Modern Game Weekly - The Turing Test

Welcome to Modern Game Weekly, this series will be focussed on more recent releases and is based around the 0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games series, with information on what the game is, the gameplay, story, critical reception and availability of the game. The story section will not be the entire games story, just a small section to give you an idea of the plot, spoilers will be kept to a minimum where possible.

The games chosen for this series are at random from my own ratings database, the database currently contains the majority of console releases from 2016 to February 2018 with the first group of 2015 releases just added as well, with each game rated and ranked. Each game has their own rating broken down into five different sections.

The first is the numbered ratings, this uses a scale of 0 to 100 with a total of 10 of these ratings. One of the things that a part of this rating are critic review scores, these scores come from all console platforms the game is released on.

So for example Okami HD, which was recently released on PS4 and Xbox One, as well as previously being released on the PS3, all three of these releases factor in on the games overall rating. As a result shoddy ports of a game will seriously hurt the games overall score.

The reviews section takes a total of 12 reviews for the game if that number are available, both the six best review scores as well as the six lowest scoring reviews for the game, this covers reviews for console releases only. Information here will not be full reviews but snippets that stand out from the reviews.

The Availability section works exactly the same with a look at how available the game is assuming they are not digital only releases, with retailers Gamedude, eStarland and Amazon.com, while Retrogames may feature as older games are added to my database, the site currently only covers games up to the Xbox 360 and PS3 era.

         

                                 

The Turing Test is a first person puzzle game developed by Bulkhead Interactive, formally known as separate companies Deco Digital and Bevel Studios. The game was released on Windows and Xbox One in August of 2016, with Bulkhead publishing the Windows release and Square Enix publishing the Xbox One release. The game would also receive a release on the Playstation 4 in the following January, again published by Square Enix.

Notable people who worked on this game, several of the team members have only two credits to their name, the previous being a project between Bevel Studios and Deco Digital in Pneuma Breath of Life a first person puzzle adventure game. The staff members that worked on both are David Jones, Kevin Chandler, Kieron White, Alex Korakitis who also lent his voice talent to the game and Howard Philpot.

Tito Belgrave who worked as the games artist had previously worked on the character art for We Happy Few, he worked on Soma in 2015, working on the characters. He was also a Character Artist for Far Cry 4 and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist.

In addition to Alex Korakitis there were several other voice actors that lent their skills to the game, these include Maria Westbrook who previously provided additional voices for Star Wars The Old Republic. James Faulkner provided additional voices in Dragon Age Inquisition, he is credited as voicing main characters in the 2009 released Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Amelia Tyler, who’s first credit is for The Turing Test, since then she has worked on Troll and I, voicing the character of Sanna, she also lent her voice talent to Star Wars Battlefront II, she provided additional voices for Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 and most recently Elex.

Jay Britton who provided the voice of Pneuma in Pneuma Breath of Life before working on The Turing Test, he also provided additional voices for Mafia III. He is credited with his voice work on the 2016 release The Dwarves and Total War Warhammer II.

The Turing Test is a first person puzzle game that is divided up into chapters, each of these chapters has a set of levels within it, for example the first chapter of the game, which operates as a tutorial allowing you to get use to the controls of the game and the games mechanics. This chapter has a total of 10 levels as well as an eleventh secret level. In total the game has seven chapters, each with 10 levels, and one secret level per chapter.

Each of the levels which are rooms around the Europa base need careful observation and manipulation of objects in order to progress through them. The various challenge that Ava and the player face in the various room are pure logic based with some reflex based elements that also incorporate physics.

Ava can move freely around the various room and is also able to jump, the vast majority of interactions in the game are done using a device called an EMT, or a Energy Manipulation Tool, this is a white device which looks a bit like a gun, but instead of firing projectiles it transfers energy between machines.

Rooms generally have several types of slots that require an energy source to become active. There are two types of energy sources that Ava can use to activate these slot, the first are boxes that can be carried around or up to three charges that are absorbed in by the EMT before being launched from it.

Energy sources are scarce and hard to find so the same energy source will have to be often re-used and taken along into the following rooms by the player. In addition to the slots that need powering up there are several other types of objects that can be interacted with.

These include, levers that re-route energy streams, charges that constantly switch on and off with different rhythms, pressure plates, retractable bridges, magnetic devices, platforms that can be raised and lowered, delayed closing or disappearance of doors or electric bridges, controlling security cameras and operating machines.

In addition to the traversal around the Europa base there are story and investigation elements in the game, with Ave able to interact with items in the environment which can be investigated. These include e-mails, logs and diary entries that Ave can read to help progress the games story, these items are not stored or carried by the player.

Set in the far future you play as Ava Turing one of several members of a research team sent to excavate Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Ava and her team are sent by the International Space Agency (ISA), while Ava remains in cryogenic stasis, the remainder of the team go on ahead to set up the expeditions base camp and begin their work on Europa.

Once the base is completed Ava is scheduled to be awoken from her Cryogenic sleep. Sometime later Ava is awoken, not by her team members but by T.O.M, the Technical Operations Machine an artificial intelligence that has been monitoring the Project.

T.O.M. tells Ava that her crewmates are in danger and she need to go down there to help them. Upon hearing this news she quickly heads down in a lander and enters the base on Europa. T.O.M soon discovers that the internal configuration of the base does not match his records.

T.O.M discovers that the various tests have been designed to be completed by a combination of both a human and artificial intelligence. A manner similar to the actual Turing Test, that was developed by Alan Turing back In the 1950s.

Starting with the Zero2Zed rating for the game, The Turing Test starts off very well, with the game scoring ta 95 ratings, along with a good 91.5 ratings as well. The second half of the games ratings remained pretty solid, peaking at solid 80 along with a 76.5. below this the game did not fall below a 70 rating, which really did help it push into the top 100 overall for 2016.

Critic reviews play a major part in this scoring system and The Turing Test as commented above the game did very well overall with critics, and having a critic review low as high as a 70 can really push a game up the rankings. The game has also done well at the top end of the rankings, the game earned a couple of 100 scores from critics plus a slew of others rating the game at an 80 or higher.

Grading wise the games second half grades range were solid, peaking with a B and B- grade for the games 80 and 76.5 scores respectively. The remaining grades for the second have while dropping down into C+ range it is still a solid performance by the game.

The first half grading was overall quite impressive for the game, with it scoring two A- grades for its 95 and 91.5 ratings. The remaining three grades were also both very solid, rating two at  B- grade and one B grade. Overall the game rated a total points score of 788, averaging out at a 78.8 overall, grading wise the game comes in at a B-.

On to the first of the critic reviews, these reviews are for console versions of games only, so in the case of The Turing Test this will include Xbox One and PS4 reviews only and no PC reviews. Getting down to business with the first couple of reviews, we find the game received a full 100 from both True Achievements and Brash Games.

Starting with True Achievements who said the game is not just a worthwhile game but and amazing story that will sit with you long after the credits have rolled. The reviewer praised the games puzzles calling the a tremendous attribute and smartly constructed. While having plenty of praise for the game they still had the odd little issue, main the dialogue when entering several room in succession, with the dialogue getting a little repetitive, though not enough to detract from the overall story.

Brash Games who also gave the game a highly impressive full marks, the reviewer praised the refreshing ideas that went into the various puzzles in the game. Overall the review found the game to be better than Portal, the review continued by saying. It is one thing for a game to be funny, on the other hand a game that teaches you something and makes you think while looking, sounding and playing gorgeously is even more valuable.

They concluded their review by saying. From the puzzles reflecting ideas, concepts, and even past conversations to the optional rooms requiring lateral thinking that is brought up several sectors after the room that needs it, The Turing Test truly will test you. I personally do not believe there are ‘perfect’ games, but if I were the judge that decided if The Turing Test could pass as one, I’d have a hard time making up my mind.

For the next review we head over to the Playstation 4 version of the game, and PlayStation Country who rated the game at an impressive 90. The reviewer praising the games visuals in the Unreal 4 Engine, with the games purposely stripped back and clinical look suiting the game perfectly and allowing the player to focus on the puzzle elements.

The reviewer also has plenty of praise for the voice work from the two main leads, the reviewer saying they really bring the story to life, with the reviewer finding the way story was handled worked really well. Concluding the reviewer said they thoroughly enjoyed their time with The Turing Test. They continued by saying, the game offers a decent line in puzzles, and tops this off with a great thought provoking story.

ICXM are next up with their Xbox review of the game, the reviewer calling the game a fantastic but short puzzle game, which features gorgeous graphics and clever problems to solve. The review continued by saying, you’ll also remember the ending and will be taking about how shocking it was for weeks to come.

Next we go to XboxAddict who scored the game at 85, the review calling the game worth every penny, even with the few bumps in the road, they continued by saying. If you are a fan of puzzles, and appreciate a fantastic story laid out in beautiful graphic detail that is complemented by a soundtrack and soundscape that is of the top tier quality, then The Turing Test is an absolute must buy for you.

Game Informer also rated the game at an 85, the reviewer saying The Turing Test joins Portal as another great puzzle game featuring an ominous A.I. entity. They continued by saying, the puzzles will make think, but not as much as the story’s wonderful exploration of life.

The review did have some issues when new concepts were introduced to the player, resulting in a dip in the overall excitement, and are accompanied with unnecessary tutorial puzzles, they also found the games story stalls out a little in the middle to hammer home ideas that have already been established.

Heading to the other end of the ratings scale we find the game overall rated pretty well, not receiving a review score below a 70, with a good chunk of reviewers rating the game at this score. Starting with Windows Central who were one of them, their reviewer called the game, a tough as nails puzzler, that in some ways blows Portal out of the airlock for its brain bending antics.

Push Square also rated the PS4 version at a 70, their reviewer calling the game both a thoughtful meditation on the implications of artificial intelligence and a competent first person puzzler. With its clever systems and mechanical focus on logic making it satisfying to play. The review did however find that pacing issues are certainly present in they game but not enough to detract from the experience.

Heading back to the Xbox we find God is a Geek who also rated the game at a 70, the review calling thegame a steady puzzle game that is elevated by its story and mystery, but never quite original enough to make it stand out.

The reviewer praised the games scripting and voice acting calling it exceptional, combined with a moderately unsettling atmosphere and a mystery that his compelling enough to be always pulling you along, but lets its self down now and then by being a little easy to exploit.

Official Playstation Magazine UK who’s reviewer rated the game at a 70, its reviewer saying. It’s the quality of the headscratchers that earns Turing a passing score. GameSpew another reviewer that rated the game at a 70 and said all but one the puzzles in The Turing Test are impressive and smartly designed, some offer relative simple solutions while others truly test your mental metal.

The review did find a couple of physics issues one some of the puzzles, with them not working as intended at times. The reviewer also found the narrative and puzzles often feel as they run adjacent without every really connecting, concluding though the review said the puzzles are so well designed and fun to complete that the few shortcomings can be forgiven.

Lastly we have Metro GameCentral with another 70 rated review, like previous reviews mentioned the likeness between this game and Portal, and obviously intentional. They continued by saying, but this smart and ambitious first person puzzler is no mere clone.

This is the part of Modern Game Weekly where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk for older generation titles and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

This is where we would normally head over to Gamedude, Retrogames, eStarland and Amazon. However The Turing Test has never received a physical release, as a result we will be looking for the game via the Playstation Store, The Xbox Store and Steam.

Starting with the Playstation Store, this is for the UK version of the store, we find the game listed at £15.99, switching to the US version of the store we find the game listed at $19.99, which converts to a slightly lower UK price of £14.21. so if you are in the UK, create a US account to get the game £1.70 cheaper.

Next we head to the Xbox Store where we find the game listed at $19.99, this is the US version of the Xbox Store again this converts to £14.21 if you are in the UK, and again it would be £1.70 cheaper, with the UK store having the game priced up at £15.99

Lastly we head to Steam, where we find two listings for the game plus one piece of downloadable content. Starting with the base game, this will set you back £14.99 in the UK from Steam. The downloadable content for the game is the Upgrade Pack, this contains all the extras that are contained in the collectors edition, this included 3 pieces of DLC for the game, the original Pre-Alpha Prototype of The Turning Test, Official Art Book and Soundtrack for £7.49.

The collectors edition, which features all of the above content can be purchased from Steam for £17.98, the collectors edition is currently on offer with 20% off the price, with a usual price of around £21.50. In addition to buying the game separately you can buy it as a part of the Eidos Anthology, which contains 56 games with DLC for £304.13, this is currently half price.

  

Written by

P J Gibbon