The Collection Chamber: TECHNOMAGE: RETURN OF ETERNITY

Look forward to an adventure packed with excitement and action!

Gothos - a world full of mysteries and alien creatures. Two completely different cultures: one inventive and skilled in all technical matters, the other possessing the knowledge and power of magic. Now they face a common threat...

Put yourself into the role of Melvin, the TechnoMage. On your adventurous journey through strange and fascinating worlds you will meet many wonderful tribes, bizarre creatures and the enchanting Talis, who shares your destiny. Will you succeed in saving Gothos?

Features:
Following on from ANNO 1602 (probably the most successful PC game ever in Germany), SUNFLOWERS presents another innovative game package. In TechnoMage, a novel combination of action, adventure, role-play and much more awaits you. Your powers of logical thinking, tactical skills and fighting spirit will all be put to the test as you attempt to fulfil the numerous tasks you will be confronted with.
Simple operation and direct play-based access provide easy entry to the game
Exciting, well thought-out background story
Atmospherically perfect intermediate sequences
Eight graphically complex and richly varied worlds with over 20 different regions
More than 200 unique personalities and opponents
Many hours of excitement and action
A variety of tools, powerful magic spells and mighty weapons are put at your disposal
Entirely in English with speech output

~ from the back of the box

TechnoMage: Return of Eternity, released in 2000 for both PC and PlayStation, is quintessentially European. A colourful and quaint action-RPG with a simple story filled with a German earnestness that's equal parts charming and baffling. It's a bright concoction that you'll either sip slowly with a beaming smile or spit it out in a bitter frothy mess.

The story takes place in the fantasy world of Gothos which is home to two tribes; the Dreamers, effete spell-slingers who spend their days wafting incense and twiddling their wands, and the Steamers, grease-stained mechanics who won't go to bed happy unless they've inhaled a lungful of soot. Naturally, these two groups can't stand each other. Enter our protagonist, Melvin - half Dreamer, half Steamer, and therefore everyone's least favourite dinner guest. When monsters flatten a nearby village, poor Melvin is blamed and booted out of his home, giving him ample time to go on a heroic quest and prove everyone wrong. As premises go, it's more nuanced than your traditional rescue princess trope, but still comfortably in the fairy-tale wheelhouse.

From the outset, TechnoMage wears its German heritage proudly. Dreamertown, the starting village, feels like it was designed by the Brothers Grimm after a weekend binge of Haribo. It's bright, cheerful, and full of helpful NPCs eager to tell you exactly how to open a door in case you're suffering from acute amnesia. The hand-holding tutorial is almost comical in its thoroughness, as though the developers were terrified of being sued if little Hans couldn't figure out which button jumps. And that's before they ask you for tiny tasks like busing some wine, returning a library book or giving a girl a sandwich. It's almost as if these folks can't do anything on their own. And yet, they still kick you out. Regardless, this intro section adequately lets you get used to the games vibe and before long you're off across eight distinct regions in total, each as colourful as a bag of Tangfastics.

Each area has a helpful map which will fill in as you explore. In case you get lost, you do have chalk to

mark your way (left). Your Quest Log offers up a handy checklist of often mundane side quests (right).

Controls are functional yet malleable. On PC, you can reconfigure input for keyboard, gamepad, or mouse, and playing with just the latter works pretty well. Melvin trots toward wherever you point the cursor at, swivelling his gaze like an obedient puppy, while a click of either button makes him leap or swing about. The camera is forever begging you to rotate it often totally obscuring your view in tight spaces. It's clunky at times but never cumbersome.

Combat is a little more fiddly. Melvin swings swords and stabs with daggers, though the camera angle makes it hard to gauge distance. Those rats you find in a basement - a traditional first encounter for the genre - can quickly whittle down your health before you realise it. Thankfully, most enemies will not respawn once you've killed them so you're unlikely to get into too much trouble. The real combat spice comes from Melvin's magical heritage. Pump his intelligence and he'll learn spells that scorch, freeze, or generally inconvenience your enemies. They perform well and look impressive, so make sure you level up your stats to improve on them.

There are four stats in total; Strength, Intelligence, Constitution and Mystic Ability. Pump up your strength Melvin can hit a bit harder while Intelligence adds extra oomph to your spells. Constitution increases health and Mystic Ability unlocks special abilities derived from your heritage. It's not exactly Baldur’s Gate, but it does scratch that itch of customising your character just enough to make you feel clever. Best of all, magic isn’t only for combat - it solves puzzles too. Need to light a torch? Engulf it with a fireball. Find a weakened wall? Bomb it. That last example isn't exactly a spell, but a gadget that can be assigned to its own button. That's your Steamer side peeking through. Being half Dreamer and half Steamer has its perks.

You can select from a variety of weapons and spells via the well-designed Character Menu (left).
It also holds your inventory which can be sold at shops for cold hard cash (right).

The rest of TechnoMage's gadgets could have easily been raided from Zelda's toolbox. Racing boots let you dash, grappling hooks get you across gaps, and assorted knick-knacks solve puzzles sprinkled liberally across the world. Some of these challenges are genuinely satisfying, others feel like busywork dreamt up by a bored intern (there is a dreaded sliding block puzzle). Still, it's never particularly taxing on the old grey matter and the variety keeps things fresh in an otherwise by-the-numbers game.

Graphically, the game looks about average for the time with the developers leaning into vibrant colours over intense realism. What is does have is an impressive day and night cycle complete with a variety of weather conditions. You may enter a house for a chat with your uncle, only to emerge into a raging storm. Rain patters across the fairy forest while fireflies dance in the dusk. It's all oddly enchanting, as are the characters themselves. Melvin and his kin have alarmingly disproportional heads making them look like they'll topple over at any moment. In doing so, it allows for some impressive facial expressions both in the cutscenes and the sprite work. Like I said earlier; oddly enchanting.

Difficulty-wise, this is not a game to test your mettle. Enemies are rarely threatening and while bosses are often big and loud, they're mostly pushovers with each easily defeating using the same hit-and-run strategy each time. Save prompts pop up before major encounters like an overbearing aunt reminding you to wear a scarf. In fact, the only real danger comes from being swarmed by a horde of spiders or misjudging a platforming jump, neither of which are particularly heroic ways to die. I don't think even the designers were confident enough in their platforming mechanics either. Any locations that has a death pit will have a respawn point that will instantly spit you back out shout you fall. Do not rely on this though. Sometimes the game will arbitrarily ignore this and want you to load a save instead. Thankfully you can save anywhere, so make sure you do often. Hardcore RPG fans will scoff at all this handholding, but for those tipping their first toe in the genre (or wusses), it's a pleasant safety net.

Activate the TechnoMage symbol to respawn should you fall to your death (left). Both enemies and

destroyed crates leave behind useful items, but these useful health blobs are just hanging around (right).

What truly elevates TechnoMage from its turn-of-the-millennium peers is its story and presentation. Unusual for the time, all dialogue is voice acted. Though occasionally clunky in translation, each interaction is delivered with warmth and gusto, and the cutscenes are surprisingly polished. Melvin’s partnership with Talis, introduced halfway through, adds genuine heart to the journey, though sadly not much in terms of gameplay. The narrative isn't exactly not high literature, but you'll come to care about this awkward half-breed and his quest to belong.

In the end, TechnoMage: Return of Eternity is a pretty good time, though I can't say it's a classic in the genre. It's too easy for hardcore dice-rollers, too fiddly for action gamers and narratively slight for fantasy fiction buffs. What it is, is colourful, occasionally daft, but brimming with charm. Like the titular hero, it doesn't fully belong to any one tribe of gaming, yet that's precisely what makes it worth revisiting. If you lower your expectations and let yourself be whisked away on a cosy adventure through Gothos, you might just find this half-forgotten relic has more heart than you'd expect.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses dgVoodoo to run on modern systems with with OGG-WinMM, for CD Audio emulation. The presence of a real or virtual CD drive may be required to play. German Manual & English-Translated Reference Card included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 667 Mb. Install Size: 901 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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