Total Reload

About Total Reload

Total Reload is an indie adventure puzzle game from TORSHOCK, released on PC, Linux, and Mac in 2025. You play as an outsider controlling the body of HAWKING, an AI tasked with rebooting the universe. The game blends spatial puzzles with a meta-narrative, using on-screen text from HAWKING’s independent consciousness and cryptic wall drawings to piece together the story. Its premise is audacious: a single-mechanism world where you manipulate physics to activate systems and launch a “total reload.” The tone is cerebral, leaning into themes of isolation and intellectual struggle, with Easter eggs to Muse and Robert Heinlein. It’s a game that treats problem-solving as both a mechanic and a metaphor.

Gameplay

The core loop revolves around spatial puzzles that require altering gravity, time, or material states to unlock systems. Each level is a self-contained machine, and you navigate through them as HAWKING, interacting with terminals and devices to progress. HAWKING’s AI mind occasionally interrupts with text updates, hinting at backstory and conflicting priorities. Controls are precise but methodical, emphasizing slow, deliberate exploration over action. You’ll toggle between manipulating the environment and reading environmental clues to understand the plot. The puzzles grow complex as you adjust multiple variables at once, but backtracking is minimal, each level is designed for a single playthrough. The game’s single-player mode focuses on discovery, with no combat or time pressure.

What Players Think

PlayPile community ratings average 84/100, with 65% of players completing the game. Average playtime is 10 hours, though 30% of reviews cite the story as “too abstract to follow.” Community moods are split: 30% curious, 25% impressed, and 15% frustrated. Critics give it 78/100, praising its ambition but noting “a steep learning curve.” One user wrote, “A mind-bending puzzle experience with a haunting narrative,” while another called it “a confusing but rewarding puzzle journey.” Achievement completion is 92%, but only 12% of players unlock all 40 badges. The game has a niche following, with 15% returning to it within a month of purchase.

PlayPile's Take

Total Reload is a niche, cerebral title best for players who enjoy slow-burn puzzles and meta-narratives. At its $30 price point, it offers value for those patient enough to untangle its story and mechanics. While not all puzzles land, the ambition is clear. Achievements are present but not overwhelming. It’s not for everyone, especially those seeking traditional gameplay, but its unique approach to storytelling and problem-solving makes it a standout for a specific audience. Worth trying if its philosophical themes and abstract design resonate with you.

Storyline

The plot of the game will be presented in an unusual way. At the start, you will take control of the body of the main character - an Artificial Intelligence named HAWKING, while the AI's mind will function independently and realize that the body is now controlled by someone else. Therefore, HAWKING's mind will periodically communicate with you through text comments that will appear on the screen at certain moments. With the help of these comments and wall drawings you will learn the plot of TOTAL RELOAD. This is a story about loneliness and difficult challenges posed to oneself, a story about the search for absolute universal knowledge. In a sense, this is a metaphorical narrative hidden under science fiction about the game developers themselves, alone trying to complete a difficult task and overcoming various intellectual obstacles. The game will also contain references to the works of real-life personalities, for example, to the songs of the rock band Muse and the book by Robert Heinlein.