Techno Banter Review

Before becoming a trainee journalist, I worked seven years in the security industry doing gigs anywhere from being a concierge to standing in an empty lot for 12 hours, both paying the same. So, when I saw Techno Banter, a first-person RPG developed by Dexai Arts about being a bouncer, I just had to see how close it was to reality. 

You play as Nill, fired from his high-paying security job, now having to return to his old job as a doorman (bouncer) for The Green Door, a once infamous nightclub now reopened in hopes of becoming the hottest spot in the city. You also are embroiled in the background of a doomsday cult getting ready for the end times. At the start of the night, you accept or reject lined-up patrons into the nightclub by following venue restrictions and a few new conditions depending on the night, which leads to the majority of mini-games in Techno Banter.

When rejecting a patron, they immediately take offence and begin insulting you. Here, you select the best comeback that counters and demeans them as you whittle down their health bar/ego. You also lose health if you choose the wrong response or take too long to answer. Eventually, either they leave in defeat or enter the club by outplaying you. Some special interactions with highly aggressive people cause you to enter a bullet storm game where you move your head away from incoming danger.

You finish each night by entering the club and roaming around, picking up anyone causing mischief. The shift ends with you getting graded for your acceptance/rejection success rate, general vibe of the club, and how much alcohol was sold, with stars used to upgrade the venue and your overall salary by the club owner. The better you are at the door, the more you earn.

You have side missions like helping out your colleagues outside of work, which I think opens up different interactions during your shifts, as I couldn’t find where to go. For example, one of the missions is meant to be in the morning, located on the marina, but hell if I could find my way there. I ended up just going home that night. 

There are RPG mechanics to the game, letting you level up your skills and health to bolster the power of your responses and personality-specific actions used to manipulate unruly patrons out of the club. As it’s a short game, I only had enough points to get half of the skill tree fully unlocked before the ending. You level up by winning arguments and completing your shift, whether you are successful or not.

Techno Banter has a similar aesthetic, graphic quality, and genre of music to games like Hotline Miami, as its grungy, dirty visuals make what is an already pretty-looking game (if you don’t mind a tonne of bloom and neon signs) into a unique experience for the player. Locations like Nill’s apartment and the long street where The Green Door is located are dark and dimly lit as if you are living in a dystopian city on the verge of collapse, juxtaposed to the clean art gallery you begin the game in. Character models and most artworks are pixelated figures that don’t clash with the more realistic (in comparison) environments while being a melting pot of human and anthropomorphic entities representing their personalities. As the main goal is to not have creepy or snobbish people in the venue, a gorilla twice the size of you may not be both but is way too forceful to be let in to be accepted.

From my job experience, Techno Banter gets a lot of the aspects of nightclub security correct. The roaming of the interior is exactly what happens, except there are more static guards inside in reality. The writing team who came up with the insults and comebacks are somewhat similar to what is said at the door; only in-game, the rejectees aren’t dropping slurs and curses at you, and you as the doorman cannot then escalate the situation because the guy said something about your intelligence. 

As the developers are based in Germany, and I’m in Australia, from my understanding, the game represents the late 90s and early 00s style of bouncer work where intimidation, threats, and knowing the location of blind spots in and out of the club’s CCTV were common. Nowadays, it’s asset/patron-focused security, where guards are taught to de-escalate any aggression and think more about risk management. Not to say they cannot defend themselves, just to know when to do it and to (in the words of an immoral Australian) “know your judo well.”

What the game does accurately is the relationship between the security team and the club owner/managers. You can be the best security guard around, loved by all the regulars, but if the higher-ups don't like you or your practice in any way, you’re as useful as a window on a submarine in their eyes. Not to mention, the tranquil quiet of a morning after eight hours of duff music; writing out the night’s incident reports. It is one of the most relaxing feelings you can ever have.

There are horror stories from my years working at clubs and pubs and Techno Banter hides that side of the job away from the player for good reason. The fact that the developers must have researched the ins and outs of metropolitan nightlife is not lost on me. While I am a bit biased due to wanting a “realistic” form of security work displayed, it is hard to replicate responsible serving of alcohol laws or having to cooperate with police when incidents out of your control occur. Or getting stared down by a grinning, intoxicated lady in a parked limo, demanding me to show her where I pee from.