"Day of the Tentacle" Non-Gamer/First-Time Gamer review

Challenges and the possibility of having to restart them [ie. A character dying] can certainly be annoying and a barrier to those who may not want to play games. Adventure games especially fall into this trap, where merely taking an item or telling a character to walk forward may result in a player going back to their last save or starting the whole game over. There are exceptions such as the majority of adventure games created by LucasArts such as "Day of the Tentacle". A sequel to "Maniac Mans

ion" “Day of the Tentacle” tells the story of a sentient tentacle that consumes toxic waste, which mutates him into an 'insane genius' powerful enough to take over the world. Three young characters [the nerdy Bernard, the roadie Hoagie and the medical student Laverne] go to Dr Fred's home and lab in an attempt to prevent this disaster, but a mishap strands each of these protagonists in a different time period. Not only do they have to reunite in the present, but also use time travel to change th

e timeline so the emerging of a tentacle-infested world never occurs. "Day of the Tentacle" borrows a lot from other humorous adventure games by LucasArts - namely the SCUMM engine on which it operates. You use the mouse cursor [as well as hot keys on the keyboard - most of which are optional] to move your character around and interact with objects and people. You can use functions such as ‘Talk’ and ‘Open’ – it’s simple. In fact, the interface feels simpler from previous games and feels much mo

re improved. In contrast to “Maniac Mansion”, you only have three protagonists to play with. While this may sound like the game is a step back from its predecessors, this doesn't rob the game of any possibility of challenge. As mentioned earlier, “Day of the Tentacle” does something different in regards to the seemingly impossible obstacles needed to win adventure games. In this game you can't die. The puzzles are designed in such a way that the game is not broken or unwinnable. The characters w

ill say things such as 'I'd rather not do that' when attempting to, for example, damage an item - an action that would prevent the player from progressing. Basically, this game doesn't punish you severely for making a mistake. Some of the time making a mistake will result in something funny happening. 'Sometimes I do stupid stuff and I don't even know why... ...as if my body were being controlled by some demented, sadistic puppet-master...' 'Well, we all feel that way sometimes.' Once you're don

e chuckling you can try a different approach or go to a different place to look for other characters and items. The puzzles in question are generally logical. For the most part, it involves choosing the right conversation choice or finding the right item. One of the most interesting concepts in the game is switching items between the three different characters in the three different time periods. 'I'll just run to the Chron-O-John.' 'There's something in the Chron-O-John.' There is more than one

occasion where you have to send an item back to the past to affect the present or future - if only it were possible to change my past like that so I was rich. Jokes aside, a number of the puzzles seemingly require trial-and-error [and many 'I can't do that' moments], 'I can't get to the Chrono-O-John from here.' especially when you may have to look for an item in another place that is needed for said puzzle. Still, the game never punishes you and has the right balance of difficult. The producti

on values are really nice too, with charming cartoony visuals and familiar, yet complimentary sound plus nice music. The game was also fairly revolutionary for featuring voice acting, instead of solely relying on text - and the game thankfully features captions for the dialogue. In regards to the voice acting, the game is actually very funny, involving slapstick and over-the-top facial expressions and gestures, plus conversations about veer from darkly humorous to absurdly witty. 'Who's Prudence

?' 'Never mind.' 'Well, later dude.' 'What? What's going to happen later?' The story itself is actually fairly simple, but it's a lot of fun to experience. The game is fairly short if you know where to go or what to do next, but figuring all that out into first place is half the fun. Most of the time it is fun to explore and solve the puzzles. You will scratch your head a lot, but at least you can't die or break the game. You will surely chuckle or laugh that at the on-screen dialogue and action

s, even those that don't necessarily result in game progression. The story is simple, yet fun and involves time travel, which is a concept that may appeal moreso to certain people. The game's production values still feel charming to his day. But if you would rather have the 2D graphics on a higher resolution, a remaster [complete with the option to have the old graphics, plus a somewhat streamlined interface] is available and is probably the easiest way to get the game. On top of all that, the g

ame gives you the option to play the original "Maniac Mansion", a game-within-a-game concept that was unprecedented at the time. “Day of the Tentacle” is a humorous point-and-click adventure game with a solid challenge and fun story that is a must-play for anyone, non-gamer or otherwise.