Or the pointy-clicky-adventure-gamey thread!
I've always been a big fan of adventure games, and they've had a bit of a renaissance in recent years. So at the risk of this being a whole thread of me talking to myself, anyone played any good ones recently?
Tangle Tower, on Apple Arcade (and PC I think), is absolutely lovely. You play a (very) amateur detective called to the scene of a crime – a bizzare mansion still occupied by a very disfunctional family.
It's quite a compact game but the production values are high, with gorgeous environments, good writing and genuinely enjoyable voice performances. (That last one used to be an incredible rarity… I've suffered through some truly terrible VOs in my adventure-game career.)
And I've only just started Four Last Things (on Android) but it's an intriguing concept. To quote the (one-man) developer, "it's like if Monkey Island had been made in 16th Century Flanders, by a Monty Python fanboy." He's saved himself dev time in a very clever way – by using public domain renaissance art instead of hand-drawn backgrounds. It's well worth a look.
I know it's not quite a point and click but I wish I could play Disco Elysium.
I played Thimbleweed Park and it was a bit mediocre. Started off well enough but became tedious towards the end with lots of character swapping for no reason. Not especially funny, either, and inordinately pleased with itself.
I know it's not quite a point and click but I wish I could play Disco Elysium.
Yeah I'm really intruiged by that, but I don't have a PC any more!
Some of the word-of-mouth it's been getting makes it sound like the second coming of Christ.
It sounds like Planescape Torment, without the combat and I dunno if anyone cared for Planescape's combat. And instead of a party you get voices in your head I think? Like, I saw a guy using a skill called 'Inland Empire' and apparently this made dead body hung from a tree start to talk to him and call him a piece of shit.
Tangle Tower, on Apple Arcade (and PC I think), is absolutely lovely. You play a (very) amateur detective called to the scene of a crime – a bizzare mansion still occupied by a very disfunctional family.
This is on Switch very soon, if it's not out already. I want it very much.
And I've only just started Four Last Things (on Android) but it's an intriguing concept. To quote the (one-man) developer, "it's like if Monkey Island had been made in 16th Century Flanders, by a Monty Python fanboy." He's saved himself dev time in a very clever way – by using public domain renaissance art instead of hand-drawn backgrounds. It's well worth a look.
I really enjoyed this, though it's short. The guy's already working on a sequel of sorts. Looking forward to that.
I know it's not quite a point and click but I wish I could play Disco Elysium.
PS4 and XBOX next year, according to the dev. I'm really intrigued too, can't wait.
Anyone else here played Disco Elysium?
I'm a couple of hours in and I'm not sure if I like it or not.
I want to, apparently they want to bring it to consoles but if so that's probably a ways away. It sounds amazing though.
I'm playing Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge in preparation for the upcoming new game in the series.
I haven't played this properly since… 1992? That was the Amiga version, which came on 11 floppy disks, where a single animation sequence could sometimes require 3 or 4 disc swaps. Looking back, it was completely insane but the quality of the game was so far in advance of anything else at the time that we just got on with it.
I did dabble briefly with the Special Edition that was released a few years back but decided I absolutely hated the new graphical style and found the "classic" mode a bit bare-bones (if nothing else, they butchered the music) so didn't really get very far before binning it.
I'm back on it now, in style, with a ScummVM setup that's transplanted the spoken dialogue from the Special Edition into the classic DOS version. I've set up Roland MT-32 emulation for the best possible music and am playing with subtle scanlines which makes the most of the pixel art. It looks and sounds glorious.
It's also flipping difficult. So far I can't even work out how to get off Scabb Island at the start of the game, which is basically just the intro. Now I definitely completed this game back in the day, I vaguely recall seeing the ending, but I've no idea how I managed it, especially in those pre-Internet days. I do remember it took me an entire summer. Genuinely they don't make 'em like this any more.
You might already know about this site, but UHS offers brilliant adventure game guides with a hint system, rather than just telling you what to do. It’s kept me sane through every LucasArts game.
http://mobile.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/monkey2
It's also flipping difficult. So far I can't even work out how to get off Scabb Island at the start of the game, which is basically just the intro.
Pretty sure you use the thing on the other thing, and then the thing happens. Easy.
Return to Monkey Island is out - everyone buy it quick so they make more.
I don’t have a PC so I’ve bought the Switch version, but thanks to a clever control system it doesn’t feel like a compromise. It’s also drop-dead gorgeous on the OLED, haters of the art style be damned.
I’m still on the first act, but so far, so Monkey Island. Which automatically makes it one of the games of the year.
haters of the art style be damned.
I think it looks amazing. The backlash was tediously predictable.
Return to Monkey Island is coming to Game Pass this month. That was quick.
It was only a time limited console exclusive. Glad I waited.
Return to Monkey Island is coming to Game Pass this month. That was quick.
Is this just on consoles? I can't see it on the PC Gamepass. It's still good news as it's an indicator that it will come to PC sooner or later.
It’s listed as “cloud + console + PC” - it’s just not out on Game Pass yet.
It's great fun. Not up there with the best of Monkey Island, but it's funny, beautiful, and the puzzles are the right side of difficult. Plus the concessions to modernity are brilliantly implemented; the hint system is the best I've ever seen.
It also pretends the last 30 years never happened, and assumes you completed Monkey Island 2 a few weeks ago. Lots of recurring characters, locations and jokes.
Make sure you enable the 'writer's cut' in the options. The description says it adds more waffle and ruins the flow, but they're being self deprecating there. Leaving this off (the default) actually removes whole characters and conversations simply because they're not relevant to puzzle solutions.
