B.A.T.: High-Tech and Low-Life

The agent finds Bourbon Street.

The title comes from a quote in Wikipedia's entry on cyberpunk, a genre with which I am not terribly familiar and will probably never really love. The atmosphere reminds me unfavorably of Blade Runner, and I know I'm risking the wrath of thousands of commenters in saying that I never liked the film and the crapsack world it depicts. Cyberpunk always seems unnaturally pessimistic. Take this computer that my B.A.T. agent has lodged uncomfortably in his arm (wouldn't it catch on things?):

I've given up trying to feed and water myself during my exploration phase, but I haven't really noticed that it makes a difference.

Would I really need a cybernetic attachment to tell me that I'm hungry? All of the other stuff that this computer does, and a lot more, I could happily accomplish with the iPhone in my pocket, thanks. At first, I was going to question how I could possibly shower with this thing, but of course one of the defining characteristics of cyberpunk is that no one ever appears to bathe.

A wretched hive of scum and villainy.

I'm on the fence on the game itself. On one hand, I like the note-taking and mapping that accompanies a good adventure game. On the other, the interface is very confusing. Many times, you cannot return to a map screen using the same path that you took to leave it; for instance, the path from the pub to the astroport is north, but the path from the astroport back to the pub is west. That's fine: plenty of adventure games do this. But it's very difficult in this game to figure out what directions you can go from a screen. Certain directional arrows only appear when hovering over about four pixels of the screen--pixels that don't seem to depict a passageway or door--so it's extremely easy to overlook certain paths of movement.

It took forever to find this path (see arrow on the left) back to the starting area.

A few hours ago, I was ready to give up on the game, but I realized I'd been playing badly. I somehow expected that this game, as an early hybrid, would be very quick--almost more like a demonstration than a real game--so I got impatient fairly quickly. When I slowed down and started keeping detailed paperwork, I started to enjoy it a bit more. At this point, I've mapped 21 unique areas and 8 shops and buildings within them. It's tough to come up with a precise number because the window tends to sub-divide into sections of areas and then buildings within those sections.

A specific theater within a cinema within a quarter within a neighborhood.

I've yet to see much in the way of the RPG half of the game. Maybe a little in combat, which I will describe anon, but so far, unless it's happening in the background, I've yet to use a single skill (pick locks, climbing, mechanics, truck) that the game showed me on the character creation screen.

What are these attributes actually for?

Combat is rare in the game, but it's very deadly unless you're quick. When it starts, the game gives you a few seconds to equip your weapon and shield, and then you start blasting away, simply by clicking on the enemy's portrait. There are no tactics involved. As far as I can tell, the only benefits to defeating foes are that a) you survive, and b) you get some "experience." Then again, I've yet to see what experience actually does for me.

Thus far, all of my combats have come in the form of random attacks by robots. I have to react too quickly to those to take screenshots, so I deliberately attacked some harmless aliens to take the shot below. I guess you could play the game "evil" and attack every alien and robot you see, but that probably has long-term consequences.

1) I didn't notice the "Escape" button until just now. That may come in handy. 2) You cannot shoot the helpless fleeing people on the side of the screen. I have tried.

Combat is made a little less deadly through shields, which I purchased at a shop in an alleyway.

After each battle, if injured, I have to head over to the doctor's office and get "surgery" to get back to normal.

This guy is going to buy a summer home on Corellia thanks to me.

 
This has drained my cash fairly quickly, but on another screen, there's an arcade where you can play a memory game and win some back. You then have to convert your "credits" into local cash at another machine. I'm not sure if the different types of money and conversion serve any plot purpose later.

"The bizzy game" is kind of fun, but it gets harder and harder as you play along.

The memory game isn't the only mini-game. On another memorable screen, I entered a dance club and met a woman named Lydia who asked me to dance with her. I didn't realize the dance screen was a mini-game in which you have to alternately click the right and left mouse buttons to "dance" (the image changes to show your PC busting all kinds of moves, which was moderately amusing).

I'm having flashbacks to my prom.

After failing the first time, I reloaded and danced like a pro. Lydia said she'd accompany me throughout the city, but I haven't seen a sign of her since then.

I don't know. I could never be with a woman who spaces punctuation like that.

I otherwise haven't made a lot of progress. In a bar, a woman told me that a "stickrob" (a type of robot) was talking about Merigo...

...but every stickrob I can find says he just arrived in town or offers something bland.

Yeah, that's oodles of help.

There are only a few overt mysteries that I cannot solve or places that I cannot pass. Namely:

• There's a payphone but I don't have any idea what number to dial

• An entrance to "Miss Kortakis's" compound is guarded by The Guardian from Ultima VII. I can't pass without an invitation.

Is that some kind of vampire peeking up at the bottom?

• There's an exit to the planet's surface, but I need the credentials of a pilot or technician to pass.

And pick up that can!

However, there are plenty of places that seem like they ought to have more going on--including a multi-screen museum, a cinema, and a police station--so I'm partly worried that I just haven't clicked on the right places. My plan, thus, is to revisit every screen and carefully hover over every pixel and make sure I haven't missed anything. I'll also re-talk to every NPC, but so far they've been mostly worthless. Light hints of the "consider spending more time in the X area" variety are appreciated.

Given the nature of the game, you'd think there would be more to do in the police station.