We are facing another point-and-click graphic adventure which follows the Monkey Island trail here. Its difficulty is based on puzzles that consist on a stuffed inventory, item combination and traversing the dialog tree till exhaustion. The good old formula that ruled the genre before it was replaced by narrative driven press-A-precisely-when-i-tell-you mechanics Tell Tale has exploited toWe are facing another point-and-click graphic adventure which follows the Monkey Island trail here. Its difficulty is based on puzzles that consist on a stuffed inventory, item combination and traversing the dialog tree till exhaustion. The good old formula that ruled the genre before it was replaced by narrative driven press-A-precisely-when-i-tell-you mechanics Tell Tale has exploited to the point the company has fallen flat directly inside its grave. At any rate, that doesn't mean Pendulo Studios has resisted the temptation to slide one combinatorial (in appearance) puzzle midway into the game. One I somehow managed to solve by trial and error, and my character kindly explained me the logic I apparently had just applied. Another puzzle I recall as extremely unfair involved a surreal item combination I once again solved by entering the use-anything-on-anything mode. This last one takes place within a character's dream, which makes getting stuck on it simply priceless. Be that as it may, with the exception of these two examples, puzzle design is top-notch.
Regretfully, the writing in this game leaves a lot to be desired. The game never takes itself seriously, which isn't a bad thing per se because it grants designers more freedom in the puzzle department. Unfortunately, this light hearted stance permeates the plot conferring it the complexity of a SpongeBob SquarePants chapter. You never feel any kind of relevancy to your actions: never does the game achieve to convey what is so evil about the force you are fighting. In addition, characters are quite one-dimensional, "functional" is the nicest adjective I can say about them.
The humor in this game is the childish one expects from a Monkey Island applicant, based on wacky situations. Plus, in this game, with the constant recall to the player of certain traits of our two protagonists: he is a womanizer, sports-loving freak that loves to smash things with his bat, she is simply crazy. While you play this game, laughing is totally ruled out, you mouth will adopt the kind of crooked grin you get while watching one of those Nordic/Central European straight-to-tv romantic comedies.
On the other hand, the game is a technically nice, Pendulo Studios is well-known for the quality of its 2D artists and it doesn't disappoint as usual, plus the spanish dubbing is great (I played the Spanish version, which is called Hollywood Monsters 2 BTW).
Unfortunately, if we want to play a classic point-and-click adventure, since they don't get released anymore we are virtually dependent on a finite backlog. If you already played the big ones (Gabriel Knight saga, LucasArts ones, Discworld Noir, Grim Fandango...), you can't get too discriminating. The Next Big Thing has a great gameplay but weak writing. If you are here for the puzzles, you will enjoy the ride.… Expand
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