It's not just new games that I'm checking out on Game Pass PC; I'm making sure to cross off older games, too. BACKGROUND:
As I discussed in my blog entry on Grim Fandango Remastered, I missed the boat on PC point-and-click adventure games. I'm playing this game specifically to play catch-up. PLOT: Purple Tentacle, one of Dr. Fred Edison's creations, is exposed to polluted sludge water, and becomes vastly more intelligent as a result. Unfortunately, one of the other side effects is that he develops a thirst for world domination. Green Tentacle, his brother, contacts Bernard Bernoulli to help with the situation. Bernard obliges, and is joined by his friends Hoagie and Laverne. They arrive at Dr. Fred's lab, and Dr. Fred proposes that the trio travel back in time to yesterday in order to prevent Purple Tentacle from ever becoming evil. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong, and each of the three end up stranded at a different point in time. Now, they must figure out a way to get back on top of stopping Purple Tentacle's conquest. I loved how absolutely ridiculous the story is. It's pretty much something out of a cartoon. The humor is excellent throughout the game (though there are definitely a few jokes that are a touch too dark), all the characters have over-the-top personalities, and the use of time travel leads to some hilarious hijinks. As it turns out, this game is actually a sequel to a much older game called Maniac Mansion. More on that later. PRESENTATION: Speaking of cartoons, Day of the Tentacle also looks and sounds the part. The animation and art style both look great, the music is cheery and upbeat, there are a ton of wacky sound effects, and the voice acting is topnotch. You can skip cutscenes in this game, but I found myself playing all of them out because they were a delight to watch. From what I've read, the devs took a lot of inspiration from classic Looney Tunes in terms of both the humor and the art style, and it was pretty evident when I played. The over-the-top expressions and absurd slapstick of the game are certainly reminiscent of cartoons of that era, and even some of the humor reminds me of classic Looney Tunes shit. There's even a direct reference to the Pepe Le Pew cartoon in one of the puzzles. GAMEPLAY: Day of the Tentacle is a point-and-click adventure. The idea is to move from room to room, collecting items, and interacting with objects using said items, and performing a combination of these tasks in order to solve puzzles and progress the game. All of this is done with a simple click of the mouse; no fancy keyboard inputs, no need for a controller. Yep, this is how games used to be at one point. This game controls like most other games in the genre; you have a set number of actions for each object (ranging from "pick up" to "use" to "inspect" or even "push"), you manage an inventory of items that you can use on other objects, talk to NPCs in order to figure out vital information, and attempt to solve the game's many puzzles by doing all of these. The UI for all this is thankfully simple and easy to understand. And just like any point-and-click adventure, the puzzles range from "wow, that's neat and clever" to "how in the goddamn fuck was I supposed to know that?" Some puzzles can really throw you for a loop, so if you don't have the patience for dawdling everywhere trying literally every option you can, or have a particular distaste for trial and error in general, you'll find this game (and this genre in general) rather frustrating. This game doesn't appear to have any scenarios where you're unable to progress, or instances where you can die and lose progress, so that at least mitigates the sometimes obtuse nature of the puzzles. What's unique about Day of the Tentacle is how it employs time travel into its core gameplay. Since the three main characters are all stuck in different time periods, they all have their own shit to figure out, and you can switch between them freely. It gets even more fun after a certain point, because actions one character does in the past affects the future, and you can pass around items you acquired from one time period to another to solve puzzles. I really liked this concept; the time travel shit led to some really fun puzzles, and the idea of passing items around to be used in different ways was really neat. I mentioned Maniac Mansion before, and that's because it's playable in this game in its entirety. Since it's technically a full game, I will dedicate a game session entirely for it, and will write a separate blog entry on it. VERDICT: Day of the Tentacle was a blast to play through, thanks largely to its whack-ass story, weird characters, and gameplay that, while still obtuse, is a little less harsh to less experienced players. I enjoyed the time travel aspect of the game, laughed at a lot of the jokes, and was impressed by some of the creative solutions to puzzles. Not only do I argue that this is one of those "essential" must-play games that I always yammer on about, but it's also a solid entry point for people who are new to or haven't played a point-and-click adventure game. Go check this out on Steam: Day of the Tentacle Remastered on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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July 2024
Derryck
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