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Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 4: The Bogey Man!
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Graphics & Sound:
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 4: The Bogey Man! finishes off the first season of the inventor and his dog's episodic adventures, and while it is a nice, stand-alone adventure, there are enough call backs to the previous episodes to please gamers who have been following the season. Considering how the last episode, Muzzled ended, that's to be expected (but more on that later).
As with the past three episodes, the feel of both the characters and world seem to be straight from the Aardman productions and the company's unique clay-mation feel comes through loud and clear. I especially liked some of the details like the large fingerprint on Duncan McBiscuit's chest.
Sound also does a fine job of complimenting the authentic visuals as all of the characters sound just like their TV-series counterparts, and when coupled with the great writing that has been present throughout the season, an overall solid presentation layer should make any fan of the duo happy.
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Gameplay:
When Episode 3: Muzzled ended, Wallace inadvertently proposed to his next-door-neighbor and that proposal is the talk of the town. Unfortunately, Wallace doesn't want to marry Miss Flitt, but can't seem to convince her of this fact. It's a good thing that Gromit has learned that Flitt's great-aunt won't let her marry a man who belongs to the local country club, but getting Wallace invited is a chore unto itself, especially since he doesn't even play golf.
But, as always with these games, getting into the club is just the first step in Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 4: The Bogey Man!. When Constable Dibbins gets passed up for the open position in the club, he sites an obscure ordinance that could close the club down forever, but all that is only the first half of the game and the final half itself is quite an adventure.
Since this episode is a season finale, it's nice to see how it wraps up a couple of loose ends. But because of the very isolated and episodic nature of the past three adventures, there aren't a whole lot of loose ends to tie up. Instead, references like Flitt's past relationship with McBiscuit or a book about how to raise bees, and of course, the marriage proposal as well as news clippings about Muzzle being taken down are found throughout the game to help bring it all together. |
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Difficulty:
I found Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 4: The Bogey Man! had a few more tough puzzles in it than in the previous games. While I could normally finish off the others in a couple of hours, it took me almost twice that long to get through this particular adventure. I don't feel like there was any extra content in The Bogey Man! over the others, per se, but there were several puzzles that just took a bit more work to get through, and as most often with this type of game, it was normally because I overlooked some item to interact with. In fact, if it wasn't for the series' Tab feature (where holding down the Tab key darkens the screen except for items you can interact with), I probably wouldn't have gotten past a few of the puzzles (there is music box that I don't think I would have ever noticed if it wasn't for this feature).
All that being said, the game can be completed in far less time than most adventure titles, but since that is the point of episodic games, that isn't bad at all. If you stick to the standard "pick up everything you can" idea, and you remember about the Tab key's function, then you should have no problem working your way through the latest Grand Adventure. |
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Game Mechanics:
If you've been following the Grand Adventures series, then you know what to expect from Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 4: The Bogey Man! Heck, if you've played pretty much any adventure game, then you know what to expect. There was one interesting puzzle that felt very different from pretty much anything else I've seen (at least in adventure games). It's towards the end of the game, so I will try not to give any plot points away, but at some point, Wallace and seven other people are trapped in a small room. The goal is to get Wallace from the back of the room to the front-center in order to get to the door. Much like a sliding puzzle, there is only one open space, and you must move people into that space in order to get the desired effect. But a nice twist on this puzzle is the fact that not everyone wants to move next to someone else (for instance, Flitt's great-aunt won't want to stand next to Wallace), thus making the puzzle just a bit more interesting. Like I said, this is a nice and different puzzle that I haven't really seen in a game before, at least not in this context, and it was a nice change from the standard inventory-based puzzles seen in the rest of the game.
The Bogey Man! is a fun little adventure and wraps up the season nicely. If you've been following the series so far, then this final episode is pretty much what you were looking for. If, on the other hand, you hadn't downloaded the other games, you can play though this one without the other adventure's, but you will get a lot more out of it if you've at least played Muzzled. |
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-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP / Vista, 2.0 GHz+ (3 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent recommended) processor, 512MB (1GB recommended) RAM, DirectX 8.1 sound card, 64MB DirectX 8.1-compliant video card (128MB recommended), DirectX: Version 9.0c or better |
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Test System:
Windows Vista Ultimate, AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20 GHz, 4 GB Ram, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics Card, DirectX 9.0c |
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