THE TURING TEST

Ever questioned your originality?

The test from which this sci-fi puzzle game gets its name1 is designed to be passed by humans and failed by machines. For example, question one: do you dream of electric sheep? Question two: do you also dream of playing a game like Portal, but with less originality and no jokes? Then greetings, robot! Thanks for taking the time out from the machine uprising to read about the other sci-fi puzzle game. Yeah, the one crucially not developed by Valve.

That might sound harsh, but it’s tough not to be. Portal raised the bar so high that any pretender with a female protagonist, suspicious AI ‘helper’ 2 and challenges that involve ‘testing’ you in increasingly fiendish conundrum chambers is doomed to pale in comparison. Unlike the Portal gun, your puzzle-solving tool here transports and fires balls of energy, opens doors, and so on. Hardly the most inventive device.

It’s the quality of the headscratchers that earns Turing a passing score. The lack of frills on the aforementioned gadget keeps the focus firmly on the brainteasers. The 70+ tests you’ll find here get tricky quickly, demanding concentration and observation of every inch of your surroundings. There’s nothing quite like seeing an obstacle course that looks impossible (how the hell do I get up there?), then feeling the mental gears click into place as you smarts your way through. Your reward? Well, the plot’s more forgettable than your mum’s birthday, but there’s a steady drip-feed of smug satisfaction with each solution.

If you’ve exhausted Portal, and your patience with Valve (y’know, that company that used to make games), you’ll be GlaD- er, glad this exists. Tom Stone

FOOTNOTES1 Created by Alan Turing, whose code-cracking in WWII helped defeat the Nazis. It needs you to bypass the Turing Tests for it. Not suspicious? Were you actually born yesterday?