Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry

The game incessantly places the original games on a pedestal, making references to them ad nauseum, but can't even begin to match their quality. The puzzles are arcane, the writing was obviously done by someone who doesn't speak english as a first language, and the jokes go sailing way past innuendo into the just pure vulgar. Then it all ends with a gigantic "Trump is bad"-sequence which comes out of nowhere, is jarring as hell and just crashes any goodwill one might have for the game with no survivors. It's a shame, because the music and art were good enough.

They could not help it. They had to pick a deliberately offensive, sexist and inadeqaute character like Larry, and make him nicer, more correct, more likable, more "aware" and, heck, they even made him taller and with better hair, so nobody gets offended. It's not a terrible game, it's just not Larry. Instead we got some look-a-like that went through the preachy SJW filter and became flavourless and boring.

Leisure Suit Larry is back. Again. Much like the protagonist itself, this series gets shot down a lot, only to take another shot. And this time, at least, I think it deserves ione. This is a solid, colorful point-and-click adventure game that pays homage to the series' roots while bringing its core concept into the modern era. The game begins with Larry waking up in current-day Lost Wages, without aging. How? Nobody could possibly care, so the game just plows ahead to its premise: Larry has to hook up a lot on the in-game version of Tinder to win a shot at Faith, the Prune executive he instantly decides is his dream woman. It's vintage Larry - trying (and failing) to secure the affections of the women he meets while building towards the 'final girl' that will change his life forever. Until the sequel, at least. The throwback structure contrasts nicely with the modern setting, which acknowledges the changing social mores since Larry's prime. Granted, the games were never as chauvinistic as some folks alleged - for all of Larry's hormonal antics, the women were always in control - but it's still weirdly charming to see an aging lounge lizard serve as the best man at a gay wedding. Of course, the game has no problem skewering its new liberal buddies, with ample barbs aimed at hipsters, safe spaces, and Apple. That said, video gaming has a lively reactionary population, so if you're among them, this game will probably trigger you. The game is solid production-wise. I like the art style, and most of the music and vocal performances are good. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jan Robson back as Larry. It did crash once on me, though, and a handful of interaction responses were clearly not the right ones. It's stable, but needs a solid patch. The game also features a number of objects or interactive items bordering on 'pixel hunt' status, which I could live without. But yeah, welcome back, Larry. Stick around this time, you old rascal.

Like the new Star Wars movies, there was more gushing about the old days than anything worth gushing about in this one. There's not much more to be said than what others already have about the lack of humor and cleverness. The game does look good, but this is just a failed attempt of someone trying to ride the coattails of the successful.

As a fan of classic Larry (games 1-7), I was wary about another installment without Al Lowe. This one is like an awkwardly worded love letter: the affection for Larry is there, but everything feels a bit off. In this soft reboot, the Larry from LSL1 has been thrust three decades into the future. The incredibly clever logistics of this are hinted at, but never fully explained; and the "fish out of water" premise works fine but could be played up more. I admire the attempt to create a classic Larry experience with modern sensibilities, but the balance is never quite right—the humor tends to be more blunt than witty, and the social commentary often lacks a necessary finesse. I suspect this is partly a localization issue, given how some of the dialogue is phrased. It doesn't help that the written text frequently differs from the spoken dialogue, sometimes drastically. Nonetheless, the writing is passable if not always polished, and the voice cast does a good job. I'm glad to hear Jan Rabson reprising his role as Larry, too. The art style is cohesive, though too focused on grimy details for my taste. The characters are fun and diverse, with fluid animations. It took a while for me to warm up to Larry's new design; for one thing, some of his facial expressions straddle the line between "lovable loser" and "creep." I beat the game without a walkthrough, but I wouldn't say the puzzles are all intuitive. They're less about logical solutions and more about matching objects based on the keywords in their descriptions. Yes, the liquid softener SHOULD soften that rock-hard gum in your pocket, but the gum is described as needing a strong jaw to chew it, so the two items can't combine. The interface has some niceties but could use some fine-tuning; for instance, you need to exit to the main menu just to save your game. The epilogue is decent but ends as abruptly as this review. NOTE: The game contains profanity, nudity, sexual content, drug references, and gross/crass humor.