Das Telekommando kehrt zurück

Other Titles:
Telekommando 2
Makers:
Telekom / Art Department
Year:
1993
Systems:
PC (DOS) / PC (VGA)
Genre:
Adventure
Tags:
Humour / Mystery / Promotional
Language:
German
Median Rating:
3/5

Thoughts by SonataFanatica (02 May 2016) – PC (DOS)

Das Telekommando kehrt zurück is a lovingly designed point & click adventure made by The Art Department, who where responsible for a number of amazing promotional adventures back in the 90s. Backstage, Dunkle Schatten, Bi-Fi 2: Action in Hollywood and Captain Zins may ring a bell with older adventure fans. The three last ones all use the same game engine which is also used in Telekommando 2 and back then, it was the clear indication of an Art Department game.

The second Telekommando game basically has nothing in common with its predecessor; rather, it is just the second promotional game made for the Deutsche Telekom. The player is put into the shoes of a technician of the Telekom who is sent to take care of a service disturbance in a large office building. It has been completely cut off from the rest of the world. Neither the BTX works, nor faxing, satellite connections of anything else. Scouting the building, the player realizes that an evil organisation called S.T.Ö.R. (= “disturb”) has established headquarters on the third floor and they have sealed off the whole floor. So it is now up to the valiant hero of the Telekom to put a stop to their game – and to demonstrate everything he has learned during his apprenticeship at the Telekom.

The puzzles are mostly concerned with fixing various office equipment. The adventure’s advertising factor is thankfully limited to small textual snippets which tell the player which job at the Telekom would teach them those skills which have just been used. Not wholly uninteresting for people actually considering to apply there (although circumstances and contents of those apprenticeships may very well have changed since then).

Unfortunately, the game is very short. It is finished after about two hours. Although the really nice VGA graphics and the soundtrack which emanates typical 90s flair (it reminds me of the background music of 1990s commercials) make those two hours into a pleasant waste of time.

All that is left to say is that at the beginning of the game, you can select whether you would like to play as a male or a female – although this decision will not actually change anything in the game. Nevertheless: nice to at least be given this choice.

Translated by Mr Creosote

Archived Thoughts

Thoughts by Mr Creosote (21 Jun 2002) – PC (DOS)

And “Ron Sommer” said: “Let’s pretend to be cool. It’ll look as if we actually care for our customers and as if we were a young and modern company.” And his disciples went into the wide world to spread his word. One came back with something he called a ‘computer game’. And “Ron Sommer” saw it was good. Or at least he thought it was good…

Ok, I confess this story is a lie. The “guy” who calls himself “Ron Sommer” wasn’t even the German Telekom’s (the phone company previously owned by the state) boss back when this game was released. But if the Telekom is allowed to spread such blatant lies in their game, so can I!

The first lie already causes a big grin on the player’s face in the intro: “[…]reacts immediately and calls the Telekom. Shortly thereafter, a white service van arrives.” Yeah, right. As if this bureaucratic ‘company’ ever reacted to an emergency call within less than two weeks (if at all)!

And it continues in that style. The game suggests the Telekom-people are genius allrounders who can not only repair really everything, but they actually do it without being asked for! “Oh, your lift is not working? No problem, I’ve been called to repair your phone lines, but I can quickly do this, too. For free of course.” Every German will have tears in his / her eyes of laughing out loud!

I could go on like this for quite some time now and list all the ridiculous stuff but that’d make this review longer than 10000 words – and I doubt anyone would want to read it ;)

Let’s rather get to the game. It is a classic point & click adventure. Like most adventures of that time, it uses icons for the available verbs and a graphical inventory. The cursor reacts if it touches an important object on the screen and shows its name. Works fine.

As hinted at before, you are a mechanic of the Telekom and you’re called by an organisation dedicated to protect the environment (hehe – primitive try of the Telekom to look ‘morally good’ ;). There, all communication systems have broken down ‘over night’. And coincidently (in fact it is of course a conspiracy…), an important video conference is planned for that day. So it is up to you to get it all running again.

This might sound completely boring. Just repairing would indeed be. But that part is fortunately automated.

So what exactly does the player have to do? Walking around the big building and talking to people mainly. The game is indeed incredibly easy, in most cases, the ‘puzzles’ are being solved by talking to the right person who will give you a most direct hint. Only that sometimes the person to talk to is in fact completely unrelated, so you just have to try everybody.

All that sounds worse than it is really though. There are also classic object-based puzzles, some ideas are well done. The conversations are not overdone. The game’s different parts are balanced. Ok, it’s not very long, hard or demanding. But it’s free and some fun.

What’s hard to judge is the advertisement level. It’s really very high! Some might consider this annoying and rightly so. But with such a ridiculous company like the Telekom, it can already be funny again. That’s what I think at least ;) No wonder the Telekom stopped this kind of advertisement after this game >:D

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