Direct Controlled Adventure Game Review: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures - The Bogey Man

The Bogey Man is the fourth, and final, episode of Telltale's first game that employed cinematic camera angles, the direct controlled adventure game, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.

The game finds Wallace in a very unenviable position when Ms. Flitt mistakenly thinks that he gives her a marriage proposal, and says yes because she finds him to be brave after foiling Monty Muzzle's plans in Muzzled! Now, Wallace and Gromit have to find a way to make him unappealing so that she will break off the wedding plans. An opportunity to do so finds itself in the local golf course, Prickly Thicket. 

I really enjoy the new location. It's always good when the artists can stretch their imaginations beyond the usual locations, and they did a fine job here. They didn't have the freedom they had with The Last Resort, as the location had to be set more in a real-life scenario rather than the bright and colorful art that come from the imaginations of Wallace and Gromit.

While there is not a memorable adversary like in the previous episodes, the episode does do a fine job tying up all of the hijinks of the previous episodes into a nice little bow. Kudos also go to the fine pun in the title of the episode. I'll admit it had me thinking it would be about the monster of the same name when I first read the title at the time of release. I love a good misdirection, and that is perfect.

This is around the last time Telltale Games had somewhat challenging puzzles before making what Dan Connors called easy adventures with Back to the Future and eschewed them completely in Jurassic Park: The Game, before switching to the choices-and-consequences-style that made it a popular company with the release of the first season of The Walking Dead. So, in retrospect, I appreciate the puzzles here more than I did at release. They still aren't as good as the previous episodes, and I still miss the boss puzzle fights against a memorable villain, but there are some good ones here. The final puzzle is a challenge as well, but not so much that it should stump most people.

The icing of the game, the music, is wonderfully cinematic. Jared Emerson-Johnson did some of his best work on this series. The voice actors continue to shine here. They are all at their best here, at the point when they had gotten the hang of their characters, and Ben Whitehead offers a performance that was near that of which he would perform when he became the official voice of Wallace after the passing of Peter Sallis.

The Bogey Man has a few slight issues when compared to its predecessors. The puzzles aren't quite as clever as those in the previous episodes and there is not a fun boss puzzle fight with a memorable villain as in previous episodes. However, there are still some good ones here. The fun story that feels like it was ripped straight out of an Aardman short makes up for any shortcomings, slight as they moght be. The artists show off their craft fantastically here. They created a realistic new location in much gusto. It was a welcome reprieve from the town scenes that show up in every episode. The music composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson is cinematic enough to fit right in with Telltale's cinematic camera style employed by this game. Despite its flaws, The Bogey Man is a fine close to one of Telltale's best offerings of their early years

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5

Direct-Controlled Adventure Game Review: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures - The Last Resort

The Last Resort was the second episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, the adventure game adaptation of the clay-animated Wallace & Gromit films by Aardman Animations. 

The story finds the dynamic duo on their way to a beach holiday. However, the weather has other plans when a huge storm abrupts, leaving the two forced to stay at home. This isn't a problem for Wallace, however, as he builds a beach resort inside his own house. Of course, Wallace being Wallace, he wants to show his new invention off, so he invites all of his neighbors to have a beach holiday at his place. As usual, things eventually go pear shaped, and the way this happens is delightful.

The puzzle-based final fight was fun in the first episode, but this one has it beat. It also has a fun boss, of sorts, who gets a rightful comeuppance. The duo have to deal with this adversary throughout the episode, so it is fun to give the bully some just rewards at the episode's end.

The music is fantastic as usual, with Jared Emerson-Johnson providing a soundtrack that would feel right at home in one of the duo's films. The art is also fun here, with the Telltale team going all out on the beach theme. It's bright, it's colorful, and it's all Wallace in it's wackiness. 

 

Any Wallace & Gromit production has to have a great voice cast, as all of the characters have to shine through their vocals, with the exception of our favorite silent star, Gromit. Wallace has an eclectic group of neighbors, and we get to see their personalities shine in this episode. All of the voice actors are great in their roles. Ben Whitehead's Wallace voice is still a bit deep, but since he provides all of the quirkiness that Wallace requires, the slight difference from the performances of original voice of Wallace, Peter Sallis, is soon forgotten.

The Last Resort is not only a fantastic follow-up to the premiere episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, but it also tops it in every way. Although it takes place in Wallace's house, the beach resort premise gives way to some much needed variety to the usual glum basement with some fun props and backgrounds. The voice cast and music remain fantastic, as they all live up to the legacy of Aardman's most famous project.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Direct-Controlled Adventure Review: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures - Muzzled!

Muzzled! was the third and penultimate episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, Telltale's adventure game adaptation of Aardman Animation's popular Wallace & Gromit clay-animated films. 

This time, the pair find themselves at a charity fair run by a man named Monty Muzzle. Monty Muzzle is raising money for a new dog shelter to replace the previous shelter which was destroyed by the storm which was the impetus in the creation of Wallace's failed indoor theme park. Wallace aims to help the endeavor his newly invented ice cream van that can create any flavor of the treat. However, something strange is afoot in Monty Muzzle's fair.

The series regulars are used in a fantastic manner as excited visitors and exhibit runners at the fair. However, the standout is the new character of Monty Muzzle. He is right up there with memorable Aardman one-off characters (at least for the time period of their release) such as Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw. With the complicated license issues, it's unlikely Monty will be in any further projects, which is a shame as he really is a fantastic character.

The puzzles here are a lot of fun. None are particularly challenging by 90s adventure game standards, but there are some neat ones here. I particularly enjoyed the prize puzzles and the final battle. The final scenes in this series have always offered fun puzzle-based battles, but this one is very memorable. Almost twenty years later, this battle is still fresh in my mind alongside that in The Last Resort.

The music continues to shine, and Jared Emerson Johnson has once again provided fantastic compositions which fit the Aardman atmosphere perfectly. The voice cast also remains strong, with Struan Rodger, in particular, providing a great performance as Monty Muzzle. Ben Whitehead also began to come into his own in the role as Wallace in this episode, as he sounds more like the original voice of Wallace, Peter Sallis, than ever before.

Muzzled! is a fantastic episode. It continues the fantastic adaptation of Aardman animations in the Wallace & Gromit Grand Adventures direct-controlled adventure games, retaining the feel of the clay-animated films, The music continues to fit the atmosphere well and the voice cast shines, especially that of the new character Monty Muzzled. This is the best episode of the four-episode series and is well worth playing to anyone who is a fan of adventure games or even just Wallace & Gromit in general.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Is Unavailable

There's bad news for fans of Wallace & Gromit and Telltale Games. Telltale's digital distribution agreement with Aardman Studios expired, and Telltale doesn't have plans to renew that agreement. That means that Wallace & Gromit is no longer available for digital distribution anywhere. If you previously purchased it from XBLA, iTunes, Steam, GOG.com, or the Telltale Store, you will be able to re-download it. But, unfortunately if you hadn't already purchased it, you will no longer be able to buy it, unless you can track down a site selling the PC DVD version (which is currently in-stock at Amazon, if you want to pick it up before it's gone forever, or at least while it's still reasonably priced).

Pirate God on Wii, Telltale to be at Macworld Expo

The final episode of Tales of Monkey Island, Rise of the Pirate God, is finally available on Wii in North America. European Wii owners will have to wait a bit longer.

Also, Telltale Games will be at the Macworld Expo. There's a lot of rumors going around that Telltale is planning on releasing their back catalog (except for Bone and Telltale Texas Hold'Em) on the Mac. If the Mac Life article is true, Telltale is planning on releasing the MacOS versions on their website at no extra cost together with their PC releases.

This could be good news for Mac users who don't want to worry about using Bootcamp to play the Telltale games.

Telltale Seasons Only $19.99 This Weekend

Telltale Games Seasons on the PC are only $19.99 for this weekend only! If you've missed out on one of Telltale's seasons of Sam & Max, Strong Bad, or Wallace & Gromit, now is the time to pick them up!

The Bogey Man Comes Out Tomorrow

Telltale Games has announced that the last episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures will be coming out for the PC on July 29, 2009. Tomorrow!

Cracking job, lad!

Fright of the Bumblebees Review

Fright of the Bumblebees is the first episode of Telltale's new episodic series based on the misadventures of the inventor Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit. Telltale is quickly becoming the number one developer of licensed games. They now have games for five very different licensed properties (Bone, Sam & Max, CSI, Homestar Runner, and now Wallace & Gromit), and they have managed to bring out the strengths in each property, which brings a slightly unique gaming experience to each of their games.

The humour in Wallace & Gromit is much more subdued than in Sam & Max and Homestar Runner, and even more so than Bone. Much of the comedy in the Wallace & Gromit films comes through facial expressions. The expressions and movements of the characters in the Telltale Tool have seemed kind of wooden in previous installments, so I was worried if Telltale's engine could handle it. Thankfully, the movements and expressions are just as expressive in Fright of the Bumblebees as they are in the films. This game is the best looking game Telltale has released to date, and it comes with slightly higher system requirements. I am using an older Radeon on a computer with only 512MB of RAM. I encountered graphical glitches when I first played the game, but this was remedied by playing the game as soon as I started my computer with nothing else running, and playing on the lowest graphic setting in the options menu.

In order to set up a more cinematic framing of characters, Telltale has changed the traditional control scheme of pointing and clicking with a mouse, to a control scheme that gives players direct control of the characters. There are three options available for control on the PC. The default option is using a keyboard and mouse. The arrow keys (or WASD) on the keyboard controls the character, and the mouse selects a hotspot. The next option is to use just the keyboard, and play similar to how LucasArts' last two adventure games, Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island, played. The third option is using a gamepad, but only Logitech and corded Microsoft Xbox 360 controllers are supported. My gamepad wasn't supported, so I could only play the game with a keyboard and mouse, but I found this option very comfortable and easy to use.

The plot of this first episode follows the Wallace & Gromit formula to a tee. Wallace has just invented a machine that will harvest honey from bees in a mechanical hive. He starts a new business, "From Bee to You", to sell honey to the residents of his town. Of course, Wallace being Wallace, things don't go exactly as planned.

Both Wallace and Gromit are playable at different points in the game. Wallace talks a lot more than he ever did in the films, as he comments on everything that is clickable. Gromit doesn't talk at all, but he will make facial expressions when you click on clickable items. I have always enjoyed Gromit's expressions in the film, so I found myself clicking on different objects as Gromit just to see how he would react.

The music is once again wonderfully composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson. The Wallace & Gromit theme is present, of course, but there is an all new arrangement used in the game. The other music is completely new, and fits the series perfectly. Andrew Langley and Jared Emerson-Johnson worked to add a engine controlled music changing feature to the Telltale Tool. This can be experienced while in the town square. The music will change as the character walks around. It helps add to the cinematic feel of the game.

The voices are well done as well. Wallace isn't voiced by his regular actor, Peter Sallis, but instead is voiced by Aardman Animation's official back up voice actor who has done the role before for merchandise and television commercials. The change in actors is slightly noticable, but if I hadn't known it wasn't Peter Sallis I would never had guessed. The voice is slightly deeper, so I would probably have thought the change in tone was due to Peter Sallis' age much like Mel Blanc in his later years. The voice really is that close. The other voices are well done as well, and are all performed by British actors. I particularly enjoyed the voice of the woman who ran the news stand.

If the game can be faulted for anything, it would have to be the lack of separate volume controls for voice and music. I started the game without subtitles, but had to turn them on since the music seemed to drown out the speech. I couldn't understand what the characters were saying at times. Telltale stated on their forum after the feedback of the demo that they are looking into this issue. I hope it is rectified by the second episode, as it slightly detracts from an otherwise excellent gaming experience.

Fans of the films will enjoy this episode. It is Telltale's most cinematic adventure to date, and captures the look and feel of the Wallace & Gromit films perfectly. The control scheme will take most gamers some time to get used to, but with three options for control it should please everyone except those most resistant to change. The lack of separate volume controls for voice and music is certainly a bummer, but with subtitles on it shouldn't prove too much of a nuisance. If Telltale can keep up this level of quality and fix the volume control problem, they'll have a real winner on their hands with this series.

Final Verdict:

4 out of 5