In the 90’s LucasArts were the kings of the adventure game thanks to the Monkey Island series. That wasn’t all they released in the 90’s though that helped them become so synonymous with the point and click genre. A sequel to one of their earlier games, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle became a cult hit. It was also a game co-directed by Tim Schafer, now at Double Fine. Fast forward 20 odd years and now we have a remaster of that game, made by Double Fine.
In Day of the Tentacle you play as Bernard from the first game, who is now living with his friends Hoagie and Laverne. You go back to the mansion you were in during Maniac Mansion to save a friend, one thing leads to another and all three of you get stuck in various points of time. Hoagie is stuck 200 years in the past, Bernard in the present and Laverne 200 years in the future.
This is where the game’s most interesting mechanics come into play. The narrative of the game progresses how you want it to, to a degree. You can switch to each of the three characters to progress their story arc and explore their timeline in no particular order. Some puzzles will even involve you sending something through time or performing actions to change things. It’s nice as it means that the puzzles are not all just “use this item on this” like most point and click games are. Seeing as the mechanics are not something seen very often it makes the game feel unique. Even after the 23 years since its original release.
Considering how well the games mechanics have aged, how well has the rest of the game taken to time? Well, the animations still look lovely and the new coat of paint helps them look even nicer. Unfortunately, no work has been done on the lip sync, which has not aged well at all. I found that putting on the subtitles helped distract my eyes and lessen the issue, but it’s a shame they didn’t add frames.
If you’re not feeling the new style of animation, then the game allows you to switch to the original graphics and UI. All you have to do is tap the PS4’s touchpad, which is nice if you want to compare how things look in a scene. In some scenes the improved graphics are quite impressive.
Despite what the game does right, it’s not without its issues. The new way to interact with things can be clumsy at times, especially when there are a lot of things you can do to the item or person. It also does occasionally suffer from the issue all point and click games do, which is a completely “random” item being the solution to a puzzle, which may not easier standout to the eye.
If you’ve never enjoyed point and click games, then Day of the Tentacle Remastered is not going to be the game that sways you. Although it does a lot of interesting things, it is still very much an archetypal point and click adventure. Not only that, but there hasn’t been the inclusion of any hint and tips, which might’ve encouraged gamers to play it that are intimidated by the genre.
Luckily the writing of Day of the Tentacle and voice work does a good job in providing laughs and giving you a reason to progress through the game, even if you’re not enjoying the gameplay aspects. It’s a game with several memorable moments and if you were one of the many that never got to play it in its original form, it’s definitely worth picking up now. The PlayStation version of the game is Cross-Save and Cross-Buy, which is great if you have a PlayStation Vita and PS4. The loading times seem a bit longer on the Vita, but it still works well on the handheld.
If you’ve wanted to play, or replay, Day of the Tentacle for a while then the remaster is definitely the way to go. If you’ve never played a point and click game before then it’s also a fairly good starting point. It’s not a game for everyone, but it’s a genuinely funny experience, considering genuinely funny games are few and far between, even today, it’s a welcome change of pace.
You can see my Brett’s Play of the game below. Obviously there are spoilers.