The Turing Test
The Turing Test is a first-person puzzle video game that was released in 2016. The game follows Ava Turing, a space engineer working at a research base on Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons), as she searches for her members of the ground team. She is accompanied by a male voiced AI named TOM (Technical Operations Machine) that the International Space Agency has created. TOM is everywhere and is on command like an “Alexa”, but with more ability and authority. In the beginning of the game Ava is woken from her 10 year sleep by TOM with a mission. TOM explains to her that he has lost communication with the ground team for over 25 days and that he needs her to find them. Ava does as she is told and quick travels to the base on Europa where the ground team was on. Upon entering the base Ava’s progression is stopped by a locked door and to get it open the player must transfer a ball of energy to its power source(s).
TOM tells Ava how he originally built the rooms on the base, but the ground team had made some changes that prevented him from passing through. He calls the puzzle obstacles the Turing test, a test designed by Alan Turing to tell humans and machines apart with typically problems only solvable by a human. The problems are a combination of logical and lateral thinking which TOM admits he cannot solve and that’s why he needs Ava’s help.
Then comes a room where Ava cannot simply collect all the energy balls and place them properly to progress but TOM swoops in to help.
TOM has cameras and robots that can help move energy when Ava is physically incapable. The player can now switch controls between TOM and Ava but not simultaneously. Once the player has made a pathway for Ava through TOM, the player must switch back to Ava to proceed.
When the player has made it past the last stage Ava walks on her own as she is guided by one of the members of the ground team, Sarah. The player can resist Ava’s automatic movements but there is no game progression in doing so. Sarah explains to Ava how the team found an organism that can make humans immortal, but TOM wants to keep it away from Earth. Sarah also tells Ava how TOM has a semi-controlling chip implanted in her hand and asks Ava does she want it removed. Ava says yes without the player’s consent then an error screen appears saying the signal is lost. The player can rotate around the cameras that TOM is following the girls from.
In the last scene of the gameplay, the girls are seen entering TOM’s control unit, his mind, to shut him down. The player now has control of TOM’s laser gun and is able to point and shoot wherever. The player can end the gameplay in two ways. The first ending occurs when the player controls TOM to kill the girls off. The second ending occurs when the player does not control TOM to do anything and allows TOM to be killed. After the gameplay, before the credits, a text appears saying “CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE PASSED THE TURING TEST”.
The ending text appeared on the screen as if it were being typed on a computer. When the lost signal appeared, it also looked as if it was on a computer. These digitized components helped me come to a conclusion that the player’s gameplay does not revolve around Ava but actually around TOM, the player is TOM.
There is a chip in Ava controlled by TOM and that’s the only way the player was able to control her, once it was removed then the player had no more control. The gameplay couldn’t start without PLAYER (TOM) waking her up and the player was able to control Ava when she had awakened because of the chip. The dialogue throughout TOM and Ava’s adventure is more about TOM and how important he is to the International Space Agency. The players were not given a choice when Sarah asked to remove Ava’s chip, as they would expect, because the chip only gives them limited control. TOM expresses reasonable concern with bringing an organism that gives immortality to Earth saying it could cause mass starvation, poverty, and so on. I think TOM expresses these concerns as if how the player would react.
When I played the game and was brought to the scene where Sarah tells Ava about the organism, I wasn’t so sure to trust her. Then TOM stated all the devastation it could bring, I didn’t want it to be brought to Earth either. TOM an AI is also given some emotions that, yet again, most likely would be the reaction from the player. The player is given control over TOM’s mind and weapon with a choice, to kill or not to kill. If the player chose to kill the girls, TOM calls out Ava’s name repeatedly almost in regret in disbelief. I didn’t want Ava to die after I spent a bonding adventure with her either. If the player chose to let the girls tear TOM apart, TOM says he is afraid and begs Ava not to kill him. I felt for TOM hoping Ava wouldn’t kill me off as I watched her through the camera lens of TOM.
If TOM were allowed to make his own AI choice which would’ve most likely been to kill the threat like he was programmed to, I would have felt as if I were watching a movie instead of playing a game. As well as if TOM didn’t express any emotion and if we weren’t giving any choices or even given a choice with Ava, that desired plot twist wouldn’t have been so shocking to the players since they wouldn’t have made any significant connections with the characters.
