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Day of the Tentacle

In the unlikely event that I ever teach a class in adventure game design, I think I would start the students off with Day of the Tentacle, so they could see exactly how it's supposed to be done. Because Day of the Tentacle has the sort of puzzle design, clever story and witty dialogue that come along so rarely that when you see it you say, oh yeah, that's why I like adventure games!

DOTT is a sequel to Maniac Mansion (which can be played in DOTT as a game-within-a-game on Ed Edison's computer), although stylistically it's more akin to Sam & Max Hit the Road. A group of youths have to return to the mansion in order to take a time machine to yesterday in order to prevent a walking tentacle from drinking the sludge that will drive it mad and start it on a quest to rule the world. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Unfortunately there are problems with the time machine and the youths find themselves separated: one in the present, one in the colonial past, and one in a future in which humans are nothing but the pets of tentacles.

While there is not enough power in each person's time machine to get them home, there is enough to send their compatriots items, so each time traveler has their pick of anything any other time traveler can find. Furthermore, what you do in the past can help those in the future solve their puzzles.

And what puzzles. These are the puzzles that you feel obligated to describe in detail to your non-adventure gaming friends. Puzzles that are wacky and yet have an inevitable logic. Puzzles that avoid needless busywork, with objects that are clearly visible (with one annoying exception). Puzzles as clever and ingenious as any puzzles that exist in the history of adventure games. This is as good as it gets.

I did cheat a few times, although the only justified cheat was the one involving the semi-hidden object. In fact, I might have cheated less if I'd been able to play the game straight through, but because DOTT didn't work with my sound card, like a number of Lucas Arts games of the period, and I had to play it off and on at work, so there were long slack periods where I forgot important things. Still, these are the puzzles I love: those that are at, or (occasionally) just beyond my intellectual powers.

But if clever puzzles aren't enough, don't worry. With wacky, misshapen sets by Peter Chan, funny dialogue and a clever story, this is a game that fails in no department.

The version I played had some voice acting at the beginning (most of it miscast, except for the nerdy guy), but then settles into old-fashioned subtitles. This would have been fine at the time, but with slicker games on the market it feels like a bit of a shortcoming to the modern gamer.

Still, if you have any fondness at all for adventure games, this is one you absolutely must buy right away.

-- Charles Herold -1999

Glitches:My typical problem with Lucas Arts games of the time -- it wouldn't work with my soundcard, and I had to play it at work.