Randal's Monday

I did not like Randal's Monday. In the technical aspects (graphics, voices, controls) its very good. But the story and the puzzles are really bad. Endless streams of conversations that are just not funny, nothing that happens to the characters seems to be related to what happened before like all is random or an excuse to make a reference to a movie. And many puzzles are completely crazy, the kind that drove many people away from point&click games. After 17 hours I just wanted to finish it no matter what and I almost turned to a walkthrough to complete it and uninstall it, but luckily I was actually at the end. If this is your first attempt at adventure games, PLEASE consider playing something else entirely like the Wadjet Eye games or pretty much the rest of Daedalic catalog.

I got this game based on the positive reviews, the nice artwork and the promise of a classic style adventure. I am an avid point-and-click gamer, I sit through tedious parts patiently, and in general I pride myself of being a patient gamer. But this was just too much for me, so much that I felt compelled to write my first review on GOG to warn other potential buyers. The game starts fun and interesting, puzzles are ok and require you to use your brain. But the game is so choke-full of references to pop culture, gags, useless violence and stupid "adult" humor that one can really see how the designers tried hard to be funny. The game starts to get boring pretty soon, puzzles become illogical, the overall setting and locations are always the same, and the game just never ends. I resorted to the in-game walkthrough just to get it over with (NEVER done in my life). And I'm not even mentioning how unlikable all the characters are, with particular reference to the main character. Guys there are better games out there, don't spend time on this. Sorry if this sounds harsh. Smooth animations though.

First things first: I like the game, I really do. First I hesitated because the main char didn't really appeal to me, but then I gave it a try and it's actually quite good. The fact that everyon in the game is a nerd and you can find tons of quotes from pop culture doesn't hurt either. But it has it's flaws for certain. First of all: Randall. You may like him or not, that's up to you. But he shifts too much. Sometimes he is just a drunkard, sometimes he knows way too much, is too intelligent for his role in this game. He is the top nerd of all, sometimes he hates all nerds. Sometimes the hints could be a bit more accurate (I refuse to use the hint system, a good adventure game doesn't need that), I admit I DID look at a walkthrough and even then sometimes I would not see a logical way to get to that specific action to do other than trying random stuff for hours. And - I hate to say it - the dialogs are too long. I love adventure games (the funny ones AND the serious ones), I love good dialogs, but in this case they exagerated. Click - 1 minute of dialog - Click - 30 seconds of dialog - Click - 2 minutes of dialog. I actually found myself (literally) getting up from the computer and making coffee while waiting for a dialog to end. Maybe the dialogs also are so exhausting because of the bad mixing. The music is good, but while sometimes the voiceover is loud and crystal clear as it should be, some other times you just can't understand a word and during that (long) dialog you can't turn down the music volume which would be too soft for most other cases. So the game for now leaves me with mixed feelings so far (I dind't play through yet).

This has been such a tedious waste of time. None of the characters are likeable. The dialogs are tedious, endless, not funny. In the last few hours I just skimmed through the printed text and skipped the voice acting (sadly, because it was well done) simply, because of the sheer length and because they would never help me in puzzles or contain any funny moments. Puzzles don't make any sense and you just randomly try to combine everything with everything. This is - again- tediouis, because after every try, you have to open the inventory again, select the item again and then combine it with the next item. One of the first games I ever played was Day of the Tentacle, followed by the Monkey Island and Indiana Jones series. In all of those games, you would get hints from trying to use items (like "if only I had something like this or that) - in Randal's Monday you just don't. ...and so on. I played the Deponia series and other Daedalic games as well. In their defense: Randal's Monday was not developed by them but by a Spanish developer (Nexus Game Studio). Daedalic only acted as the publishers. I gave this 2 stars (even though, sadly I hated it), because the graphics are very well done and so is the voice acting. I was also not a fan of the music that never changed to fit what was happening on screen.

There's very little wrong with how Randal's Monday is built. While the art style may not be to everyone's tastes (I mostly like it but some of the characters are oddly devoid of expression), the animation is smooth and well produced. The game has solid puzzles and a good interface. There's a hint system built in too (though it doesn't really give hints so much as piecemeal out a walkthrough, which isn't all that helpful if just need a nudge in the right direction). The trouble is that the story all this is supporting is naff. Randal is a horrible character. I assume they were aiming for "loveable jerk who learns a valuable life lesson" but he's not pleasant to spend time with at the start and it doesn't get much better by the end. His best friend Matt is somehow even worse and I really hate the toxic nerd-bro atmosphere they create for the game (for instance, anecdotes of terrible things they did after Phantom Menace ruined their lives by existing). It's all a bit sub-Kevin Smith, which is fitting given Randal is voiced by the guy who played Randal in Clerks and the Jay and Silent Bob cameo. I think what really bugs me more than the overlong, unlikeable story is the obsession with pop culture and adventure game easter eggs. There's barely a single screen in this game that isn't crammed full of arbitrary references to other games or pop culture, from Randal living on Threepwood Street to every bookcase or shelf being containing knick-knacks from other games (the psychiatrist's office has the pendant from Fate of Atlantis and the head of Manny from Grim Fandango for instance). It's so overdone that any novelty of recognition is quickly lost and most of them are so awkwardly executed. Matt lives on "Dr Fred Edison Street" for instance, because I guess Nexus didn't trust you to recognise just Edison Street. It sums up the game's lack of originality. The whole thing is just a blended sludge of other people's ideas.