leaving any AI without the means to pass through. This, along with the name of the protagonist, is what gives the game its title.
It’s a rather interesting concept and goes a long way to actually explaining why you are faced with a seemingly never ending supply of puzzles – something that most other entries in this genre fail to do. However, the plot never really delves into exactly the crew managed to pull off such a feat of engineering. Apart from that little problem, the story is for the most part quite clever and thought provoking.
You spend much of your time discussing philosophy and the very idea of consciousness and intelligence with T.O.M., who acts as something of a narrator and companion, as you progress through the campaign. Additional bonus rooms also help to flesh out the plot as they provide access to audio recordings of the crew, giving you the chance to fully understand exactly why they put themselves in the situation they did.
Unfortunately, as the game carries on, the story begins to unravel slightly. Clues that were subtly planted earlier on in the story effectively give away the entire premise that The Turing Test rests on at the conclusion of the campaign. This leaves the plot in something of a mess as you can easily deduce what is going to happen long before you reach the final stages.
Meanwhile, the sound design is terrific and does an excellent job in accompanying the gameplay. The voiceover work done for both Ava and T.O.M is perfect, allowing you to get lost in their conversations at the beginning of each puzzle chamber. Even the various voice recordings you come across of the crew talking about their life aboard the station are intriguing and well-acted. Combined with the excellent sound effects and a musical score that is top-notch, The Turing Test is a game that deserves to be played with headphones and no distractions.
As for the puzzles themselves, this title offers some very satisfying and inventive challenges. Most of them center around transferring power from one location to another, either through the use of a gun or by moving around special blocks. Although that sounds deceptively simple – it is this simplicity that makes many of the puzzles within The Turing Test so good. Often, they will stretch your thinking power and have you believing that there is no way of completing a task until you finally realize that the answer has been staring you in the face the whole time. Solving these gives a real sense of pride and accomplishment that few other games can replicate.
This feeling does not last for the entire game though. Much like with the plot, as you make your way through the research complex, the puzzles start to become more complicated and lose much of the elegance that made the earlier examples such a joy to complete. There’s still a good chunk of memorable challenges, however, and even the less endearing ones are still better than the vast majority you will come across in similar games.
While The Turing Test may not be the most innovative game of all time, it is a great puzzler that matches up with the high standards set by the likes of Portal and The Talos Principle for the most part. Where it fails is in its bloated length and rather convoluted plot that falls down at the final hurdle. With that in mind, this is definitely still a game that deserves your attention.
This review is based on a digital copy of the game that was provided by the publisher for review purposes. The Turing Test is available for PC and Xbox One $19.99.