Parents' Guide to

Technobabylon

By Neilie Johnson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Dark cyberthriller poses serious moral questions.

Game Windows 2015
Technobabylon Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

age 17+

Based on 1 parent review

age 17+

R for strong graphic violence, some drug material and brief nudity

Technobabylon is a throwback to point and click adventures of old. Gameplay here is minimal but fairly clever and the story has well written characters and dialogue, as well as a convincing ambiance and good but subtle music. Altho the villian motivations could have been more fleshed out and aspects of dangers of net addiction and all seeing technology could have been explored with more depth, and puzzles leave some to be desired. However as a whole TB is a good 4 hour ride that holds your attention with its interesting themes and makes you have hope a sequel can look even deeper into this world. Granted like many video games the sequel hook is quite shameless but welcome here. As for the content. It is very mature yet not gratuitous. The pixel art is surprisingly realistic and the writting makes them feel even more human. There are violent scenes such as a man falling to his death with bloody and even bony results. A gruesome crime seen with a bedroom with dismembered body parts and a bloody body in a hot tub. We later see the deaths happen in a flashback including a bloody shot to the head and a disembowelment (while the act itself is off screen we see blood and organs plop to the floor as it happens). Other violent scenes include a bombing that leaves charred and bloody corspes, gruesome mutilated naked bodies hanging from meat hooks at an "Exotic" resturaunt (while pixelly in design, genitalia and posteriors are vaguely recognizable), a decapitated body with blood on and around it, a bloody engineer crushed by an elevator, mooks shot with bloody results and tamer violence involving tasing wet enemies, a simulation/ recreation of a nuclear event from the game worlds history, a strangulation and a character about to freeze to death. There are also relatively tame sexual references such as one to a "sexbot" and addicts doing degrading acts to gain entry to a club. There is also a level that requires the player to buy narcotics to drug another character and another where a character sees horrifying visions under the affects of a hallucinogen. Language is mild with uses of Damn, @$$ (some times with "hole"), SOB, and really silly sounding use of "Nuke" in place of obvious intended F words (Get nuked, nuke yourself, ah nuke it).

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

Technobabylon is a rare example of the serious, thought-provoking video game. This skillfully executed and poignantly written point-and-click adventure manages to examine a range of socially relevant themes while being thoroughly entertaining. The story woven is a clever mix of humor and grit that asks more than one morally difficult question. Better yet, its visionary, sometimes brutal concepts remind us of The Matrix-like excitement of '90s-era cyberpunk.

Apropos of a game created in the Internet age, most of Technobabylon's gameplay involves information gathering. Whether gathering clues as a detective or hacking a security system as a genius slacker, this process is both challenging and exciting. Puzzles and item usage are cleverly designed, and solving puzzles requires as much technological manipulation as conversational finesse. On top of the great gameplay (and regardless of the retro pixel graphics), the strength of the writing, music, and vocal performances gives the game the emotional weight of a well-written cop drama. But It's important to note that it also contains the moral ambivalence and violence of those kinds of shows. Technobabylon is not only a well-made video game; it's proof that video games can transcend their medium to rival books and movies in terms of thematic depth and emotional resonance. For anyone who loves experiencing an edgy, intricate story, this is a game you shouldn't miss.

Game Details

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