Techno Banter Is A Fascinating Journey Into A Dystopian City’s Nightlife
Keep the party going.
No pets, no kids, no creeps, no blue jeans. Being a bouncer means knowing who to invite to the party and who to turn away at the door. In a newly released bouncer simulator out now on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC, it also means knowing how to fish, dodge fireballs, and resist mind control. Techno Banter is a bizarre and constantly surprising adventure exploring the nightlife of a single street where you’re tasked with throwing the perfect party and stopping a doomsday cult while you’re at it.
Techno Banter, from Berlin-based developer Dexai Arts, wastes no time plunging you headfirst into its baffling world. You’re Nill, the bodyguard of an extremely powerful but utterly incompetent CEO, watching the door at an exclusive party. When the leader of a death-obsessed cult (who happens to be a cat with a katana-wielding bodyguard) breaks in, you’re fired from your job and forced to return to your old gig as the bouncer at the Green Door, a once-cool club at the end of Rainbow Drive.
Techno Banter’s Rainbow Drive is full of lively, eccentric characters.
It’s hard to detail all the ways Techno Banter sells its fascinating world right from the start. Its characters are a mix of humans and animals, like Nill himself being a bipedal, incredibly jacked dog, and his boss being a caustic toad. Robots and time travelers mingle with malevolent Girl Scouts on Rainbow Drive, while a mind-controlling cult lurks nearby.
Its writing is a mix of goofy and acerbic, poking fun at everything in its eyeline with the darkest of humor. That does tip over at a few points into juvenile, South Park-level snark, but mostly the game nails its countercultural tone. More than anything, it reminds me of 1980s and ‘90s alternative comics, with its grimy world, eccentric characters, and pervasive, sometimes mean-spirited satire.
Clever conversational duels are the backbone of Techno Banter.
In terms of gameplay, Papers, Please might be the best comparison, but there are shades of Paradise Killer, another surreal first-person adventure game there as well. Every night, Nill posts up as the bouncer at the Green Door, where his job is to decide who gets to party and who goes home disappointed. By observing each guest who joins the queue, you get a rundown of their personality, including any red flags. If they seem cool, or like they might raise the profile of the Green Door, you let them in. If they’re drunk, underage, aggressive, boring, or otherwise have bad vibes, you send them away.
More often than not, they won’t get out of your hair that easily. To get rid of enraged rejects, Nill enters into verbal battles to whittle down their morale. You have a few skills that will deplete their spirit, represented with a life bar above each character, but mostly you’re reacting to what they say, using conversational judo to turn their words back on them. Would-be guests will insult Nill, and you need to pick the comeback that fits what they said from a list of dialogue choices to wear them out. Sometimes you’ll also need to play short minigames to avoid punches or survive being perceived by cooler-than-thou jerks.
Throwing the perfect party is just one of the charms of Techno Banter.
On their own, Techno Banter’s bouncer sequences are a fun and clever concept, but it’s everything that happens around them that makes the game shine. Over the few hours Techno Banter takes to finish, you can help your coworkers escape a cult, achieve their artistic dreams, or just get really ripped. A mysterious man in a limo outside gives you instructions to send cryptic messages to patrons during your shift, and the government will even issue you a fishing license if they determine you’re stereotypically working class enough. Despite being one small city block, Rainbow Drive is one of the most vibrant video game environments I’ve explored in a while, thanks to the cast of lovable (and sometimes very unlovable) weirdos who call it home.
And Techno Banter itself is, affectionately, a game for weirdos. It’s gritty, strange, and crude, but with a story about found family under its prickly shell. For all its anger and absurdity, it’s clearly made with a love for Berlin’s club scene and the communities that form there. Techno Banter is the very definition of a passion project, the kind of game that might alienate a lot of players, but that those in tune with its utterly unique spirit will come to adore.
