The GWJ Adventure Game Club - Game 5: Thimbleweed Park

steinkrug wrote:

Pretty sure they are a sort of joke about old school LucasArts adventure games and "pixel hunting" for the right thing to click on.

OF COURSE! I should have thought of that!

I'm a fair bit into the second chapter and largely enjoying so far, though some of the humor has been off-putting. (I'm with Mario_Alba on the first flashback, oof.) This is an interesting exercise for me because I never got into the game's predecessors, though I'm vaguely aware of their place in gaming history. Playing on casual so I don't get too hung up and lost, though it's interesting to see what the hard versions of puzzles are. At this juncture I'm pretty interested in the story so I hope that they continue to deliver on that front, dumb jokes aside.

Mario_Alba wrote:
steinkrug wrote:

Pretty sure they are a sort of joke about old school LucasArts adventure games and "pixel hunting" for the right thing to click on.

OF COURSE! I should have thought of that! :)

Spoiler:

They're my specks of dust!

I don't know if it's me, or the game, but the "humour" so far has been excruciatingly cringy. I just sat through the whole spiel from the Sherrif/Coroner which was....yeesh.

also...

Spoiler:

I went into an alleyway, looked at a bin and got immediately hit on the head and lost control of the woman character so now i'm stuck with the other guy I was basically ignoring. Gee, THANKS game. Thanks a bunch.

Glad I wasn't the only one bothered by that, Pyxi. Yeah, it totally stinks.

i reloaded and switched characters for the alley scene. Forewarned is forearmed!

Just went through...

Spoiler:

Having Reyes get clubbed behind an alley, finding a stoner in a 7/11 type store and making some exchanges, waking up in a sewer and, after a bit of poking about, figuring out how to get rescued from that predicament, another flashback - Dolores Edmund - with some funny nods from the family library about Lucas Arts games and the scumm engine glory days. Popped a trophy while reading through the hundreds of books in the Edmund library, which was entertaining... there are more books to read there than what is necessary for the trophy, as I was only through a handful of the sections when it dropped and I kept on reading for a good while thereafter.

So far, still good.

I'm actually kind of loving this game. I find my self laughing quite a bit-a-reno. The first flashback made me laugh and everything just feels like how I remember LucasArts games. I made it to the second flashback and will probably fly through this game. I've been neglecting this genre for a while and this game makes me want to catch up on adventure games. Lord knows I have a big stash in my Steam library. Also, I love me some weird towns like Twin Peaks, Bright Falls, Eureka, and such.

Spoiler:

I laughed quite a few times during Ransome's flashback. I got to push over a mime (always fun) and insult a few people. I was knocked out behind the diner as Agent Ray, but eventually regained control of her and escaped the sewers with the help of Agent Reyes. Overall, the humor has been 99% hit with me, with the occasional miss. I laughed at the Sheriff stealing all the maps and claiming it's illegal to venture out without one (You know, I'm starting to think none of these people are actual law enforcement). I dig the whole coroner/sheriff shtick, the towns weird obsession with pillows, and the general mystery of it all. I also look forward to using the chainsaw.

I feel like the "word-a-reno" stuff was hammered into your skull so much that it lost any sense of being even vaguely charming and just has me grinding my teeth trying to get through that conversation.

it actually makes me wonder that if i went back to old lucasarts games would i actually still find them funny or have i outgrown that kind of humour entirely.

I have to say that, while I am also enjoying the humor of the game, I'm with pyxistyx when it comes to the "word-a-reno" insanity --I really could do without it.

Haven't had a chance to play in a couple of days, but I'm hoping to get back to it today.

I find the wordplay with the Sheriff and Coroner neither funny nor terrible, it just is. What I do find rather funny is the parody of small town incompetence and naivety implied by him/them in over-utilizing those simple speech patterns as a way to distinguish one "persona" from the other and thinking that he's getting away with it, despite the fact that both agents constantly remark about how both personas are the same person - at least, I do choose to remark upon it every chance I get -, acting as if the very notion was preposterous.

The type of humor definitely falls in line with the old Lucas Arts games, so it would stand to reason that some of us may have simply moved away from that kind of tickle and are no longer appreciative, implying neither maturity nor lack thereof, but simply the fact that taste changes over time... Or, perhaps I am immature, because a good fart joke still makes me chuckle :D. I'm a poorly aging man-child, after all.

Personally, I'm glad I can still tune into that brand of humor, hammy and lacking nuance at times still. I can, however, see why it would be annoying and nigh-intolerable to many.

pyxistyx wrote:

I feel like the "word-a-reno" stuff was hammered into your skull so much that it lost any sense of being even vaguely charming and just has me grinding my teeth trying to get through that conversation.

Yikes. I haven't even started, but the very suggestion of this sets my teeth on edge. Not promising.

brokenclavicle wrote:

I find the wordplay with the Sheriff and Coroner neither funny nor terrible, it just is. What I do find rather funny is the parody of small town incompetence and naivety implied by him/them in over-utilizing those simple speech patterns as a way to distinguish one "persona" from the other and thinking that he's getting away with it, despite the fact that both agents constantly remark about how both personas are the same person - at least, I do choose to remark upon it every chance I get -, acting as if the very notion was preposterous.

I wonder if there will be a surprising revelation at the end of the game where we find out the sheriff and the coroner are actually two different people. That would be funny .

I don't know if it was a bug or a feature, but going in and out of the coroner's room i noticed the second time through that the coroner was standing outside the door, half hidden just...staring into the room. Not interactible, just standing there watching....creepy!

What brokenclavicle said is pretty much my feelings as well. Most of the humor I’m kind of indifferent to and once and a while I smirk in appreciation. Nothing has really gotten on my nerves, though.

pyxistyx wrote:

I don't know if it was a bug or a feature, but going in and out of the coroner's room i noticed the second time through that the coroner was standing outside the door, half hidden just...staring into the room. Not interactible, just standing there watching....creepy!

Don’t think that was a bug. Happened to me to and I took it as part of the whole these people are up to something and aren’t all that clever about it vibe.

Mario_Alba wrote:

I wonder if there will be a surprising revelation at the end of the game where we find out the sheriff and the coroner are actually two different people. That would be funny .

I would find it chuckle-worthy, sure enough.

I suspect that might happen as it would be one logical way of handling it and would be in keeping with the kind of humor we've seen so far. It would be a rather predictable "twist" or revelation, but not unwelcome. I would like it if they handled it some other way that would actually surprise me, however. It could very well be that the seemingly predictable and familiar set-up is misdirection for a different set of narrative avenues that veer wildly off the course hinted at thus far.

Very true. I'm curious to see how they handle it, and what happens in the end .

Another lengthy, fruitful session, today...

Spoiler:

I found the apparent killer - not convinced for obvious reasons -, then accidentally-on-purpose nuked a house, did a lot of spelunking in the sewers - which worked wonders for my dust speck collection -, found the source of the creepy violin music, and discovered cursed eye drops that work cathartic magic on their user.

On the topic of the Sheriff/Coroner...

Spoiler:

He's also the Hotel Receptionist... and while doing research in the Coroner's office, I saw a body on the slab and... well, the man in question slipped up on their speech patterns, giving away the whole enchilada, cat's out of the bag... unless, of course, that's what they want us to think! I chuckled, as expected.

There really is a lot of bits of humor and callbacks that struck the right notes with me in today's session. Plenty of stuff if one's paying close attention. Hopefully, it hits similar beats for you all.

Just finished my first playthrough.

Not gonna go into details, but, every little question, trope, and joke are there for a reason and it's all elucidated during the last parts of the game.

I loved the time I spent with it and will do another run through it to mop up trophies, but this was pleasant for me. Toward the end I laughed out loud at a few jokes and references.

...

"MmucasFlem Games?" .......GROAN *slams head on desk*

Also, a whole library full of backer written books!? I MEGA-NOPED the heck out of there super quick.

Finally gotten around to starting my playthrough. For context, I played this in 2017 when it first came to Switch, so some parts are moving along quite quickly. That being said, I'm surprised by how many parts I've forgotten, so Hard Mode is still making me work in places.

I love the music and overall atmosphere in this game. Everything so dark, mysterious and weird, I think it's great. I don't find the humour annoying, I think it fits the overall tone of the game well and is kinda what I'd expect from a game like this.

I've just finished Part Two...

Spoiler:

Lot of talk here about the Sheriff-a-reno and the Coroner-a-who. I don't really see the similarities... Maybe a little around the eyes, but that's about it...

Spoiler:

Playing through the game again I've noticed some new things... So at the beginning they give Ray the Camera and Reyes the Film to teach you that sometimes characters have to work together. Then, one of them get a knocked out behind the Diner (this may be optional) and there's a much greater level of co-operation required. For me, Reyes found the phone and name of the person to call, and Ray had to use that name to get a number from the phone book, and find the money for the phone. I think that's a pretty good sign that sometimes characters will have to work together in more complicated ways than just passing an item from one person to another and it's a nice introduction to that.

Did I mention that I love the music? I just find this game very comfortable and familiar. It's really nice to be playing it again.

pyxistyx wrote:

GROAN *slams head on desk*

Are you playing this as punishment for something? Did you lose a dare?

Just rolled the credits. I enjoyed it overall, but found in the latter part of the game that I really just wanted to be done with it. Realizing you can fast travel with the town map was really key.

Spoiler: Ending thoughts

The characters realizing they live in a game feels like it's in the same cheapness boat as "it was all a dream." I even initially forgot to go back and wrap up Franklin's story because I was so blase about the whole thing at the end. Sure, there were some chuckle-worthy moments but I prefer things with a bit more emotional heart.

Going along with the guy who uploaded himself into a computer, covered up a death, and tried to kill them all also seemed a weird story beat.

The late-game puzzles that relied on using multiple characters were pretty interesting, but by the end I think there were just too many characters. I kept forgetting about someone for a long time, and I'm still not sure why Ransome was even in the story. The little wrap ups for each character were pretty neat, and gave a small bit of closure to each storyline, such as they were.

Spoiler: On the most important thing

Oh, I'm pretty sure I found all the specks of dust. (Epic's store doesn't have achievements to track that yet, but I hit 0 on the to-do list counter.)

I need to get back to the game. I hit Part Four, and I was suddenly exhausted due to all the walking from place to place to place back to the same place and then back to the previous one, so I took a break that was meant to last for a day or two but it's now been almost a full week. Soon?

Something about the way that you are expected to use player knowledge to solve puzzles bothers me. I guess it takes me out of the game. It took me a while to figure out I could use a character in that way-have them do something they wouldn’t know to do, but I as the player want them to do-and even having done it, I still don’t like it. I guess I prefer to role play.

So I am going to jump in, though I get distracted easily and I'm not sure I'll finish.

Favorite line so far:

Spoiler:

"I'll have plenty of time to sleep once I get a job as a gamer designer."

I feel like I am enjoying this a lot more than a lot of people on this thread. I like Gilbert's sense of humor, wasn't aware it isn't everybody's cup of tea

That said, so far it doesn't seem like there's much use for having multiple characters - is it just a nostalgia point for people who played Maniac Mansion? Maybe I'm just not far enough along for the usefulness of the mechanic to be obvious yet.

In my case, I felt the humor was old and dated, something from anothe age. It just didn't land with me.

Yes, having different characters wil definitely come in handy, ultimately, as some of them can go places others can't.

Eleima wrote:

In my case, I felt the humor was old and dated

I can see that. I guess in my mind, that's the whole point of a game like this. It's best appreciated by mid-90's teens who pine for a simpler era

dpmedeiros wrote:
Eleima wrote:

In my case, I felt the humor was old and dated

I can see that. I guess in my mind, that's the whole point of a game like this. It's best appreciated by mid-90's teens who pine for a simpler era :)

I'm right there with you. I loved the humor exactly because it was dated and a throwback, unapologetically so. I don't expect many more games to come down the chute with this sort of humor, so getting one from one of the persons pivotal to the genre back in the day is about as good as it gets. I think it all comes down to something akin to suspension of disbelief, but more like getting into the right mindframe before jumping in on the game.

It worked for me, that's for sure.