Let's Play Technobabylon Part 01 - Trapped in Escapism
2Tonight we tackle Technobabylon, a sci-fi point-and-click adventure! Now the genre's near and dear to my heart, but it's rife with examples that approach puzzle design like a game of Mouse Trap. This game in particular serves as an object lesson in the dos and don'ts, with some strong early presentation and flexibility that gives way to convoluted plots and abstract solutions. Which is a shame, because there's a lot of effort going into this fictional world and its characters, and I like the protagonists for the most part. As a Raymond Chandler once put it, however, the easiest case in the world to solve is one the killer tried to get real cute with.
In any case, we begin with the terminally-online Latha, who logs off to find she wished on a monkey's paw and is now trapped in her room. 20 hours earlier, our other protagonists - police detectives, under orders from the AI governing the city - find a serial killer's latest victim. Naturally, their paths soon converge...