Technobabylon has been on my todo list for years. I heard about the game back when it came out in 2010 and some other adventure game players linked it, but I never got to playing it. When I heard a remake was in the making I decided to wait for it, and finally got it in this summer's GOG sale.
It is without doubt that I say this is the best title that is in the Wadjet Eye catalogue. So many of the issues otherwise good adventure games often end up having didn't manifest themselves, even as I was expecting them. The ending wasn't hurried like in every other adventure game ever. There wasn't a single illogical puzzle that felt it shouldn't be there. None of the characters ended up being shallow or lacking depth.
The biggest part deserving praise is the representation of the cyberspace. The intro sequence where Latha is what she desires to be and is forced to return to the gray and dark true world allowed myself to admit that her addiction had a completely logical reasoning behind it. When the possibility of being whatever you can be exists, what is there for us in the real world where we are nothing? Perhaps the visuals for this were so good I found myself addicted to them myself, and hoped the game had more content in virtual reality.
Parts of the writing impressed me, and the author clearly did his homework on writing believable technobabble. Maybe it's an old idea or maybe it's original, but using DNA for quaternary storage and computation was damn fascinating. The idea of mind-theft isn't super old, but it has been used in plenty of new cyberpunk stories. One notable story that comes to mind is Dreamspace, the webcomic.
The biggest issue I had with the game was that it wasn't long enough. I'm guessing I'll have to play it again to see what other minor choices I can make on the way.
The most noticeable difference to other games produced by Wadjet Eye is that in this one I enjoyed the music. Will have to add the soundtrack on my playlist.
As this game involved Wadjet Eye, I guess I don't have to say anything about the voice work since we all know there's only one quality they produce: excellent.
The only bug I had was that when I first started the game the main menu didn't work.
