Technobabylon - Wadjet Eye and Technocrat games

Oh I have been a bad blogger haven't I? To be honest, I've not played any games of note to review really... well I was recently OBSESSED with the Walking Dead games by Telltale, but I'm not sure they fit the tone of the blog so I didn't post about them! Anyway, I had been waiting eagerly for this release from Wadjet Eye for a long time, so I leapt on it as soon as I was able to.


Here is what they have to say about the game themselves:


"City of Newton, 2087. Genetic engineering is the norm, the addictive Trance has replaced almost any need for human interaction, and an omnipresent AI named Central powers the city.
CEL agents Charlie Regis and Max Lao are investigating a serial Mindjacker who is tapping into the neural wiring of seemingly ordinary citizens, stealing their knowledge and leaving them dead. An agoraphobic net addict named Latha Sesame might be the next target. But when Charlie’s past comes back to haunt him, he and his partner find themselves on opposite sides of the law, with Latha’s fate in the crossfire"

Technocrat's Technobabylon (original)

Technobabylon with a bit of Wadjet Eye pizazz..

I played some very early versions of the first three chapters of this game released by Technocrat for free on the AGS forums I frequent, so I knew I wanted more of this game, and when I heard it was heading for the Midas touch of Wadjet Eye, I was delighted and excited to see what Dave Gilbert could do to it, and he hasn't disappointed.

Having played the earlier versions of the beginning, I steamed through that bit quickly, as I'd already put the hours in on the puzzles, but that wasn't off putting at all. The atmosphere and story was beautiful already from what Technocrat put in himself, and Wadjet Eye polished it to a high shine in my opinion, adding the voice acting and musical score I expect from them, that helped the immersive experience. Of course, the artwork was also beautiful, but what else would you expect? I know, I'm a Wadjet Eye fan-girl, I am! I admit it wholeheartedly.

The only thing I could possibly mark this game down on, is that it is occasionally confusing about exactly what is happening and what you're supposed to do. There were a couple of points here I felt a bit lost, but that is partly because this future world is a bit odd, and the people in it know things we don't. For the most part, it is explained, but I felt occasionally like I missed a vital conversation or something and had to do a bit of random exploration to work out how to proceed. That said, I did muddle through!

One of my favourite bits of the games was learning how to use the technology of the time to solve puzzles around you. At first it seems bizarre, and then you understand it like second nature, like a real integration of technology into society. You have to interact with machines and robots to solve puzzles, and of course, use the "trance".

I also connected rather strongly with Latha Sesame... she's an agoraphobe who spends her life in the "trance".. and I am an agoraphobe who spends my life on the internet/in games so I very much relate!

An odd thing I feel I must mention here, is something I'm not sure is intentional or not... I should probably ask Dave Gilbert, but one of the characters (Dr Adam Baxter) looks a LOT like Richard o'Brien (he of Rocky Horror Show and The Crystal Maze fame) This is, in my opinion a good thing, whether intentional or not ;) If the artist didn't use him as reference, I'll eat my hat. That nose! The ears! Gah! It's all too much to be coincidence! 

Dr Adam Baxter

Richard O'Brien.. no.. wait...

I then noticed that another character (Dr Nina Jeong) looks a lot like Yunjin Kim from Lost... Her eyebrows don't seem quite the same, but a startling similarity. Look at the nose shape, nasolabial creases... the eyes... even the lips! I'm not judging that the artist used these as reference by the way, Damn good choices in my opinion!

Yunjin Kim

Dr Nina Jeong

I really don't want to spoil the plot, because it's glorious. It's a cyberpunk dream. I adore this kind of storyline, and it's why I loved Gemini Rue so much. Thrown into a future world, that asks questions I've pondered myself, and makes you question the world. If, like me, you're a fan of sci-fi and cyberpunk, don't ask questions, just buy the damn thing now. If you liked Gemini Rue, you will like this, I guarantee it. 

It's hard to know what else I can say about this game without giving too much of the plot away, and the juicy plot and story is the backbone of this game, and I don't want to spoil it- so just play the damn thing already and come back and thank me later!

Buy the game here:

http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/technobabylon/

This is not an affiliate link, I get nothing if you buy this game, I'm not that popular ;)

Mata Hari "Betrayal is Only a Kiss Away" (2008)

The REAL Mata Hari in costume

The Real Mata Hari 

Well, I had high hopes for this game. It's one I'd had on my wishlist for awhile. I'd not read anything about apart from having websites suggest to me that "you like x, y and z, so you'll like this" and I'd seen some screenshots that made me interested.


Firstly, if you didn't know, Mata Hari was a real person, her real name was (Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" Zelle MacLeod) but she was mostly knwn by her stage name Mata Hari which comes from the Malay meaning, mata 'eye' and hari 'day', as a compound meaning 'sun'. Mata was an exotic dancer from the Netherlands, who was thought to be a spy. She seduced men and got secrets out of powerful people this way. She is said to have lived 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917, when she was executed in France by a firing squad under charges of espionage for Germany during World War 1. 
As you can imagine, the real story of Mata Hari is an interesting one in it's self, but sadly, that excitement and intrigue fails to come across in this game. What follows will involve some spoilers, be warned!

Firstly, I found the interface rather clunky to get on with. Any new interface in a game can be awkward, but I never quite felt right with it, even by the end of the game. It was also never explained anywhere (though originally the game may have come with a manual, but I got the direct download on Steam) It was also never explained that I could gain extra points by looking around for things, and gaining Spycraft, Wealth and Skill points. I only discovered this at the very end and felt duped. I realised I was gaining Skill Points every time I did a train journey the non-direct route but that was about it. Spycraft points are gained through investigating and noticing other things outside of the missions which actually explain what is happening. I found ONE of these randomly, and never found another. It was a pixel hunt thing for that one, so no idea how to get the rest. Wealth is gained through doing dances, and I only did the bare minimum of those, because the less said about that mini game, the better...

Train route mini-game

Ok I will explain the mini-games. The whole game relies heavily on mini-games. Repetitive and dull mini-games. There are three types, varied throughout, but repeated, and a couple of others that aren't done to death. The first is the train based mini game, where you have to pick a route on the trains to avoid the people trying to catch you. As you travel more there are more people to avoid, but you do get options like "safe stations" and to put some of them out of order. Paying it once is fun, but it gets very annoying very quickly as you have to travel a lot. You can learn about the direct routes to all cities from fellow spies, but you gain no skill points that way.

Infuriating dance mini-game

Secondly, my most hated, the dance mini-game. In this, you have to help Mata perform by moving your mouse to a circle when a musical note reaches the centre of that circle. Sounds easy yes? Well.. it isn't. Nobody has a mouse THAT responsive, and if you wave your mouse a bit too far and overshoot you loose points. And you have to move it between 4 fixed points at speed and accurately. It's insane. I nearly stopped playing from sheer frustration when I came to the last dance I had to do, there is no way I would have continued "for fun". Most mini games you can skip, but I saw no option to continue and skip on the dance game. I HATE when adventure games force you to take part in a skill based puzzle or action puzzle. If I wanted to play that kind of game, I would. I play adventure games because I like to use my brain alone, not my response times. I'm heavily medicated nowadays for reasons I won't go into here, but sharp mousing skills are not something I'd say I possess.. I think the game would have been more doable if it had been pressing say the WASD keys or using the numpad, but accurate muse movement makes a game awkward and unplayable.

Rotate wires...

Now rotate some pipes!

The third repeated mini game is the "turning pipes or wires to complete a circuit". Lucky for them, I like this sort of puzzle, but it was dragged out in some variation regularly. 

The other mini games were less repetitive and thus more interesting, like rearranging books on a shelf to solve one puzzle, using a cipher machine to decode some messages, altering chemical levels in a factory and walking a certain route around a room to avoid upsetting some rats!

Other than the mini-games, the game involved on very little in terms of inventory or interrogation, which are normally key to an adventure game. I felt more like a bystander than part of the game somehow. I felt eternally disconnected from Mata and the storyline. I'm not sure if that is mostly because I MISSED a lot of storyline due to not knowing to look for more, but I feel so frustrated my the mini games and the overall clunkiness of the way the game worked, I don't feel inclined to play it through again any time soon.

To it's credit, the game has wonderful graphics, smooth animations (for the time) and the music and sound effects are good. The puzzles felt superficial and tagged on, and the mini games were infuriating. 

Would I recommend this game? Well, only not the hardcore gamer who wants to have played EVERYTHING or a sadist who enjoys failing in badly written mini games, or a fan of the history of 
the real Mata Hari, otherwise I would advise you to steer clear and play something else.. 

To finish with, here's some larger screenshots so you can appreciate the beauty of the visuals in this game.

A screenshot to show the gorgeous graphics 

Mata Hari in Marie Curie's lab!