Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: The Bogey Man

The final chapter of Wallace and Gromit's newest adventures wraps up the series nicely, whether this was a one time thing or something they plan to do again. It was the most enjoyable of the games to me since the first, as the puzzle premises were as interesting as they've ever been. After the opening conundrum which I thought was actually the least intuitive of the episode, the meat of the story is Wallace as a detective, hunting down clues and solving riddles to save the local country club from being closed down. Getting the hints is the easy part, the fun is really figuring out what they mean and how to follow their directions. This is classic adventure gaming stuff, right here. I also just loved being in the setting of the club, it has all the friendly homeliness you love to see from this clay-animated little world. After the inventive next leg of the journey, the final portion is another success, making a standard sliding tile puzzle tolerable with inventive circumstances and has a climax that's just as frantic and exciting as you can do in the genre, although I could have done without all the sound clips of people screaming. The ending wraps up all the lingering subplots of the series, bringing the game to a satisfying conclusion. The whole thing was really a lot of fun.

Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: Muzzled!

Telltale keeps rolling along with the third part of the Wallace & Gromit series. Whatever you think of the games, you can't say they're not consistent in anything they do. This one didn't do as much for me as the first two for some reason, though I still mostly enjoyed its charm while it lasted. It just didn't seem as substantial, like something was cut out for some reason - previous games had you bouncing back and forth between playing Wallace and Gromit, while this time you only control Wallace for one relatively brief segment. It just isn't as well conceived as earlier installments. The puzzles are on the same level of being generally intuitive and usually clever. The climactic sequence involving one of their elaborate contraptions for something other than its intended use was still fun, although again, just not quite as good as they've already done it. I hope they do another run in a year or two, because only four episodes isn't enough time to spend in such an enjoyable word.

Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: The Last Resort

The Last Resort wasn't quite as fun as the first episode, but it was still a very enjoyable continuation of the series. It starts out with Wallace and Gromit turning their basement into a beach resort to help the people in town escape the poor English weather, but takes a turn for the more interesting when a newly introduced Scottish douche of a character gets knocked on the head and a whodunit begins. I probably would have preferred it if there was an actual mystery to the culprit and you had to figure out who with clues and such, but gathering the evidence needed to prove your suspect guilty is still a really cool way to use the adventure game system. A couple aspects were a bit unintuitive but for the most part I'm really enjoying the puzzles in this series, more than in Telltale's other episodic adventures by at least a little bit anyway. All the new human characters they created for the games can be a little long-winded from time to time, but I still like the expansion of the world. I still have to see the theatrical film, actually. I was such a fan of the earlier shorts that I feel a bit ashamed for having not seen it yet. I should get on that.

Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: Fright of the Bumblebees

Fright of the Bumblebees continues to evolve Telltale Games' formula for small doses of funny adventure gaming, and is my favorite production by them yet. Part of it is my preexisting affection for the Wallace and Gromit characters themselves, which isn't quite as true for Strong Bad or Sam and Max (although I've come to be a big fan of the latter). The world is just so charming, from Wallace's innocent buffoonery despite his technical genius to the way Gromit silently puts up with everything. The other people who live in town aren't as immediately likable and probably talk a bit too much, but they did a good job of growing the setting a little bit. It's not as laugh out loud funny as other stuff but it's just pleasant to experience.

There are some small gameplay improvements, like finally the ability to walk around using the mouse keys, making getting around less of a monotonous click fest. The puzzles are mostly intuitive without being too easy, although there are a few moments where you're supposed to talk to a person you already have to activate something when there was no indication you should. You bounce back and forth between the two main characters, and the whole thing plays out feeling like one of the old animated shorts. The final sequence is the best one I've seen from the company, involving a high speed chase using one of their elaborate, gadget-filled vehicles. I thought it was the perfect length, giving me enough content that I felt satisfied without wearing out it's welcome. I await the second episode in May.