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By flotsam
I did a first look at the previous game and despite
indicating I would push through, I never went back. Its overt focus on
sexual ‘humour’ was just a crass turn off, not a funny turn on. But I
should have seen it through, so I was determined to do better this time.
Which I did. About 12 hours of playing time later, I emerged, rinsed
off, and sat down to write.
First things first. I would have thought there was a point at which
there were enough penis shaped objects, sexual tropes, suggestive (and
not so suggestive) names, sex toys and sexualised dialogue -- not to
mention the other shapes, tropes, names, toys and dialogue. And the
sexual conquests. But I would have been wrong. Too much is clearly not
enough, and it just keeps coming.
You might find it unceasingly amusing, and certainly the Larry world is
one of excess. I found some of it amusing, and far less would have been
way more. But that’s probably just me.
You can’t ignore it, because there is so much of it and it’s part and
parcel of the experience. You can though let it wash by you, and focus
on the other stuff going on -- namely the extensive conundrum solving,
of which there is a lot and much of which is rather good.
So long as you ignore of course what it is sometimes that you are trying
to do. There are a heap of ‘mundane’ things, made elaborate by the
nature of adventure games. But there are a few iffy endeavours here and
there. Just grit and move on.
There is a lot to move onto, and it’s one of the games strengths.
Conundrums abound, many available at the same time (there is no puzzle
at a time here). You will do all manner of things with all manner of
stuff: find things, fix things, build things. A number of times you will
have a blueprint and will need to think creatively about what item might
satisfy the part list. A journal will keep track of the plethora of
things to be done.
It can be directionless at times and a little hit and miss. Some
essential items are only just visible in the game world. But given the
sheer number of conundrums I thought there was a good degree of
information and clues to guide your endeavours. Examining items can be
helpful, as can exhausting all conversations. Pressing the space bar
highlights hotspots which can help ‘see’ items you might have missed.
Be prepared to visit locations more than once, regardless of whether you
missed something or are just looking for whatever might come next. In
that regard, double clicking a scene exit will jump you to the next
scene. And when using the raft you don’t have to actually be at your
raft. Just pull up the navigation map and choose your destination.
The labyrinth near the end might elicit some palpitations, but once you
work out the rules applicable to each entry you can make your way
through with far less angst. I don’t usually like mazes, but I ended up
enjoying these quite a bit.
This is a straight sequel to the first game, so if you played that you
will have a better understanding of what is going on here and why. But
as someone who didn’t, I thought the game did a reasonable job of not
making that essential. There is plenty of information to allow you to
get an idea of the story so far. More than that, it didn’t really
matter. I just went with what was being played out and it was fine.
It is purely point and click, with lots of things to be examined and
picked up, and lots of characters to speak with. The animation is
colourful and the visual world is detailed, and the sound is what you
would expect. Some of the voices are fanciful, even farcical, but they
generally fit the nature of the piece.
There are quirky bits and pieces throughout – the Space Quest story
makes an appearance and a ‘bitty’ simulation ends things – as well as a
number of references to some venerable point and click predecessors (and
probably other things I missed).
You can save at will and tweak some settings. Your phone pops up bottom
right, and contains the links to the inventory, the journal et al, as
well as a snap/insta collection of your conquests, should you want to
revisit them. Your mouse wheel can also activate the inventory.
I confess I had a better time with Larry than I had anticipated. It has
many strengths, and which are reason to play. Just be aware of the cloak
in which the whole thing is draped.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB
Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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December, 2020
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