Be warned, this isn't a game. This is a series of boring video clips that may eventually draw you into its plot, but more likely it will not....Either way, as another reviewer has already mentioned, you're going to be spending 99% of the time holding down the REWIND button in order to watch the video clip from the beginning. Real good design mechanism there developers (sarcastic thumbs-up). If there is any fun to be had in this game, I certainly couldn't find it...nor the game for that matter....
As a kid who grew up in the naughty Nineties and loved PC adventure games, Leisure Suit Larry is one of my most adored video game characters of all time. Larry 7: Love for Sail is in my opinion the best adventure game ever created, I can't remember laughing so hard in a video game in all my life. Needless to say the monstrosity of that Box Office Bust thing is a mental scar I try and forget every day. But when I saw that Crazy Bunch were bringing Larry back to Lost Wages as a point-and-click adventure game it was like the sequel my younger self had been waiting for and surely a time portal back to a happy time. At first, I loved the setup, having Larry somehow emerge back in 21st Century Lost Wages, his unfamiliarity with the modern day creating many a funny gag. However, about 2-3 hours into the game I came to realise something.....Larry hadn't embarrassed himself somehow, he hadn't gotten himself into a risque situation with a hot chick, in fact where are the hot chicks that Larry is meant to woo? Rather, where has all the raunchiness gone??? It quickly dawned on me that this wasn't the Larry that I know or remembered. This was a very neutral, point-and-click cartoon adventure, with the sexual comedy dialled WAY down to the frigid reading. As a big Larry fan back in the day, it saddens me to say that Larry has become a casualty of the politically-correct, overly-sensitive euphoria that is crushing all sense of humour in the Western World. The puzzles are fun and challenging, the jokes hit the mark on occasion, but eventually they were not enough to hold me. Box Office Bust notwithstanding, this is the only "Larry game" that I didn't finish, except it isn't a Larry game. Unfortunately it's just a cheap, dull animated story that you will soon tire of and make you weep for the sad environment that Larry has been resurrected in.
Be warned - without a mouse the game is unplayable! The keyboard controls don't work, and with only a trackpad you can't double-click to raise your inventory. This kind of information should really be stated before selling to the customer!
Overclocked is an adventure game with an interesting premise, five young people randomly appear in New York City to embark on a shooting rampage, when they are caught and sectioned, and it's up to you as a US army psychiatrist to find out what their motives were and what compelled them to undertake such a horrific act. While the game is quite atmospheric, always rainy and bleak, it's not very exciting. The graphics are sub-par and the voice acting is atrocious, never failing to kill the mood with its unemotional lameness. The puzzles aren't impressive as well, but what is truly unforgivable about this game is that there is a section where you are required to keep walking back and forth between the patients cells and play recordings of conversations you've already had with the other patients, in order to 'trigger' a new memory in someone. Seriously, you have to stand there and replay all the dialogue you've just had with another person in order to advance with the next person. This is quite simply not gameplay. It's a bad design concept, lazy, and ultimately feels like a cheap excuse to drag the game out a while longer, and is the part that made me want to play something else. My advice: save your money on this one.
Leisure Suit Larry - without a doubt one of the most popular video game characters of all time. Although the 'adventure' aspect of the games itself was sometimes lacking, what Al Lowe managed to create in Larry was a character who, although sucked at any attempt to fornicate with the fairer sex, was just too hard not to like. Some think that Larry is nowadays a relic and hasn't aged well with the times but I disagree. He's still funny, he's still easy to root for, and the games are still entertaining. Each game essentially has the same premise: Larry's dropped in a location crawling with hot babes and you have to help him bed as many of them as he can. Yes the games are guilty of objectifying women as the prize, but anyone who played Larry back in the day will remember the woman invariably ended up having the last laugh. I can't recommend Larry enough, both to newcomers and those craving the nostalgia of reliving Larry's adventure. Games 3 and 5 were weak entries and unfortunately this package is missing the jewel of the series in Larry 7 but now that this is also available on Gog this is a worthwhile purchase for anyone who loves adventure games and can appreciate a crude sense of humor. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is because the dang copyright protection has still been included but when it comes to old school adventure games, Larry was the best!
