So here we are, the final installment of Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures. It’s been a pleasant trip through the adventures of the first three installments so this time round it’s time to relax and join the country club. Of course, things are never that simple in the world of West Wallaby Street and it is up to your faithful companion to get you an invite to begin with. With mayhem looming round every corner this is a great finale to this mini-series of games.
The Bogey Man brings back the much needed balance between Wallace and Gromit as playable characters and as per the previous installments, brings back familiar faces from your previous adventures (look out for a cute cameo from Muzzled!). Although visually I found more glitches in this episode than in the other three combined, it was nothing that exiting and reentering the save couldn’t fix so despite my original panic, this was only a minor issue as reloading is a very simple exercise.
This game feels a lot more claustrophobic, with fewer areas available to you than in any other episode but this does allow for more complex situations and puzzles which definitely take more brain power than the smaller puzzles previously. Although this makes the game a lot more appealing to hardened adventure gamers, younger gamers may struggle in some areas, so the hint giving system comes into play a lot more.
Length wise, The Bogey Man probably comes in at about the same amount of hours as the rest of the episodes but with the multi-stage complex puzzles it can easily end up longer as you struggle to remember that this installment is more thought-inducing than before, although still definitely keeping that casual gaming feel. A few surprise twists at the end mean an unexpected but typically Wallace and Gromit style ending, but leave the game open for a second mini-series should Telltale decide to embark on it.
As per the previous adventures there are many things that you may miss out on if this is the first one you decide to play, so I would definitely recommend completing the series in order (a pack with all 4 episodes is now available at Telltale Games ) to avoid missing a lot of the “in” jokes and to fully understand the dialogue. As strange as it may be in a casual adventure mini-series, Telltale do manage to put in a fair amount of character progression in the NPCs so there is certainly more depth if played sequentially.
Aha! Finally, a reward - a new sweater!
Shoo, you pesky gamers!
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August 6th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Nice review, got me wanting to give this a go :-)