Free Direct-Controlled Adventure Review: Host Master Deux: Quest for Identity

Host Master Deux: Quest for Identity was the second of the Host Master free adventure games. The protagonist of these games is none other than the founder of Double Fine himself, Tim Schafer.

In Quest for Identity, Tim wants to get past the backroom so that he can host the Game Developer's Choice Awards. However, because he wore a suit and lacked his beard, the bouncer doesn't believe he's actually Tim Schafer, so he won't let him pass.

Tim has to explore both the back room of the awards as well as a tongue-in-cheek representation of Tim's home as a mansion filled with Double Fine mementos. He needs to get on stage and to be prepared to do a stellar job hosting the awards show.

Host Master and the Conquest of Humor was a throwback point-and-click adventure game with the look and feel of Tim's early work at LucasArts on the first two Monkey Island games. The sequel shakes things up a bit with a look reminiscent of Day of the Tentacle mixed with the zaniness of Major Bueno, the team behind the development of this game.

It's direct-controlled rather than point-and-click, however, it is very much still an adventure game. You still pick up things and interact with objects, talk to the bouncer, and pretty much do anything you would do in any adventure. In this way, the way it is played is more akin to The Cave than the LucasArts classics. It's all good though since the game is quite enjoyable and the controls work well with the gameplay and art design.

The best thing about the original host master was its humor, and the tradition is carried out in the sequel, if not more so. It's a lot of fun experimenting with the objects in the game to see Tim's comments on his game world. Like the original, there are multiple endings. However, there are more to be found here, and they are actually quite funny and well worth playing through multiple times to see something new.

Host Master Deux: Quest for Identity is not just a fantastic sequel, it's a fantastic game, period. The art style and humor are wildly different than the original, but it's all the better for it. It's like Maniac Mansion to Day of the Tentacle. They are two wildly different games with wildly different styles, yet they somehow still feel as if they are part of the same game world. Flash may now be dead, however, until the Ruffle Flash replacement is more mature, the game can still be played using the Windows Flash executable. It's well worth the effort to get this game working, as the humor and the replayability make this freebie a must-play for fans of Double Fine, Tim Schafer, or just adventure game fans in general.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Free Point-and-Click Adventure Review: Host Master and the Conquest of Humor

 

Host Master and the Conquest of Humor is a free point-and-click adventure game that was created in Flash by the former webmaster of Double Fine, Klint Honeychurch.

The player character is the Double Fine founder himself, Tim Schafer. The year it was released, 2009, was one of the years Tim Schafer hosted the Game Developer's Choice Awards at the Game Developer Conference. Schafer is backstage waiting for the awards ceremony to begin. The problem is that he has no jokes to tell. In order to go onstage appearing as if he were prepared, Tim searches around the room for jokes.

Collecting jokes was accomplished by doing classic adventure game staples such as collecting random things into an inventory, using inventory items together, and, of course, using inventory items on different things in the room. The game is designed with a verb bar akin to Shaefer's classic games Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and the VGA CD version of The Secret of Monkey Island. The art style was designed like an early 1990s adventure game.

This being a Double Fine adventure game, Host Master and the Conquest of Humor is filled with funny dialog as well as fun references to LucasArts and Double Fine games on which Tim Schafer had worked up to that point. The jokes that Tim Schafer collects, though, are purposefully old-fashioned dad jokes. This is funny in itself, as these are the jokes Tim will use onstage, to the delight of the fans. Well, the delight is based on how many jokes Tim is able to collect. There are three endings to the game depending on how many jokes Tim has when he gets on stage.

The music, by Bert Chang, isn't memorable but works well for this escape-the-room-style game. The fun thing about the music, however, is that the music changes based on a prompt before the game starts where the player is asked if their computer has a sound card. If no is chosen, the music will resemble the boops and beeps of the PC speaker commonly installed in IBM-compatible computers.

Host Master and the Conquest of Humor is a fun, free throwback to classic LucasArts adventure games. It is enjoyable and funny with graphics and music that resemble classic early 1990s computer games. It is made in Flash, so it's no longer playable online until the Flash replacement Ruffle becomes more fully featured. However, it can still be played just fine on Windows computers by using the Flash executable.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

A Host Master Carol

The first game out the gate for the Coding for COVID Coronavirus fundraiser is a sequel to Host Master and Host Master Deux titled A Host Master Carol.

It is a mix of my favorite Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol, and one of my favorite Tim Schafer games, Day of the Tentacle.

To donate to the fundraiser, click here: https://donorbox.org/coding-for-covid.

Play As Tim Schafer Again In Host Master Deux

Host Master Deux: Quest for Identity is the free flash sequel to 2009's free flash classic Host Master and the Conquest of Humor. Like the original game, you control Double Fine studio head Tim Schafer himself, as he solves puzzles backstage at the Game Developers Conference in order to get on stage so he can host. This time, the game ditches the classic LucasArts inspired interface of the original for a platform adventure interface inspired by Double Fine's own The Cave. Like the original game, this game features multiple endings (and their humor is among the best part of the adventure).

Free Double Fine Adventure Game of the GDC Awards

The Game Developers Choice Awards were hosted by Double Fine founder Tim Schafer again this year. If you want to see what it's like for Tim Schafer as he prepares himself before the show, you can now live the experience in a new Double Fine online game called Host Master and the Conquest of Humor! It's a point and click adventure game with the feel of the early adventure games from LucasArts!

The Game Developers Choice awards show is a much better show than Spike's Video Game Awards, since it focuses on the games and the designers who made them, rather than celebrities.

You can watch most of it online here.