Thimbleweed Park

This is a quality game with many hours of gameplay, interesting puzzles, and very interesting characters to interact with. You play as several different characters over the course of the game, switching as you want or need too. The game in infused with lots of humor and late 80's references (as the game is set in 1987). I was always a point and click adventure game fan, and this game does not disappoint. Designed by the makers of some of the best adventure games of the past, know you will find intelligent, funny, and interesting content from beginning to end, and you will likely want to play again to look into the details you might have missed the first time. Make sure to check the game options carefully when you play, as you may want to enable some interesting options right from the start (seriously, do this!).

I’m giving this a five star rating for a number of reasons but mainly, I suppose, because of the experimentation with a postmodern story line in a point-and-click adventure. Really, it was a bold move. The story, as it’s lain out in the beginning, is pretty good. It’s based on an old archetype: a Murder is committed in a small, dried up town, and an innocent riffraff is eventually accused. Then, the story, characteristically of a postmodern venture, fragments into an a dreamlike spectacle concerning the nature of reality. The ultimate outcome of the story (Spoiler ahead): it doesn’t matter neither who killed the hapless victim nor that an innocent man was accused; the inherent meaninglessness of life and the thinly veiled illusion of free will render all aspects of existence, at least in the video game world, inconsequential. If you’re into post-modern literature, you’ll probably love this game.

This game has a great first half—really fun and engaging with puzzles that are difficult but not so much so that you need to call the in-game help line. The back half of the game, however, comes almost to a screeching halt with the introduction of the hotel. A lot of the puzzles don’t have clues that are easy to figure out just from common sense and intuition, making it necessary to call the help line at least once, if not a dozen times. The game then becomes a chore and not very fun at this point, and the ending is disappointing and unfulfilling. There are also many unanswered questions that are tied up in a dialogue towards the end that seems rushed and uncalculated. This game would’ve been so much better following the track of a murder mystery instead of incorporating a nonsensical plot twist towards the end. Overall, good music and graphics, great story in the front half, clumsy controls, and terrible ending. 15-20 hours of gameplay.

I absolutely loved all the LucasArts adventure games of the 90s, but was sad to see this genre mostly disappear over time. I've been happy to see remastered versions of many of the classics being brought back to life over the last couple of years though, and the iPad is the perfect device for these games. While the remastered classics have been great, I still remember a lot of the story, and the puzzles, so not even 20+ years and updated graphics make them feel new again. That's with this game does though. A new, original game with the same feel as the classics. It really is fantastic! I started playing on a 9 hour long-haul flight yesterday, and couldn't put it down. If you love the adventure game classics, you will love this!

This game is extremely well written. No distracting in-game purchases. 10-30 hours of absorbing story-line depending on your skill level on the harder setting. Lots of interesting background content that is technically skippable but still interesting (e.g. Entire bookcases of readable book titles and opening chapters). The game is also written at a sophisticated, adult level while still maintaining only a PG level of literal smut/gore etc. Dialogue is interesting, realistic and engaging. Voice acting is very good. Some of the puzzles were not at all intuitive, but the in-game hint system is very good. Many inside jokes for gamers as one of the main characters in the game is a game designer.