Developer: LucasArts
Genre:� Adventure
Platform:� Windows/DOS, Mac
Release Date: 1993
Review By Michal Necasek
Day of the Tentacle is a sequel to one of LucasArts' earliest games, Maniac
Mansion.� Having played Maniac
Mansion helps, but is not a requirement - Day of the Tentacle
can stand on its own quite well.� I
should perhaps mention that the original game comes with the sequel as a sort
of Easter egg.� Look around and you'll
find it.
In the unusually long introductory/opening
credits sequence we first see the old mansion, spewing tons of toxic-looking
greenish sludge into the river.� Along
come the two tentacles, Purple and Green (If you want to know who they are and
where they came from, play Maniac Mansion). Purple
tentacle drinks the sludge and is transformed in a most frightening way: he
grows two tiny arms (where he previously had none whatsoever).� Oh�and he also develops an irresistible urge
to rule the world.
Next we meet the three heroes of the game
(yes, three, why have just one?): Bernard Bernoulli, the smart, geeky type with
the prerequisite thick glasses, Hoagie the heavy metal band roadie, and Laverne
the slightly maniacal medical student. They get a letter (delivered by a
hamster) from their old friend, Green tentacle.� The letter is a plea for help and a warning of Purple's nefarious
plans for world domination.� By now it
should be plainly obvious that Day of the Tentacle is not the
least bit serious.
Upon learning the news, Bernard, Laverne and
Hoagie jump into their car and drive to the mansion and proceed to search for
the secret lab of the mad scientist Dr. Fred Edison.� The search doesn't take too long. Dr. Fred claims that the only
way to stop Purple tentacle is to turn off the Sludge-O-Matic (that's the toxic
sludge producing machine if you haven't guessed).� But of course it's too late to do it now... hence it needs to be
done yesterday!
Fortunately Dr. Fred has just the technology
to send someone to the past.� He'd
invented the Chron-O-John, a device strongly resembling a portable outhouse but
functioning as a time machine.� To
maximize the chance of success, Dr. Fred sends all three of our heroes back in
time. But alas, the time machine fails (when do things ever work right in
adventure games?) and each of the three ends up in a different time.� Bernard returns back to the present, Hoagie
ends up two hundred years in the past and Laverne two hundred years in the
future.
This is where the game starts in earnest and
the set-up presents some wonderful puzzle possibilities.� Each of the three heroes is now in a
different timeline but in the same place.�
It is possible to send some, but not all objects through the
Chron-O-Johns. Besides that, performing certain tasks will influence the future
times.� For instance changing the design
of the U.S. flag back in 1790 may have some useful effect in 2190.
In my opinion the game designers used this
opportunity well and created unique gameplay. Bernard, Laverne and Hoagie must
work separately yet cooperate closely, sending items back and forth in
time.� Their goal is to return back to
the present and then travel back in time to yesterday again and stop Purple
tentacle for real.
Technologically it is obvious that Day
of the Tentacle is a fairly old game, having been released in
1993.� I played the CD
"talkie" version but a floppy version without speech also
existed.� The graphics are plain VGA, 320x200
resolution in glorious 256 colors.� The
graphical style is what I'd call "wacky cartoon".� Everything is oddly twisted, there are no
right angles, and in general there is no attempt whatsoever to make the
graphics look realistic.� Which (in my
opinion) makes Day of the Tentacle look quite good - if the
technology doesn't allow very high level of realism, create your own rules!
The cartoon influence is very strong
throughout the game. There are many cartoon-inspired cut-scenes and the entire
story is cartoon-style crazy.� Therefore
if you hate cartoons, make very sure to avoid Day of the Tentacle.
Everyone else however is likely to have great fun with this game.� Day of the Tentacle is in my
opinion one of the funniest games ever (possibly only rivaled by the Discworld
games).
The sound quality is not technically as good
as modern games but still perfectly acceptable.� Judging the voice acting is a tad difficult because all the
voices are deliberately distorted to achieve the "cartoon"
effect.� All I can say is that I thought
the voices fit the style of the game very well. Music is AdLib style and I did
not find it remarkable in any way.
The puzzles are mostly inventory based but
with the added twist of the time factor, as I mentioned above.� A number of objects are found in one
timeline and must be sent to another, some will even be used in more than one
time.�� As with most other LucasArts
games, some puzzles are based on dialogue. And in keeping with the LucasArts
tradition, there are many dialogue options that do not further the progress in any
way and are included purely for fun.
Day of the Tentacle is a
"pure" adventure. No timed sequences, no dying, no dead ends. Despite
that, the difficulty is a bit higher than intermediate - simply because the
game world is fairly large and you have three characters who can potentially use
each object. There are many hints and clues spread throughout the game but the
puzzles are logical if you can get yourself into the cartoon mindset.
And as for the game's story, I cannot
describe it as other than wacky, crazy and entirely unserious.� The thought of the tentacles (which can
barely walk) taking over the world is utterly preposterous... except that it
happened!� You'll see for yourself when
you arrive in 2190.
Day of the Tentacle is another fine title from LucasArts and a very
funny adventure game which made me laugh out loud many times while I was
playing it.� A wacky story which is not
particularly breathtaking but enough to keep you interested and artwork matches
the atmosphere of the game very well.� Day
of the Tentacle is well crafted and bug free � what more can you ask for?
Final Grade:� A
System Requirements:
PC
Minimum Requirements:
386 +
4 MB RAM
DOS 5.0+
Supported sound card (recommended)
Mouse (recommended)
20 MB free hard disk space
Mac
Minimum Requirements:
System 7
68040 or PowerPC
8 MB memory (4 MB free