Adventure Gamers - Forums

Technobabylon.

I don’t like the setting, I don’t like the story, I don’t like the characters. It’s all a little too ‘mature’ for me. I’d rather hang out with the crew from The Dig than anyone I’ve met so far in this game.

That is so very funny, when you don’t like a game, you don’t like a game!

Adv_Lvr: Not necessarily a bad game. The two protagonists paths have just converged, and there have been some very good puzzles already. Perhaps the story just isn’t my kind of story, and the people just aren’t my kind of people. Actually, there’s more to it than that, but I will save it for later.

Luhr: That’s a great question, and I’m glad you brought up the music, since my views on most metal correlate with my views of Technobabylon (so far) very nicely.  Perhaps mature is the wrong word. It’s more of an affection toward maturity.  I don’t think the kind of music I listen to is intellectually mature in terms of lyrical and thematic content -not usually, at least. Musically, it is often incredibly mature, from a standpoint of technical skill and song composition.
Likewise, the gameplay in Technobabylon has been top notch so far. It’s the story side of the game that is completely whiffing for me. Just like I think metal often strikes out when it tries to be too serious, games do the same. But I will keep listening/playing when the music/puzzles/gameplay are good enough. Trust me, I didn’t play God of War for PS2 for the plot. (And coincidentally, that is another very immature ‘Mature’ game.)
I should say that most of my favorite films are G or PG rated. Ghibli, Disney, the studio that make Song of the Sea and A Cat In Paris…things like that. So it’s a matter of taste, which I think is informed by how I see the world and what I’m looking for in my entertainment. Exceptions exist, but in general I just don’t like stories about robotic French maids that may or may not have been used by their owners for extracurricular sexy time activities cutting open one of their owners after he shot his husband who tumbled into their bedroom jacuzzi.  I prefer more light hearted adventure game fare. Or better written and less contrived dark gritty post-modern hardboiled realism.
Yeah, GTA will never be on my top 10 list.

Since I wrote my last post, I played a little more and some other things happened that I’m not on board with, such as forcing the player to perform despicable actions, in a game where I am often torn between knowing if I am role playing or just playing along.

But! I am still enjoying it, and I will keep going. I can see it getting better, and I can see it getting worse (in my own personal estimation), and I’m interested to see what my final feelings will be.

Baron_Blubba - 29 May 2021 11:58 AM

Yeah, GTA will never be on my top 10 list.

Same, but maybe for different reasons. The best anecdote I’ve ever heard about GTA: two siblings playing the demo of the first game, making it a challenge to drive as neatly as possible and cause a minimum amount of casualties in the given time. I really like it when people find a way to use the given mechanics and play completely outside of the bounds set by the developer.

Since I wrote my last post, I played a little more and some other things happened that I’m not on board with, such as forcing the player to perform despicable actions, in a game where I am often torn between knowing if I am role playing or just playing along.

I get that. It’s an interesting point: does a good adventure game allow you to make decisions and take actions because you think they’re valid/important/fun/some kind of motivation other than moving the story along? Even though that is, mechanically, the obvious and desired result. Is this mostly subjective or are there good and bad ways to approach this immersive motivation?

But! I am still enjoying it, and I will keep going. I can see it getting better, and I can see it getting worse (in my own personal estimation), and I’m interested to see what my final feelings will be.

Glad to hear it and very interested in the rest of your thoughts and feelings. I had figured this game would be more up your alley, but it’s cool to learn about your approach to (adventure) games.

VP: The puzzles are absolutely up my alley. *So far* I am just not enjoying the characterization of the people or the realization of the setting. Who knows? It might change!

As far as player-protagonist agency goes: It wouldn’t be fair to say that a *good* adventure game does one or the other, because I’ve seen plenty of good adventure games fail in both directions. But, I will say that any game would be enhanced by making it clear whether it is one or the other: Is the player responsible for the moral choices of his character, to a reasonable extent (I don’t expect complete agency from an indie point and click adventure game), or is the player along for the ride? I know that when I play Day of The Tentacle, I’m Laverne—living in her world, acting by her rules, subordinating my logic to her logic, and it’s very clear that this is the case.  If I tried to play that game as Michael Lock, I wouldn’t make it very far at all. Actually, Laverne is a bad example…Our minds are much too similar. Let’s say Ben Throttle instead. But you get the idea.
In Technobabylon, all the non-voiced text makes it seem like YOU are playing as YOU…or as you as you can be within a mostly linear narrative structure. Then you run into a dialogue tree that makes it seem like you have choices, one of which might be much more personally appealing than the other, but by the time you’ve whittled down all the options in the dialogue, you realize that only one course of action is possible. That’s frustrating, in a disturbingly* uncanny ‘who am I?’ wayI would not have bombed the vacant apartment. I would have let the blackmailer destroy my EVF material.

*Not existentially disturbing. Immersion disturbing.

Customers have shown up at the toy store, so…to be continued.

DCast - 29 May 2021 05:43 PM

+1 for Technobabylon rep. I thought it was a great game!
Then again, I AM a big fan of dark and gritty and mature (whatever that means for anyone) and sinister and even morbid and full of gore, so… Different strokes!

Sure you still up for Strangeland, BB?

Absolutely! There is a professed benevolence and optimism in Primordia that earned my admiration. One of the developers was in this forum a little bit ago and said something like ‘we wanted to show that it is possible to be nice and live light, even in a bleak environment.’

For the record, I am currently playing and loving Disco Elysium. I can embrace darkness, when done how I like it done. Heck, one of my favorite games is Twisted Metal: Black. It’s terrible, and it’s hilarious. I don’t like darkness or ’ grittiness’ (stupid word to describe it, but that’s the way the word is used these days) as serious social commentary, which I feel is the case with Technobabylon. Even DE, high falutin as it is at times, always seems to be winking at me and saying ‘hey, you can take this seriously, or you can take it with our collective tongues in our collective cheeks—it’s your call, and we’re not telling you what *we* really mean by it.’
That’s great writing for ya.

What can I say? I loved Technobabylon, for me it’s the adventure game made in this century I enjoyed the most and chapter 111-JAHILIYYAH is superb.

“The Last Express”. It immediately won me over. I figured out its mechanic quite soon after and now I’m eavesdropping, possibly swindling a German arms dealer and snooping around like it’s nobody’s business.

Made quite a bit of progress in Technobabylon. I just booted everyone off the server in the opium den, playing as the thralled girl. Good puzzles, excellent story set up, especially having Charlie chasing after Thrall Girl in order to save her, and her running from him because she thinks he wants to kill her. The idea itself is not original, but the way it’s set up is superlative. I think I’m enjoying the forest of this game, but not the trees. The overall plot is pretty good, but I just don’t like the details. I could go into the nitty gritty of why I think the characters are poorly written pieces of cardboard, and the problem with the narrator switching between second person and first person, as if the designers decided to switch up the style half way through production. But I’ll do that later. For now, I think my main issue is more personal: The culture of this game is just lost on me. I ‘get it’, but I don’t like it. I don’t enjoy playing as an internet addict (even though I see the character growth/change coming), and I don’t enjoy playing as hardboiled Charlie—just not the kind of person I relate to, and Max is okay, but just…bland. Everyone is so bland. The hackers, the doctors, the CEL officers, the AI characters. The best character so far was the guy selling salvation outside the opium den, but even he is a transparent vehicle for an obvious idea. He gets away with it, because street corner psycho salvation-selling preachers are generally just vehicles for ideas, even in real life.
That all sounds so harsh. Truth be told, I’m enjoying the game more and more as it goes on, and I can see many of the reasons why so many people like it so much. The puzzles range from good to excellent, and the story is broad but focused. So it’s delicious, but not my taste. Or at least, not my favorite dish.