The Turing Test

A fun and fairly simple puzzle game to spend a few hours on.

This is another [i]Portal[/i] clone. I really liked this one – it felt so polished. Objects could be lifted and rotated, but when you hit the same hotkey again, it was put back exactly as it was found – it wasn’t just dropped to be shuffled around by gravity like in other games. Handles could be moved when holding down the mouse button and then moving the mouse. And the watching robot had a wonderful “Jeremy Irons” voice. The actual gimmick was surprisingly unsophisticated. Instead of a gun with a magical superpower, I could merely suck or shoot energy spheres into large sockets. Sometimes also move a box with an energy sphere locked up inside. Both activated something, like a door, a bridge, a light laser – all the kind of stuff you usually find in these games. The puzzles were good and for the most part not too difficult. There were a total of seven chapters, each usually introducing new gameplay elements. The energy spheres came in various colors, mostly indicating a delayed or flickering timing. One later chapter even introduced fun cooperation puzzles of the type where you toggle between several instances. [b]Pros[/b] [list] [*]Great graphics and fantastic voice acting makes for a good first impression. [*]A low difficulty curve eases you nicely into the puzzles. [*]Generally easier than the [i]Portal[/i] series, at least until the final two chapters. [*]The controls are slick and are easy to get used to. [*]Later introduces enjoyable single player cooperation gameplay. [/list] [b]Cons[/b] [list] [*]Examining objects in e.g. the crew quarters feels like it serves no purpose. [*]Leans towards recycling its smaller prefabs a little too frequently. [*]Lots of crazy lens flares especially from the light lasers. [*]The audio logs are often difficult to understand. [/list] [h1]8/10[/h1] Extended version: [url=https://blog.chordian.net/2022/12/18/the-turing-test/] Chordian.net [/url]

에너지구슬을 원거리에서 넣고 뺄 수 있는 도구를 이용해 문을 열고 다음 방으로 나아가는 일인칭 퍼즐게임입니다. 손으로 날라야 하는 에너지블럭, 압력판, 점멸하는 구슬, 로봇원격조종 등 기믹이 점점 추가되구요. 스테이지 구분이 확실하고 적당히 궁리하다 보면 방법이 보이는 정도의 난이도라 틈틈이 스테이지 하나씩 까먹기 좋은 게임이었습니다. 한글화가 안 되어 있지만 가이드에 한글화 패치를 만들어주신 분이 있어 이야기 이해하는 데도 문제가 없었습니다. 게임 플레이는 굉장히 만족스러웠지만, 스토리는 불만이었는데, 이야기의 마무리가 그다지 납득이 가질 않았습니다. 딜레마를 주려면 어느 쪽이든 모순된 부분이 있든지 아니면 비슷한 무게를 가지든지 해야 하는데, 한쪽이 지나치게 명분이 강해서 도리어 이걸 딜레마라고 준 건가 고개를 갸우뚱 하게 되네요. 다른 뭔가가 더 있을 줄 알았는데 그런 것도 아니구요. 차라리 선택이 아닌 SF호러영화에서 자주 보이는 예정된 비극을 암시하는 엔딩이었다면 나았을 것 같네요.

This game does a good job teaching concepts and puzzle elements before then asking you to use them. However there are a few puzzles, mostly later in the game, that require the player to do something so unrelated to the ideas you have been presented with that it genuinely felt to me like I was cheating. This could be considered a positive either if you enjoy outside the box thinking or thematically as being required to bend the rules as they have been presented to you or go entirely outside them feels accurate to the concept of a test that a human can complete but a machine can't. This could also be considered a negative as some puzzles may leave you feeling like there was nothing within them to help lead you to the solution. While some of the puzzles become more difficult as the game progresses they also become less tightly designed. There were a few puzzles around ch5 and later that contained some object or element that was left unused even after completion. I also found the way the camera moves in this game a bit nauseating. I was still able to complete the game and enjoy my time with it but the way the character seems to sway as you move, bounce as you climb ladders, and sometimes refuses to stay still even as you are standing still and trying to read something made the experience more uncomfortable than it needed to be. The voice acting is good. The writing is interesting. I particularly like the interactions between Ava and Tom, which is good as they are the core of the story. I liked slowly learning about the background events from audio and written logs throughout the main and optional areas but I was left a little unsatisfied as a couple of characters are left with fates that seem entirely unreferenced anywhere and feel more forgotten than uncertain. Lastly, and this is a huge nitpick, in the epilogue a character states that the events leading up to the game happened over 2 weeks which feels like not enough time and like a contradiction of an audio log earlier in the game where it is stated that an experiment which was part of these events was run for at least 2 weeks. Overall I enjoyed the puzzles and short sci-fi story and I think other people who also like those things will enjoy this too.

Es erinnert sehr an Portal, das muss man direkt sagen. Es spielt sich schön, die Rätsel sind ansprechend, die Grafik ok und die Atmosphäre ist stimmig. Es fehlt etwas der Witz von Portal. 7 von 10 Punkten

Absolutely love this game! Great atmosphere and an interesting story. Even though the puzzles aren't insanely difficult, they are still challenging enough to make you think. I love to come back to it once in a while and replay it to relax a bit.

Jeżeli ktoś lubi klimaty kosmiczne podobne do "Odyseji Kosmicznej", "AD Astra", "Pasażer nr 4", to "The Turning Test" jest dla niego. Jest to połączenie klimatów gier takich jak "Observation" oraz "Titan Station", lecz z gameplayem jak z "Portal". O ile w dwu poprzednich zagadki są pretekstem do fabuły, tak w Turning Test jest całkiem na odwrót. Tutaj miejscem akcji jest stacja naukowa na księżycu Jowisza - Europa (polecam film "Europa Report"). Gameplay i liczne bardzo wymagajace zagadki (wymagajcego często przestrzennego myślenia) są osią napędową, zaś fabuła fajnie spaja wszystko w jedną całość. Mamy tu do czynienia z kolejnym zbuntowanym A.I, które będzie pomagało/przeszkadzało podczas gry. Gra ma łącznie 70 pomniejszych leveli o różnym stopniu skomplikowania, niestety z czasem formuła zaczyna się dosyć szybko wypalać, bo chodź zagadki są różnorodne, to narzedzia do ich wykonywania się nie zmieniają za bardzo, więc pod koniec lekko zaczyna wiać monotonnią. Jednak cała fabuła i jej zakończenie/a są warte przejścia gry. Dla fanów filmów pokroju "Odyseja Kosmiczna" - rzecz obowiązkowa.