High points Deep and engrossing – Technobabylon is a well-written cyberpunk adventure game with a knack for fleshing out its world via descriptive storytelling. For a game that looks like it was made in the early 90’s, it comes to life with witty dialogue, interesting characters, and believable explanations of technology that would impress William Gibson. It easily articulates the impact of humans allowing technological advances to get out of control and effectively rule them. It paints a picture of a future full of genetic-manipulation, synthetic love, curable diseases, news outlets corrupted by corporations, and wars that are waged not just on the ground but also in the mind. If this were a novel, it could easily be a best seller among the Science-Fiction crowd. Fun characters and puzzles – Charlie and the gang, will interact with some interesting programs and synthetics in the city. I thought I had accidently turned on Discworld or Monkey Island after interacting with the various wacky programs in and out of the Trance. Most of the characters can be outright hilarious amongst an otherwise grim world. The interactions are only highlighted by intelligent puzzle design that refuses to force us into spamming random objects. The title gives plenty of hints to allow us to look at a situation logically, understand it, and complete the puzzle. Latha can interact with terminals and drift into the Trance to use programs and manipulation to hack the internet. Charlie and Max will find reasonable ways to discover clues, and hack into the brains of synthetics to twist their personalities to something more helpful. As much as I love The Walking Dead, I think this game properly demonstrates how to create meaningful gameplay, while also providing us with a stimulating tale. Hard Choices & Cold Outcomes – While it’s nothing like Mass Effect in terms of sheer volume of decision making, each of the available choices are not to be selected on a whim. No matter how well intentioned a choice may be, it is always countered by a consequence. You may not feel the immediate sting of what you’ve done, but eventually the game will let you understand the weight of it. This game doesn’t mind making you feel like a terrible person after your judgment calls. Average Points Technobabylon 3 Visual Discrepancy – In the early build that I’ve played, I’ve noticed that the visuals take a jarring leap between clean 16-bit graphics in the trance, and grimy looking pixels in the “real” world. I’m sure this is a stylistic choice by the development team, and I respect them for it, but it comes off as a bit jarring. I also noticed that characters are always speaking in the Trance, but in the real world their lips will only move in special sequences. It’s a small issue that dilutes the atmosphere of this otherwise immersive world. Low Points Technical Issues – There are a few bugs in the build I played but nothing that negatively affected gameplay. I did notice that the game crashes trying to Alt-Tab, or refuses to even start if you have a multi-monitor setup. I did notice that the game stopped Auto-saving on some levels, so be sure to manually save when you can. Hopefully all these issues will be ironed out by the time the game releases. Conclusion Technobabylon may not be a visual and technical marvel, but the story and immersive dialogue creates a believable Science Fiction world. If you’re a fan of cyberpunk books or the classic Blade Runner film, you’ll absolutely adore the detailed and brutal storyline of Technobabylon. I recommend that you buy this game at full price if you’re an adventure fan, or even if you’re a person that just loves great storytelling. Technocrat and Wadjet Eye Games did a fantastic job, and I still can’t believe these are the same people that made a game called “Nancy: The Happy Whore.”
