Also On: Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Bulkhead Interactive
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: T
As much as Iโd like to judge The Turing Test on its own terms, I donโt think thatโs possible. Itโs a Portal clone, and thatโs evident on almost every aspect of the game. You play as a female character woken up in mysterious circumstances by an unseen robot. You move from room to room solving a series of puzzles, some involving cubes, all involving a specialized weapon/tool that looks like a gun but isnโt. Gradually you realize that the robot may not have your best interests at heart. The specifics of how it all unfolds may be a little different, but in broad terms, itโs hard to imagine any two games being more identical.
Thatโs not to say The Turing Test copied every aspect of Portal. Most notably, it lacks that gameโs sense of humour. The Turing Test takes its sci-fi very seriously, and aims to be a meditation on what artificial intelligence really means. There are no sassy robots here; itโs just plot and philosophical discourse all the way.
Which, truth be told, probably isnโt the worst way to go about ripping off Portal. As far as Iโm concerned, Portal 2 might be the funniest game Iโve ever played, so any attempt at copying that likely wouldโve come off as a pale imitation. The makers of The Turing Test clearly recognized that, and set out to do their own thing. I canโt say that Iโm as deeply invested in thinking about the nature of artificial intelligence as I was inโฆwell, everything that went on with GLaDOS and Wheatley, but I appreciate that Bulkhead Interactive told their own story.
Itโs just a shame that they didnโt take a similar approach to The Turing Testโs gameplay. As I said a few paragraphs ago, the extent to which this rips off Portal is astounding. Rather than having a portal gun, you have an โEnergy Manipulation Toolโ that closes and opens doors. The whole game takes place in a sterile, white facility, with reminders strewn about to hint at what may have come before you. Youโre guided in your tasks by an unseen robot, who, while less malevolent than GLaDOS, still draws inspiration from the HAL 9000 school of robot-human interaction. Just about the only difference is that the puzzles here arenโt anywhere close to being as complex or difficult as they are in Portal โ which, all things considered, is kind of a drawback.
Of course, thereโs a huge difference between โnot as good as Portal 2โ and โnot worth playingโ, not least because thereโs a good argument to be made that Portal 2 is the best game ever. Failing to live up to perfection is only failure in a very broad sense of the term, and The Turing Test hardly counts as a bad game. It wonโt make you forget that elephant-sized game in the corner of the room by any means, but if youโre still wishing that, one way or another, GLaDOS and Chell could return, this probably counts as the closest youโre going to get.