Thimbleweed Park

The Good: The puzzles are well designed, they don't insult your intelligence, they won't fry your brain either. The graphics remind of Maniac Mansion but are more modern. The game can get a good laugh. The (maybe) Bad: This game is some sort of bizarre videogame commentary by the developers, as to what makes a game so great. It's very self-referential. Ron Gilbert even puts himself in the game... as well as creates a main character he could probably relate to...It tells you of its own greatness repeatedly. I guess you could say it's part of the game's humor, reminding you of how great it is, how it does everything right in the eyes of the developers. Just what it is: The Story is very existential in the end, what begins as a simple story evolves into something more intriguing but honestly not very surprising, Ron Gilbert is stuck on the allegory of the cave. The ending is very MI-2...I really hope he can get over his existential endings for the new Monkey Island game. The problem with the ending is that it tells 2 stories that can't continue on their own... On one hand the characters are make believe and who gives a crap what happens to them, on the other they had lives... (Which is philosophical and intriguing on one hand but depressing and empty on the other...) Any roundedness to the characters sort of dissolves after the twist..."no free will" even. This leaves me torn about the game overall, mixed feelings. The Annoying: Hotel, "PEW PEW "(X 100) "I wonder what the guests are up to" (X100) Quickie Pal "Can I help you find anything" (X100) It's annoying to be constantly assaulted with voice overs for no reason, non-stop. Chuck at the end also annoying "You're cheating!"...(x100). The lasers (every time I go through them, "ha can't touch this" or whatever (x100)?? Also why can't I skip the elevator sequence? (Watching every floor... even if needed for 1 puzzle, the 'esc' key maybe?) I have to go to a hotel room just to look up a number in the phone book?

This game is a lot of fun, if you love the old LucasArts Adventure Games, this is a must buy.

This game is funny, smart, interesting. Well, funny does come first. Strongly suggested!

I am referring to the title.

Disappointing. It's crystal clear now he is good at designing (some) puzzles but needs to be restrained and aided by better writers (Schafer, Grossman) so his bad writing doesn't show in his games. It's the only explanation as to why Monkey Island 1 and 2 are so good and Thimbleweed Park is so incredibly mediocre. Shitty ending aside, none of the characters you control are very interesting, and having to divide the playtime between them instead of just focusing on one or two main characters has the side effect of none of them having a fulfilling story arc (or an arc at all for that matter). They don't evolve, they are not funny nor charismatic and the player doesn't care about them. I finished the game just to finish it, not because I cared much about the characters. And even worse, they don't have an in-game reason to collaborate with each other. They only reason is the player knowing they have to so in the end they are not characters, they are just moving tools that carry objects you share with the other moving tools. Quite pathetic. The humor is also not there at all (and the attempts that are there are not funny at all) what makes me think Schafer was the one writing the jokes in Monkey Island. I did care about solving the mystery... but then you get to the twist and... well, let's put it this way, as an adventure fan, I always wanted for Ron Gilbert to have a nack at another Monkey game, the fabled Monkey 3a, now, I think I am ok with better writers taking over the franchise... we really, really don't want Monkey Island to be disgraced in the same way he disgraced himself in this game. Or he can just tell the secret of Monkey Island to Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman so they can write an actual game with an interesting story and characters. It's crystal clear Ron doesn't know how to do that.