Just like another personal favourite from the mid-2010s, [b]The Journey Down[/b] (in fact, I decided to get here after reviewing that), [b]Technobabylon[/b] originated as a freeware production from the beginning of that decade, three chapters with simple graphics released before silence, and re-emerged some years later as a full-blown production courtesy of Wadjet Eye.
It comes naturally to me to draw comparisons with another personal classic with a cyberpunk setting, 1994's [b]Beneath A Steel Sky[/b], especially as there are parts where players, as Latha, have to enter cyberspace (here called "Trance") using her avatar Mandala, with an appropriately more cartoonish look for her and other users.
However, while this game has its moments of levity (like working with the circuitry of French maid androids), is definitely much darker, the world feels even more grungy, the dystopia is full-blown in parts, like that specialized restaurant - the conversation with the cook is so surreal, one of the best moments. Regis and Lao have to work on really gruesome crime scenes, and some considerations about the risks of the use of AI are eerily closer to the reality of the mid-2020s.
The graphics, mostly the work of a single artist, feature amazing backgrounds that could've been easily produced by the "majors" of adventure gaming in the mid-90s. I'd go as far as saying the low resolution (not clear if it's due to limitations of the Adventure Game Studio engine or a voluntary choice) hurts them a bit, with some details becoming excessively smudged, but it also helps with giving an used, lived-in look to even the cleanest laboratory. The characters are less excellent, the spritework is overall good but most of them seem to be drawn over a single template, same height, same static pose with arms on the sides. At least they are complemented by detailed close-up portraits for conversations, several of them with changing expressions. All in all, pixel art enjoyers can feast here.
Puzzles are a mixed bag, some good and intuitive, others what I'd call "more complicated than complex", as they force many tedious passages with machinery and computers, especially when Latha's wetware is involved. They however take a backseat to the story and dialogue, even more in later chapters, as the characters move a lot into gray moral areas, with motivations that are as questionable as they are sympathetic. While Latha felt annoying at times, I'd say that for most of the story she has good reasons to be angry about earlier events. Shame that you can effectively play as Lao only for one chapter, this is mostly Regis and Latha's story - but a good one, engaging, with excellent world-building, a few genuinely interesting questions on ethics, and endings that are good for the main characters but leave much wider implications for the setting. Also props for the Mindjacker, one of the most odious, smarmy, punchable villains I've experienced in a game, very satisfying to bring him down.
Of course fans of cyberpunk settings must get [b]Technobabylon[/b] but it's very recommended in general. Huge shame that a sequel, which was shown to be switching to 3D but keeping an oldschool vibe, has fallen into development hell.
