Turing lacking as a first-person puzzler
IN the interest of full disclosure, this reviewer is an absolute sucker for science fiction, which is why I was waiting with bated breath for The Turing Test, an interesting first-person puzzler which will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has ever played either Portal or The Witness.
A little too familiar, perhaps. It’s fine to take inspiration from, or even pay homage to titles that have carved out unique niches for themselves within the vast annals of video gaming, but The Turing Test is too much of an emulation of the aforementioned titles to really elevate it to their quality.
The Turing Test is a traditional first-person puzzler in which you navigate a series of rooms in a desolate research facility and solve a bunch of single-serving challenges, all while a questionable AI narrator guides you.
It’s devoid of Portal’s incredible humor, but the writing and acting do a good job of posing interesting questions revolving around free will, what it means to be human, and of course, the artificial intelligence test from which this game draws its name.
Existential pondering aside, the actual gameplay in The Turing Test, although not boring by any standards, does leave a lot to be desired.
The puzzles do not promote the same cognitive flexing as similar puzzle games and the limited mechanics in the game do begin to drag about half way through the game.
The plot of The Turing Test is actually quite interesting if you take the time to immerse yourself in the documents and scraps of audio scattered around the rather empty facility. Without giving too much away, there is a twist that comes completely out of left-field and goes a long way towards turning the game on its head - in the best way possible.
The Turing Test probably suffers by nature of comparisons with other similar games, perhaps a little unfairly. If you are a die-hard fan of first-person puzzlers then this is something you may not want to miss. Otherwise, maybe stick with Valve’s stellar offering.