Day of the Tentacle Remastered Review
PC adventure games are making a strong comeback. Gamers are seeing HD remakes of a few of LucasArts’ great adventure games. Along with Grim Fandango and the upcoming Full Throttle in 2017, the most recent Day of the Tentacle does not disappoint. This is a worthy remake that anyone who likes gaming should play.
Tim Schafer is the master and one of the biggest reasons behind getting these remakes released. Growing up I liked LucasArts games but I had only played a few of the adventure games such as Indiana Jones and The Dig. I remember the The Dig would make me scratch my head for hours trying to figure out a puzzle and eventually I had to get a walkthrough.
Day of the Tentacle was a sequel to the late 80s hit Maniac Mansion. This game takes place 5 years after Maniac Mansion and was known as one of the last games to use the original SCUMM engine interface. The game is the typical point and click adventure with players using items and interacting with the world. The plot revolves around the tentacles getting loose and the players must prevent them from destroying the world. The 3 protagonists are sent to 3 different time periods and can send items back and forth to each other. I could go into more detail but I don't want to spoil the game for anyone.
The game itself looks great; the art style is still a 2D cartoon, but everything has been given a high resolution facelift. At any time gamers can swap this out for the original art style and original interface with the original midi music. There is also great director commentary that can be turned on from the start. This works well if gamers have played the game before, personally I wanted to hear the dialogue of the characters.
The controls work well on PS4 and I had a blast trying to get the characters to do things with certain objects. I enjoyed the dialogue, as it made me think of the early 90s. Overall, the game is fun and from time to time my wife poked her head in and wanted to know what I was laughing about. And the rumor is the original Maniac Mansion is included somehow as well. Gamers owe it to themselves to take a weekend, grab a friend and play this game.
DoubleFine has more info about the game on their site http://dott.doublefine.com/ as well as some great videos and screenshot comparisons. By the time you read this review, the game will be out on PS4, Vita with cross buy, PC, and Mac. I hope the success of this HD remake will lead to other remakes of classic adventure games. Personally The Dig is near the top of my list and I hope one day gamers will also get this.
The Gamers Lounge would like to thank the publisher for letting us review this game.
Final score 4.75/5