EGX Rezzed 2016 - The Turing Test

The Turing Test is a part of the first wave of Square Enix Collective titles being released over the coming years. For those of you unaware, the Square Enix Collective is a platform curated by Square Enix that allows developers to submit their game to a project list and see if their title receive support from the gaming community. If these titles are well-received, Square Enix will potentially offer to financially back the game's Kickstarter or Indiegogo. The Turing Test was a successful project that will be Published on Steam and Xbox One as part of the Square Enix Collective. The Turing Test is developed by Bulkhead interactive, a merge of Deco Digital and Bevel Studios. Bulkhead previously developed Pneuma: Breath of Life and the upcoming Battalion 1944.

The game itself is a First Person Puzzle game in which you take the role of Ava Turing, an engineer thrust into the mysteries of the seemingly abandoned research base on Europa. The game's story is told mainly through dialogue between Ava and a mysterious robotic voice, discussing the fate of the base and occasionally waxing philosophical.

The gameplay centers around the player solving a number of logic puzzles that are designed so that "only a human can solve them." While this game could fall into the background in the wake of the amount of stellar First Person Puzzle games in recent memory, this neat little setup of playing a virtual Turing Test, coupled with the shady mystery driving the plot, is enough to be worth paying attention to.

Puzzles are solved through generic interaction moving power sources around to affect the environment, as well as the transfer of energy between sources using an energy manipulation tool. From the short exposure I had to the puzzles in the game, they seemed perfectly serviceable but not as immediately arresting as perhaps a game like this should be aiming for in a first impression. Being the opening minutes of the game, it is likely that the complexity and intrigue of the puzzles will expand as the game continues. The game's website details the ability to "switch between multiple perspectives to solve The Turing Test’s most challenging puzzles," but I sadly did not get to experience that.

Even if the puzzle gameplay element does not turn out to be particularly special, The Turing Test's setup alone was enough to pique my interest. The environment of the Europa and its base is rather interesting too—the whole game gives off an insanely cold and clinical tone perfectly in keeping with the themes. It's a simple, mysterious looking game that you should keep an eye out for.

The Turing Test will be coming to Steam and the Xbox One in August 2016.