Technobabylon: A World Unto Itself


Technobabylon:

Technobabylon is the video game fusion of Neuromancer and A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, but emphasizing gengineering, genetic engineering, a process which has become so commonplace in 2087, it has its own terminology. A young Charles Regis earned his degree in Texas, a fundamentalist, irradiated, hellscape where crusading christian warlords rebelled against modernity by breeding and indoctrinating genetically engineered human bombs. Altered to grow bones which produce nitrates instead of calcium, these young men and women suffer disfiguring abnormalities, and are told to sacrifice themselves in their abominable war.

Appalled by his work, Charlie fled to Newton, the city of the future. The democratically elected government of Newton was eager to become the global hub of a new Renaissance, embracing genetic engineering and an unrestrained internet, and funding a technological project with grand aspirations. Newton wanted an artificial intelligence capable of managing the city for the benefit of the people. Led by the great Dr. Vargas, Charlie labored with Doctors Baxter, Viksha, Chigwa, and Jeong to achieve this desire. Nearing success, they reached an impasse: the AI they wished to create required an organic component to fulfill its purpose. How Dr. Vargas acquired his biological building blocks and what he did with them, are the source of Technobabylon's mysterious conflict. Dr. Vargas and his team did complete the project, but not before tempers flared, and amid ugly recriminations and irreconcilable differences Charlie resigned. This is all incredibly interesting, isn't it (?), but it's all backstory, told in flashbacks in the second half of Technobablyon, and unalterable by the player.
In current time, twenty-five years later, Charlie is employed by CEL (Centralized Emergency Logistics) – the massive enforcement apparatus of Central, the AI devised by Charlie, but completed without his influence. As a CEL agent he works with Max Lao, and together, under the direction of Central, are investigating a series of high profile mindjackings of prominent experts in everything from political policy, to literature, to nuclear physics. Mindjacking involves the download of a subject's mind into the downloader, allowing the downloader to access the memories which have been taken, but killing the subject in the process.

Latha, after escaping her apartment, seconds before it is demolished by an explosion, stumbles around Newton, desperate to understand who attempted to kill her, while also eager to slip into a never ending Trance. To Trance, to enter into a networked experience which our 2017 society can not even fathom. Fully immersive, and therefore dangerously addicting, those who live in permanent Trance, only exiting to eat, sleep, and defecate, are derogatorily termed Thralls.
The paths of Charlie and Latha cross as their unknown connections to Central draw them into a story complete with murder, extortion, blackmail, betrayal, deceit, and treachery (Max is not necessary to the story, but as a means for the player to be shown relevant details which Charlie and Latha do not have access to).

Charlie, searching for the Mindjacker, discovers two parallel plots to usurp Central's reign, while Latha is manipulated by malignant forces beyond her understanding. In the race to save Central the player can choose from two possible endings. This is an odd design choice, since there are three proposed solutions to the problem of Central (and one could think of others). As the overseer of a multi-million city, everyone has their own opinion of what Central should be. A multinational industrialist wants a corrupt system he can bribe to evade environmental laws. A populist politician wants control of the city to returned to a democratic foundation, the citizens. A physicist wants to study Central and improve its functions. A curmudgeonly Neo-Luddite wants a more simple, hands off system. A computer programmer on the outs wants in on maintaining the system for monetary benefit. And there undoubtedly others: anarchists, humanitarians, criminals, and would be dictators eager to implement a 1984 police state. But the key fight revolves around whether Central is a like a person, or like a machine. Should it learn as it works, so it can develop a relationship with the city of Newton, or should it be imprinted with the experience of experts on every conceivable subject? Should it be contained in a single city, or expanded to a global reach? Or is Central functioning sufficiently, that any change risks upsetting a well crafted system?
The truth is, Technobabylon doesn't provide the tools to act on all of these questions, and the developer never feels pressured to provide an easy answer to every philosophical topic introduced, but it seems as if the true problem in Technobabylon isn't Central, but the people who seek to manipulate it. Though Charlie expresses a inherent distrust of the AI, Central never seemed malicious, dangerous, or disturbed. It's like I was expected the common, super powerful computer run amok scenario, but instead was delivered a thoughtful AI which works well. Central doesn't always make the choices I would, yet it can't be faulted for them. In other words, its hard to desire the destruction of a computer, if it produces the outcome one desires. Central is not the problem.

Yet it's engaging to observe the others, humans and robots fighting over the very foundation of Newton. And the action doesn't even end with players final choice. Both conclusions offer differing, yet remarkable, insights into Central, and what it desires. Unfortunately, it's hard to imagine a sequel, since the both endings are mutually exclusive. The designer would have to choose one or the other, disappointing some fans in the process.
In summation, Technobabylon combines the perfect variety of puzzles, with an acceptable aesthetic, and a story that isn't just a simple tale, but an entire world of which the player can only experience a single city. Each detail of every character is not a random aberration, but sourced from some event somewhere in the world, where even the tangential feels substantiated by the broad background painted painstakingly by the author, and drawing the player in.
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