Time Gentlemen, Please! + Ben There, Dan That!

Ben there dan that: What a funny little game! A lot of effort has been put on comic dialogues which arise from interaction between characters or objects. Trying unsuccessfully everything on everything in many point-and-click adventure games usually triggers a default answer of error. Not here, so knock yourselves out! The only drawback is the lack of voice acting and sometimes an irritating background music. But not let that stop you from experiencing a very amusing and enjoyable game! Time Gentlemen, Please!: The adventure of Ben and Dan continues on a superb full-length game, with improved graphics and music, heavy doses of humour (not at all refined) and self-sarcasm. The puzzles are escalating in difficulty as the story progresses, requiring out-of-the-box thinking. The innovation that struck me the most is the existence of two games within the game, both of which connect to the story and the real action and one of which connects to a rip-within-a-rip. I highly recommend it!

Yep, that is all I can say about this game. The text is nearly impossible to read. The font is awkward looking and the coloring makes the dialogue blend into the background so much so that it becomes a challenge to decipher. It certainly doesn't help that the game's resolution is as small as your average youtube thumbnail. I can barely stare at it for 5 minutes before my eyes start hurting from strain. I've never used GOG's refund before, but this is the first time I am very heavily tempted. The only reason I'm not going to is because it seems like an unnecessary hassle for barely 2 bucks.

"Ben There, Dan That!" is a mediocre point & click adventure. Let's start with the characters: they are all uninteresting. Other than the protagonists, you won't really interact with anyone beyond their role in solving a puzzle, or to deliver 4-5 dialogues which more often than not fail at being funny, are needlessly verbose, and won't build the setting (since the game is a series of disjointed 1-3 rooms worlds. Even the protagonists are barely there, with no characterization whatsoever, beyond what the (bad) jokes might demand. The overall story is nonsensical and uninspired, the most interesting part was probably trying to fix the antenna of your tv to watch a show, at least it had some impetus behind it. The rest is just the protagonists trying to escape the mess they got into: SPOILERS!!! They got teleported into an alien craft (which turns out to be fake, and staged by their future selves to put them out of the way to create a dictatorship using future technology to hypnotize the world... Yeah, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever). END OF SPOILERS!!! It's really bland, despite its quirkiness (old games did the same concept much better). The puzzles are easy, but beware of the unexpected handful of items you might miss because they blend with the background, thanks to the highly stylized graphics. The logic is pure nonsense as point & click can be, but the limited setting, number of items and hotspot makes it easy to put two and two together. The interface is a sin, with 5-6 different actions you have to cycle through with right-click, and then use with left-click, slow movement, subpar inventory and picky pixel-hunting despite the relatively large drawings of what you want to interact with. There might be the occasional chuckle, but the game fires jokes constantly, and almost all of them aren't worth your time reading them. I have played only the first game, since I couldn't be bothered checking its sequel, even with the cliffhanger ending.

Ben There, Dan That is a short game and basically sets up for the second game which can be considered the actual game itself. I won't say too much as it as a while ago I played it, but it's a homage to classical point n click with self-inserts of the game creators. Time Gentlemen, Please is where you realize that the concept of Ben There, Dan That doen't really hold up in a longer game. Once again, it's a great point and click with lots of fun references in-game but you also realize quickly that the humor in the game has aged quite bad. It just doesn't hold up anymore. I'm excited to play the stand-alone sequel released earlier this year (2020) as this will be some kind of reboot. Hopefully it'll have less penis and poop jokes and instead more actual fun adventures!

If you are looking for a new point and click with comforting old time elements, Ben There, Dan That! and Time Gentlemen, Please! are definitely for you. Depending on your skill, the game has an average play through time and laughs along the way with witty and crude humor. Please do give this game some of your time; a lot of love has gone into it