Technobabylon:
Time to Beat: 8 Hours
At first glance, Technobabylon
seems like a poorly rendered and yet supposedly modern, point and
click puzzle solver, based on, yet inferior to, The Longest
Journey or Grim Fandango. But as I sit writing this
article on an adventure game released in 2015, I find it more
difficult to describe than any game in the last two years, because it
confounded my expectations. Originally begun as a side project by
James
Dearden, with ten proposed free-to-play episodes, he
abandoned it after only three were released in 2011. Fortunately,
developer Wadjet
Eye Games noticed Technobabylon's untapped potential,
convinced James to hire an artist, and developed the game to
completion.
I'd inadvertently acquired
Technobabylon as part of a Humble Bundle back in October 2016
which featured Chroma Squad. But as was the case with XCOM
2 and Stellaris, the game sought, is often not the
game most enjoyed, and in a similar manner Chroma Squad disappointed
(see
last year). I might never have installed Technobabylon,
except for a Rock,
Paper, Shotgun article I read.
Technobabylon
tells its story over ten episodes, featuring a bewildering
variety of characters, with over twenty-six actors to supply their
voices. Over the course of the game, the player will control three
citizens of Newtown: Latha, a thrall, who lives on public charity for
the permanently unemployed, Charles Regis, CEL agent, widower, former
Genengineer turned Luddite, and Max Lao, a fully reconstructed woman,
an expert with Wetware, and Charlie's partner at CEL.
Though the above descriptions seemed to
be written with an intent to deceive, this is not a bug but a
feature. Technobabylon immerses the player in an exotic but
recognizable reality by designing terminology which is easy to grasp
but essential to describe its setting. The writer and developer use
their terminology to support a vast, convincing world, which is
especially surprising, since the player never leaves Newton, a
futuristic cyberpunk city set near (in?) modern day Kenya. The world
includes many facts which hover at the periphery of the story,
pinging upon the players mind, like tiny texts of trivia, yet never
feel invasive, but integral to the story, as even the smallest detail
shapes some facet of the characters.
Eventually
supporting a cast of dozens and a world of billions,
Technobabylon starts simply, with Latha trapped in her cheap,
squalid hovel. Part of a massive complex created for an
overabundance of the unemployed, the single room apartment contains
items which only barely resemble their Platonic form: a bed, table,
wetware generator, and grey pulp dispenser (food). In this first
scene Technobabylon appears to have originated out of the
Escape the Room genre, and one might be compelled to abandon the
adventure before it begins. If we're being honest, everyone's
already heard the “it gets better spiel” which normally is a lie,
but this time it's not. This first episode might appear inadequate,
mundane, or even unconnected from larger plot, but it's a
review/sample of the puzzles in this point and click game, and
essential to the story.
The other aspect likely to deter
players, pampered by extravagant artistic budgets (or even Braid),
are its atrocious character models and its nearly as deficient
backgrounds. Backgrounds are indistinct and blurry while characters
are blocky, though sometimes the intended design outshines the
depiction. Charlie even stutter steps around some of the scenes. But
when a character speaks, their head is enlarged and enhanced, Zordon
like. These faces are astounding for their detail in comparison to
the character models. They are empathetically emotive, able to
depict a quirky eye roll, soul wearying sadness, and faithful hope,
with a realistic rigor the rest of the aesthetic lacks.
But the real question is, can an
Adventure Game contribute to video games in 2017? The popular debate
of the gaming industry over the last decade has discussed the value
and viability of the adventure game genre. At its best, the point
and click genre combines a well written story with enjoyable puzzles.
An adept puzzle maker aspires to the paradoxical combination of two
elements, complexity and clarity. At its worst, a puzzle is long,
complicated, and the solutions defy the basics of logic. These
puzzles painfully consume the player's time, bog down the story and
withdraw the player from the immersion the writer has painstakingly
constructed. Simple puzzles which require no thought are better, but
not much. If a puzzle can be solved without effort there was no
reason for its inclusion. But puzzles which challenge the player
within reason are the goal of the developer.
Though the golden age of adventure
games is long past, a variety of companies have delivered premium
Adventure games over the last decade, each with their own style.
Telltale Games single-handedly revived Triple-A point and click games
by inventing the episodic format and focusing on story over puzzles,
while Double Fine has revived old products and reinventing new games
around the same old structure, and smaller indie projects have found
success as well (such as The
Fall). Technobabylon is neither a Telltale
episodic adventure, with its limited puzzle solving and player driven
choices (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us), nor like Double
Fine's Grim Fandang which bewilders the player with needlessly
complex, and outright preposterous puzzles. Instead, Technobabylon's
puzzles are the perfect blend of
intricacy and simplicity.
One
particularly ingenious puzzle style involves reprogramming robots.
This form of puzzles occurs multiple throughout, as Charlie attempts
to solve a mystery. In Technobabylon
a robot is composed of three elements (personality, role, and
memory), and Charlie can collect robot identities (a barman, a maid
who witnessed a murder, a bodyguard, a salesman), and implant these
pieces into a robot body in order for it to divulge the information
he desires. Another unique puzzle was introduced after a suicide
bomber struck a cannibal restaurant (serves only vat grown human
flesh). Though the bomber died Charlie realized he had needed an
accomplice to enter the restaurant unobserved, and the man, woman, or
robot who aided bomber must be four conspirators Charlie was meeting.
Instead of locating evidence proving the guilt of an individual, the
Charlie eliminated options by reviewing personal alibis and the
manner in which the suicide bomber attained entrance to the
establishment. In the spirit of simplicity, the game helpfully
informs the player when a suspect has been eliminated.
And while eight
hours of puzzle solving may seem like a lot, the three controllable
protagonists each approach puzzles in their own way. Latha uses the
Net to Trance, networking with machines, and searching for clues
online. Charlie attacks problems through a rough, investigative
style popular in modern criminal shows, and Max employs a mixture of
their techniques, with a more levelheaded procedure. The gameplay of
Technobabylons doesn't detract from the plot, but reinforces it by
expanding the setting, background, and character, while not impeding
the progression of the story.
There's a lot more
to talk about Technobabylon: Newton, Central, CEL, how a
Genegineer like Charlie came to be a widower and working as a CEL
agent, and the plots to usurp control of Newton. And that will be
next week's article.
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