Well it’s game six of the Telltale-a-thon and boy am I excitedinterested crying.
It is Puzzle Agent! Puzzle Agent was released in 2010 for iPad. Yes… it’s a tablet game.
The horror!
So we start the game off meeting our hero protagonist.
Greetings from space?
No not him, the other main protagonist!
Nice hat….
Our protagonist works for the FBI in the puzzle solving division. Since no one really solves puzzles when solving crimes he has really not had a lot of field work. However here comes a crime full of puzzles!
But before you can go you must unscramble this clue:
IT DOESN’T EVEN SPELL A FREAKING WORD!!!
The game is full of the various puzzle types and if you are a fan of puzzles, this game is for you. This is a “jigsaw puzzle.” Pieces have to be put in the proper places. There are many variants of this (the food game) but there are a lot of jigsaw puzzles.
There are also riddles involving identification. If Cindy beat Jimmy and Jimmy beat Luis and Luis beat Cindy than who won!?!? These are the sort of riddles involved in identification in which you are only given enough information to be able to piece it together assuming you can make some educated guesses.
There are also tones of puzzles dealing with physics and abstract thinking.
Since there are so many different puzzle types you are likely to be REALLY good at some and really bad at others. Generally speaking people who are visual (IE good at puzzles) are not that great at reading based puzzles.
It just wouldn’t be a Telltale game without a speaking checklist
As you solve puzzles you can progress through the story. Sometimes you will have to talk to characters to get information. With this information you can unlock more puzzles to further progress the story.
The game is about 4 hours long.
Truthfully
Honestly
In total honestness
Being earnest
This game isn’t bad.
Actually…. it’s surprisingly good.
I jumped into this game expecting it to be the bottom of the pile and honestly this tablet game is the best one I’ve played yet. It’s a short experience and you’ll have to get Puzzle Agent 2 to finish the story…. but it’s actually a pretty fun game. I say game because out of the games I’ve played so far, this is the only one that actually feels like a game.
Well we’re on to game #5 in our Telltale month special and this time it’s…. Law and Order Legacies.
I have to get something off of my chest.
I hate crime shows.
Not only that, I hate Law and Order.
It goes beyond hate, it’s what these shows represent. They require no talent to write and rarely require any character development. You take a bunch of “tough cops” and then you add in a crime which they always solve.
So going into this game I have a nasty taste in my mouth. But I have to give this game it’s shot.
So we start off with our all star cast of characters.
The cast of Law and Order
Truthfully despite it being very cartoonish it looks very much like the people on the show. Obviously this game is somewhat of a hodge podge of the various Law and Order shows. So thumbs up to the folks at Telltale Games, you really can make a human character. There are a lot of games that do terrible at this.
The key to their success is that they don’t show the lower half of the body in the game… ever. There wasn’t a single scene in the entire game where I ever had to see the legs of these people. Video game developers absolutely suck at designing leg movements. I’m not sure what it is exactly…. they’re just bad at it.
But no this game gets it right, never ever ever ever show the bottom half of the body. In fact I doubt they even have developed legs. Okay I’m getting caught up on this topic… time to move on.
There are two gameplay mechanics that will guide you through the game.
The first is interrogation.
The careful art of interrogation
You get to interview a witness. First you pick a topic. They give you an answer to a question and you have to state whether you believe them or not.
After this you have to back it up with a statement.
2-3 of the statements will be insanely similar and will be based on specific syntax and grammar useage. To this extent you are warned that you must “pay attention to details.”
You get three guesses wrong and you have to start the interview over again.
This makes it all very repetitive. On top of this you can never skip dialogue. By hitting the “Escape” key like I did it brought you back to the main menu and gave you no option at all to go back to where you left off.
GOD DAMMIT! I screamed at the top of my lunges.
After you’re successful in interrogating a potential witness you have to look at evidence.
How did the evidence go missing?
You will have 10 guesses as to where the evidence is. It is no all seen in plain sight. Sometimes you have to look in bags, look under objects, and honestly… just completely guess.
The game makes you draw a red circle with your music around objects. By drawing this circle you can select objects.
The game gives you tips as to what you will need to find based on the body of evidence.
If you find all of the items you move on. If you don’t…. well you Retry.
I successfully completed the first Part of the game and it was the same thing over and over. You get someone to interview. Your interview succeeds. You get to a search for evidence. You find all the evidence you need. The story moves forward.
I think what bothered me most about this game (other than being a Law and Order game) is how very scripted it was.
It’s possible that if I actually enjoyed crime dramas I would have actually enjoyed watching the game happen.
However I don’t.
Unfortunately the writing for the game (much like the TV shows) is not very good. Not even fans of the show should really think there is anything exceptional here.
So if you’re counting that’s 1/5 Telltale Games I’ve recommended so far.
This is not the one, it is one of the other 4/5 that suck.
A lot has been said about the Telltale Games adaptation about the comic book “The Walking Dead.” The first is that it is “Game of the Year” according to Spike TV, rated within the top ten lists of IGN, Gamespot, Machinima, and PC Gamer.
What’s also been said about this game is that it has amazing writing that is worthy of “The Walking Dead” fame.
But is that just it? Is it only great if you’ve watched The Walking Dead already? I’ve decided that I will postpone watching this “Walking Dead” show until after this review and take this game on it’s merits.
Is Telltale’s The Walking Dead a good game? Ora bad game?
Synopsis
Much like many other Telltale games on Steam I was having problems launching this one. It has a lot to do with my 64-bit Windows 7 operating system (I knew 64-bit was a bad idea).
So after going through a solution it told me to update my audio drivers. Well I have no idea what updating an audio driver will have to do with the game just not starting… but I can’t fault Telltale if my audio drivers are not up to date.
Even zombies can’t get stuff working
Of course it didn’t work.
While I was at it though I checked all of my drivers and they were fine.
C:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\the walking dead
That would not work either.
I was asked to Verify my Game Cache. After waiting 10 minutes on this… nothing happened.
Finally I found a solution where I right clicked on the executable file and ran it in Compatibility Mode. Upon getting here I ran the game in Windows 98/ME. Apparently this is a common problem with Telltale Games and might have allowed me to play Back to the Future Ep. 4 and E. 5.
I intended to review this game first but because of all these problems and how long it took to get this to work it’s fourth.
So what do we know about The Walking Dead. Well for reasons unexplained the world came to an end as we know it. A zombie plague of which there is no cure has spread across the world and the small remnants of survivors are deciding how to live their lives.
The game has replay value in that your choices effect the remainder of the game. Everyone talked about this girl “Clementine” who is around all the time and people did what they could to save her. So as a tactic for this game I’ve decided to avoid this hyper emotional ending by feeding Clementine to the zombies wherever possible.
Cruel?
Clementine is the only character who just can’t die
Yes, but I’m not about to rate this game based on a multi-choice system in which EVERYONE is seemingly going to choose this Clementine path now am I?
Well apparently I had no choice. Every time I was given the option to save Clementine and I didn’t… well I just lost the whole game.
Instead most of the choices are spoken. You’ll speak with a character named “Larry” and from your conversation he’ll understand that you’ve got something against him. So next time a conversation comes up he’ll cleverly reference all the stuff from the previous conversation.
Hard choices also work like this. You’ll be put into a difficult moral scenario and be given two choices. The choices less chosen always have some pretty awkward dialog that doesn’t sound like it was all that well planned. The end result despite your choice is the same, the only difference is on how people respond to you.
My other favorite is when you only have one option on the screen and you have a time limit. If the time limit runs out you can lose the game. Alternatively it running out actually means nothing at all, it’s just another choice.
This creates a problem where you do whatever it is by default anyway… and then you get a message pops up saying “Clementine notes that you saved her life.” Well thanks, I was hoping she’d think I was an asshole… it’s kind of the route I was trying to go with.
The characters are also trying to warn me every time I do something rash. I went out and admitted to murdering a senator and suddenly a person jumps on me saying “hey you shouldn’t say that it’s not nice!”
Forgot to take my drugs again
Every now and then you will have a quick time event in which you have to spam a button until you get a gauge down and then hit another button to lock it in. This generally happens when a zombie jumps on top of you.
So this game is more like a Bioware game in which the sum of your choices build a different color of ending… as opposed to Skyrim in which your choices drastically effect the landscape.
The main point of the game is ‘adventure’ theme in which you take one object and rub it against another.
I generally dislike the modern adventure game because the goal is to seemingly make it as obscure as possible. A typical scenario might be that you have to put some alcohol in a sergeant’s coffee, which you swiped from a homeless person after giving him some apple pie which you took off the ledge of an old ladies house which caused a warrant to go out for your arrest. The alcohol in the sergeant’s coffee makes him fall asleep and you can escape (but first you need to steal his badge because you’ll need that later to break into a bank).
The Walking Dead doesn’t have this. Things had sort of obvious natures. I found a remote control and it turned on TVs. I logically figured out that turning on the TV might distract zombies. It did, but it wasn’t loud enough I was told IF ONLY SOMETHING COULD BREAK THE WINDOW. So I threw a brick at the window and BOOM I solved the puzzle.
Must aim at thing in time!
For veteraned adventure gamers this will not offer much of a challenge. With Sam and Max I can say that I’ve had to turn the game off and revisit it over months because some of the puzzles were so hard.
This makes The Walking Dead a casual dish in a genre that is sort of only for hardcores. Walking Dead is to adventure gaming as Tropico 4 is to simulation gaming. Maybe I should replay Tropico 4.
Anyway.
Concluding Thoughts
Is it game of the year?
Absolutely not.
Is it a good game?
No, it’s not really a game.
Is it for everyone?
No…. probably not.
Is that going to stop fans of the series from yelling and screaming about it?
No… probably not.
The game has a lot of problems with it. Like most Telltale games there are some glaring sound issues. Like most Telltale Games it’s not exactly an install and go game… you need to tinker around with it yourself.
When I went to the Telltale Games website looking for customer support they provided me with this walkthrough.
Go to your neighbor Jared’s house and drink tea with him
Mention The Walking Dead
Jared will say he loves that game
Jared will now be available to fix stuff, ask him to fix stuff
He’ll need a screw driver and a video card
Go to neighbor Melissa’s house and flirt with her.
She warns you that your girlfriend might get jealous.
Ask her if you can borrow her screwdriver so your girlfriend thinks everything is on the up and up.
Go to Cousin Dillon’s house.
Ask cousin Dillon what he’s doing
He’ll tell you he’s fixing his computer.
Inform him his video card is probably blown and you’ll get the same model… you just need the video card.
Take your video card and screw driver to Jared.
Jared fixes your computer
The Walking Dead game still doesn’t work…. TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 2!
No but seriously.
I don’t find it much of a game and the fact that nothing was challenging about it made it kind of boring. I get why fans of the show might like this.
To me it’s like watching The Walking Dead on TV and every time a zombie shows up you have to madly wave around you remote control before the show will continue.
Because of that I’m just not giving The Walking Dead a recommendation for purchase. It’s just not very good.
Continuing with Telltale month we now look at Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. The game was released in five episodes (which is how I have it) and is now available as one giant game. The game goes for $30. So how does it play?
The Brief: Strong Bad
The year was 2002. I had begun my first year of university and my roommate had pulled up a small flash cartoon called “Homestar Runner.”
Upon investigating the site more we found a section called “Strong Bad’s Emails.”
This small section of the website was the evil villain of Strong Bad writing evil emails to people.
Strong Bad was a Mexican wrestler villain who has nothing but bad for people. His email responses often made fun of people who were writing in.
There is a matching mini game in which you must kill the Teen Girl Squad
Strong Bad Email proved to be the most popular part of the website. As the Strong Bad Emails went viral around 2003 the website developers brought Strong Bad Email back and put a lot of work into trying and making it a once a week thing. Today there are hundreds of Strong Bad Emails.
The Home Star Runner website proved to be somewhat of a cult classic. Strong Bad Emails became a way to create new characters for the website as people would write in and ask retarded questions about random non-existent characters like “Homsar Runner”… a very clear spelling error of Homestar Runner.
The Strong Bad franchise despite being old and dated still holds weight to the fans and is still cool enough to wear some Strong Bad swag.
But enough of this, on to the game!
Synopsis
Each of the five games took less than 30 minutes to download. So you’re looking at about 2.5 hours with a premium high speed connection… pretty accessible.
The game has two basic control mechanisms, point and click. You point and click to move. If you double click you will run instead of walk. You click on people to talk with them and click on objects to interact with them.
With people they will give you clues on exactly what you are supposed to do. They will indicate prejudices and biases they might have against something or someone.
Objects can either be looked at or picked up. Looked at objects bring a comedy sketch into play.
Objects that can be used must be picked up and clicked on to a person or thing. Some of these are a little more obvious than others. For example when you get hedge clippers it’s obvious you should clip some hedges with it.
The game comes in five chapters of which the stories really do not matter too much. Each game (five episodes) gives a short story based on an email that Strongbad receives. Each averages about two hour of gameplay and maybe 2-3 hours of time spent trying to figure the game out.
Strongbad Fashion Show? How Odd
Each of the games also features many mini-games. Each of these mini-games is an Atari age retro game and has its own custom controls that is explained.
As an example there is Atari Boxing. This was a top down boxing game in which you could only shy from being punched, left punch, and right punch. The players moved up and down and could not move left and right. This game was called “Snake Boxing 5″ in which the only real difference is you are fighting snakes… and possibly a slight graphical upgrade.
The game also features a postcard game in which The Cheat will take pictures of Strongbad posing in various outfits that you acquire while playing.
Ep. 1 – Homestar Ruiner
Strongbad receives an email telling him to once and for all beat up Homestar Runner. Strongbad goes out to do that when he finds Homestar Runner and Pom Pom are going to be in The Second Trianual Race to the End of the Race. Coach Z indicates that registration is closed and he’s not allowed to be in it.
Pom Pom is a giant Pom
So Strongbad decides to have Homestar Runner lose the race instead.
This episodes features Snake Boxing 5, the race mini-game, Teen Girl Squad mini-game, and the heist mini-game.
Ep. 2 – Strongbadia The Free
As the game opens Strongbad is asked what the worst legislation The King of Town has put in place. Strongbad states he has no problems with the King of Town. As he sends the letter The King of Town and the Poopsmith storm in. King of Town informs Strongbad of a new “Email Tax” and straps a house arrest on Strongbad.
Upon escaping from his home Strongbad secedes from “The Town” and forms Strongbadia, a new independent monarchy ruled by Strongbad. But no one else wants to be a part of his Kingdom.
The Cheat has formed his own nation within Strongbadia “The Cheat and Tiria.”
Strong Sad has annexed Strongbad’s house and called it “The Bleak House.”
The Poopsmith has a riot shield and is not smithing poop
The cantina has formed an independent neutral nation… and black market dealings.
Homsar has formed Homsar’s Reserve, an aboriginal themed land.
Pom Pom has formed a Japanese disco called Pomarina.
Strongmad has formed his country of…um… “Country.”
Homestar Runner and Maripan can’t seem to agree on a name for their country.
Strongbad has to unify… or conquer, all of the nations between him and King of Town so he can mobilize forces to depose King of Town and restore email order.
The game features the mini-game “Math Warriors” in which you have to solve math problems with punches and sonic booms (think Street Fighter here). There is also another episode of the Teen Girl Squad! At the very end of the game you will unlock the Wargame mini-game. It’s kind of like chess…. with Homsar.
Ep. 3 – Baddest of the Bands
Upon starting the game Strongbad is trying to play his favorite Limozeen based game when his system breaks. Upon bringing it to Bubs he is informed he needs a full bag of cash… which he doesn’t have. Bubs suggests that if he was to start a battle of the bands he could actually make enough money to pay for the repairs to his Funstation.
The game focuses on organizing a battle of the bands and re-uniting bands made of various characters in the Strongbad world.
The Cheat really rocks your socks off
This game uniquely has no mini-games until you finish the game. Since the point of the game is to repair your game station it doesn’t offer a single mini-game until it ends and you can play an Atari version of a side shooter game.
Ep. 4 – Dangeresque 3
Probably the funniest of the episodes Dangeresque 3 is a Super 8 movie created by Strong Bad featuring all of the characters of Strongbadia.
In it Strongbad playing the character of “Dangeresque” has to get the rainforest saving formula for a woman and upon doing so winds up into a giant mystery to solve.
He’s not dangerous… he’s Dangeresque!
The game is done with with terrible effects and obvious stunt double transitions (anywhere where there is scenes of someone getting hit Strong Sad is inserted).
There is only one mini-game an odd space shooter minigame. The controls are not displayed for the PC version of the game and I hit Ctrl. This caused one guy to get encased in a bubble and I have no idea what that meant. All I know is that it moved me through the story and I never wanted to try this mini game again.
Ep. 5 – 8-Bit is Enough
After Strong Bad accidentally falls into the Trogdor machine this causes Trogdor machine to come to life. Strong Bad calls up the technical service who are reluctant to help. As Strong Bad is trying to fix the machine technical service call back indicating that by adding a new board he will bring on the end of the world. The end result is Trogdor coming to life.
Video games are all over the world. Homestar Runner is constantly adding in non-important information you probably already know like the quest objective givers from Metal Gear (and at awkward times). There is a Luigi’s Mansion type game at Strongbad’s house.
Does that Trogdor Machine have Trogdor Arms?
Marzipan has transformed into an ape and is throwing crates.
There are also a number of game worlds you can enter including Peasant’s Quest, some sort of collecting fruit game, and I Wanna Be the Guy. Strong Bad’s goal is to bring the gaming world back together and defeat Trogdor!
Despite this being a game about gaming there is only one mini-game. It is a 2D space shooter game in which you have to dodge objects.
The Verdict
As a fan of Homestar Runner I understood a lot of the jokes and what they were about.
However as a person who has advanced 10 years beyond Strongbad’s EmailsI felt none of the humor was all that funny. No there was some parts that would actually make me laugh, but none of that was tied into the story.
The game itself is far superior to most or all of the adventure games out there. The game is not riddled with too many hints and it gives you tones of room to figure things out on your own. You are encouraged to click on every single object and every single person in what would be considered a very sandbox adventure game.
The map navigates you through points and you choose where everything goes
The cutting point for me is cost of the game vs. the content of the game. The game sells for $25 and all five episodes are going to be about 10 hours. To me if you want this game it will have more to do with your affinity of retro games and less to do with adventure games.
Oh, the sound quality of all these games is really bad. Worth mentioning that you’ll hear a resonance the entire time. It’s something you don’t really appreciate because games haven’t had this kind of sound quality since Doom.
As an adventure game it is a great well-rounded experience. However there are all sorts of high score gathering retro games planted all over these games that you can try to work towards a personal best in.
Another problem comes with the development of episodic content. If you get the episodes your games will not link together and you will lose the coveted high scores and fashion items from previous games. However if you buy the full game you will get all of this stuff.
For me this game gets a thumbs up, I felt it was well executed, no hand holding, and retro games comes as a bonus. For most I’d think they might want to get this on sale.
Well I think it’s about time it actually happened, an actual total review of Telltale Games. You may remember I was actually quite short with Telltale Games. In fact I wrote off Episode 1 as “not a game.” So in the spirit of renewal I have decided that the next ten games I will play will be Telltale’s current library including Back to the Future, Walking Dead, Jurassic Park, Strong Bad’s Cool Game, Wallace and Gromit, Sam and Max, CSI: Hard Evidence, and Law and Order.
Although I will probably not like these games I will give them a full playthrough and no promises, some of them just might be terrible games.
They have a massive library of shit to get through and so I will dedicated a month to this. Whatever games from them I do not finish… may go unfinished forever.
So on with the show!
I will be reviewing Back to Future as I purchased it, in it’s five parts. The game however is currently available as a full game for $25 or the on sale price of $12.50. I should note I purchased the entire Telltale Bundle for $50 for over 40 games.
The Brief: Back to the Future
In good ole 1984 came out a movie that would re-shape the universe as we know it… Back to the Future. Back to the Future used string theory to construct a logical time tale which would become the example of string theory physicists for an entire generation.
Marty McFly is just a normal boy. He’s a normal boy who has a friend who is a senior citizen. Now in a time before…. well this guy… hanging out with an older man wasn’t considered odd.
Doctor Emitt Brown calls for his friend Marty to come to a parking lot with a video camera to tape a historic event. The ending result is sending his dog, Einstein through time, one minute into the future.
Why is Marty hanging out with an emo kid?
After a successful experiment Doc Brown tells Marty he stole the uranium he needs for time travel from… LIBYANS! The Libyans come after him and murder him in cold blood. Trying to escape the Libyans Marty randomly goes back in time to a time when his parents were young. He meets Doc Brown and constantly tries to stop him from being murdered.
Marty in the three party trilogy goes throughout time modifying how historical events play out pretending to be historical characters.
The movie would also launch a TV show in the 90s in which Doc Brown and his family would travel to a different time period every single episode.
Synopsis
First I will describe the gameplay mechanics that guide the five episodic games and then I’ll jump into the stories guiding each. These will contain some spoilers but not enough to ruin the games.
Back to the Future is a game that is often described as “point and click.” At one time they were called “adventure” games. These days people commonly refer to them as “detective games.” I know that’s what I call them!
In this style of game you must use objects, people, and environments to accomplish your goal.
The opening to the first episode of this game gives a classic example.
Biff is claiming a notebook Marty needs.
Marty needs to trick Biff.
There is an amplifier and Marty has a guitar.
Every time Marty tries to play guitar Biff tries to take the guitar from him.
When this happens Marty’s father stops Biff from doing so.
The solution is to tell your father you can stand up to Biff. Crank up the sound on the amplifier. Plug in the guitar. When Biff tries to take the guitar and play it, he hurts himself… giving the needed opportunity to steal the notebook.
This process is complicated and most people find it condoluded that anyone could figure this out. But people do. There are two decades of games like this in which people spent endless hours trying to figure things out.
Telltale however has installed a chicken button. If you are not up to the task of trying to figure out what you are supposed to do on your own…. you can just select hints until it tells you what to do.
It should be noted that people often jumped between multiple detective games in hopes that they might realize what they had to do after the fact. I spent probably about 100 hours on Sam and Max without a walkthrough.
The controls for the game are simple. WASD are used to move around. Shift can be held for running. Everything else is done through the left click button.
You carry an inventory which is full of items you are picking up and using to help you solve thes problems.
As an interesting note Telltale has actually developed a walkthrough for each episode of the game in full detail…. so they’re not above spoiling their own game.
And now on to plot summaries of each game.
Ep. 1 It’s About Time
Doc Brown is dead and you are liquidating his stuff. You find a journal describing the time machine and as you walk out the door there is the time machine waiting. Inside is Einstein, Doc Brown’s dog.
You travel back to the 1920s after investigating Edna’s house.
In the 1920s you find that modern day Doc Brown is locked up in the slammer and waiting sentence from his father Judge Brown. Edna is here as well and is a journalist and prohibitionist.
Marty now has to get a young Doc Brown to give up his father’s ambition of being a law clerk and take up his destiny as a scientist.
Marty takes on the alias “Michael Corleone” after the main character and future Godfather of the Godfather franchise.
About half way into the game you will hit an interesting mini-game in which you are in Doc Brown’s lab and you have to listen to his instructions. He gives hints as to what you need to do and you need to do them in rapid succession or else you fail.
You need to be able to do four rounds of this in order to move on. This mini-game is not repeatable.
Ep. 2 Get Tannen
In this second part a small mistake has put a new set of events into play. It turns out Arty McFly is murdered in cold blood and Marty’s time line is being removed a full two generations ahead. The photo of his father George is slowly vanishing similar to the Back to the Future franchise.
Upon fixing this it turns out that upon returning to good ole 1984 a new crime faction known as the “Tannen Family” has taken over the area and has broken the legs of George McFly.
Just like Back to the Future 2 where Marty sees himself
Now Marty and the professor have to go back in time and try and fix whatever caused this unlikely event.
There were no mini-games in this part of the game. Instead a new angle mode was offered in which you can move around vehicles and hide under cover as new solving elements are available.
Ep. 3 Citizen Brown
The calamity from Episode 2 caused the odd and unlikely event that Doc Brown would get married to Edna. Upon returning to Hill Valley, Doc Brown vanishes and the time car crashes into a sign.
After being helped down with Marty’s rebellious emo former girlfriend Jennifer he finds that the society in front of him is one of the book 1984 in which everyone is being watched and everyone acts perfectly.
Introducing Citizen Brown
Doc Brown is now an overlord and social engineer known as “Citizen Brown.” Marty now has to overthrow Doc Brown because well… there’s no time machine.
There is a guitar battle between Marty and a punk named Leech (in the movie Leech gets Marty in an accident).
This is actually an interesting take on the story because there has been no distinct version of Doc Brown that was modified by history. In every movie he’s always the same crazy wild haired scientist.
Ep. 4: Double Visions and Ep. 5: OUTATIME
I wish I could tell you how these went… but I couldn’t even get them to work. Every time I loaded either of these up they just crashed. Eventually they wouldn’t even open, they’d just crash. After doing some searching I found no available solution for the problem.
The Verdict?
All 5 episodes combined into one game give you a play value of 12.5 hours, that is 2.5 hours per episode. This is a pretty mediocre amount of gameplay considering that roughly 90% of the game is just dialogue and there is less and less adventure elements to the game.
The episodic content launch was brutal. Instead of playing them one by one and waiting for the next most people just bought them all at once… like me. Releasing it as a full game should have been a no brainer but it took almost two years to do.
My original view of the game is very maintained in the review of the game, it’s just not much of a game. I really enjoyed mini-games whenever they made them…. but they were thin and few.
The actual “adventure” elements of the game and puzzle solving was lost in the fact that Telltale gives you a full walkthrough built into the game… that’s just weird.
I’m not an adventure game hater, I actually spent a large part of my childhood trying to beat Sam and Max and Leisure Suit Larry. But this game does not invoke the classic spirit of adventure games and does not offer any replay value or challenge. It takes longer to download than to play.
The fact that the final two episodes of this game don’t even work does not sit well with me.
