Thimbleweed Park

What is presented in the trailer and game descriptions on distribution platforms is not really what you get when in the game. The first half of Thimbleween Park is fun to play. Characters are being introduced and it is exactly what you expect from a classical point & click adventure. Past the half the logic of the game breaks. There is no real connection between some of the characters that need to cooperate, puzzles become convoluted and you will most likely need to use the in-game hint system or walkthrough to move past them. The end game twist is plain stupid and makes you feel stupid for investing time into this. This game is not a murder mystery adventure its just a joke game. Please, if you want to play actually good point & click game, go for Wadjet Eye adventures, try Unawoved or the Blackwell series.

Remember the TV show "Lost"? Remember how good that started? Remember how it just spiralled down into a confusing mess with a sudden and even more bizzare ending? Yeah, that's how I felt with this game. It honestly feels like the developers weren't sure how to end the game, so just came up with something convoluted whilst thinking themselves clever. The game does things most developers avoid. For example, I was stuck for ages, and it turned out that completely randomly a building I needed to visit had opened, while it had remained shut for the the vast majority of the game. There was no indication that it was open or that I needed to visit it. I just randomly clicked on it after wandering around clueless for ages, and I suppose got lucky. Again, bad game design in the modern age. MINOR MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD So, you start the game as a detective trying to solve a murder. HOWEVER, you never ever get to really solve the murder. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure who committed the murder. I mean, I have an idea, but if I was to actually give the killer a name, I wouldn't know where to start. There's one character (the clown - who actually was my favourite character) who does literally nothing throughout the entire game. Honestly, thinking back, I reckon I could finish the entire game without ever controlling them. Unless I need him to eat a hotdog... if that's all he's there for, then that's just stupid game design. It felt great being back to a classic point and click game, but the developers had a great story, and I was making guesses, excited about the possibilities... but I was thrown sideways when the curtain was lifted. The game also allows you to finish it without finishing everyone's stories. Imagine playing Day of the Tentacle, getting Bernard back to the present and the game ending before you manage to get the other 2 home. That's how this felt. What game designer does that???

Finished the game in "Easy" Mode after about eight hours of game time at 4 AM, still playing on "Hard" mode. Excellent voice acting, beautiful artwork, good puzzles. Switching between and coordinating characters keeps you moving even if you get stuck with a single character for the moment. The "easy" mode is a bit too straightforward at times, makes some screens quite pointless and even omits a few whole screens from the story line. The "hard" mode requires a lot of thinking. The engine is capable of effects like moving grass or even tilting screens, but this is only used in very few screens. Also there are no "huge" animated cutscenes. Some screens are so tidy, they have a somewhat "clinical" look to me. Looking at the credits I'm surprised that so few people could pull off a game of this magnitude! Still laughing about all the books and phone numbers. I didn't give the fifth star because the story didn't really captivate me, and the humor in the story itself could not make up for it. The connection between the five actors is not always really clear and they are not even always introduced to each other, for example it is not really clear to me why Ransome the Clown readily cooperates with the others, and sometimes you have to give an item to a character who doesn't expect to receive it. There are some open questions in the story, and towards the end it goes a bit too much onto a "meta level" and the questions are explained away too easily.

The tone is great. The dialogs are Monkey Island fun. Beautiful art. Appealing mysteries. Deep mood. And I had so many laugh ! Do not fear the verb system : this adventure is easy. And, with some assumed copyright safe renaming, you'll find this is the third part of Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle you did not know you were waiting for !

I bought this for steam. Im like 15 hours in and I have not finished the game. The game itself challenges you in ways that makes you slowly take in the enviroment. The humor is great and pokes fun at sierra death scenes and constantly critizes their[sierra] gameplay (other reviewers are critizing this, however in 1987/1989 They were lucasarts/lucasfilms rivals. ) even when you start the game The first line of dialouge you can choose from was should i save my game? the humor breaks down the fourth walls and its witty and yet intelligent. There are alot (when I say alot I mean every lucasarts and pop culture) references is awaiting to be found. Here are some pros vs cons. PROS: Xbox 360 Controller friendly I mean holy shit. it has been converted beautifully. (Again, I dont understand why you would play with it but its perfect). I have my xbox controller plugged in my usb port for games that require it and realize this game feels different playing it as a traditional point and click with a mouse vs xbox 360 controller. (See cons for this) Its a great neo-noir style like game and the characters are amazing. Its not your usual suspects(pun intended.) Multiple characters can solve puzzles perfectly. In other words, with expections of two puzzles i encountered. can be solved with any character. The one character hates the Federal agents so you have to use a non-federal agent to move something. Have not tried that puzzle with the federal agents characters yet. humor is intelligent and characters are unique. you can use the phone book to crank call weird edna from Manaic Mansion hence why this is a squel of sorts also can listen to other people voice mails in the phone book. its a story that drags you in from begining to end. Cons You can not interact or talk with each character. some of the characters lack motivation at times playing with an xbox controller may be fun but does not make this a true point and click game sound track is limited to like 5 songs(?)