PC game review: Wallace and Gromit: The Last Resort

May 8, 10:53 AMPC Game ExaminerBryan Edge-Salois

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the PC Game Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

The Last Resort brings a little 'Agatha Christie' style mystery into the lives of the Wallace and Gromit. Although it starts slowly, it picks up quickly and exudes even more charm than its predecessor -- and does it with a little more technical polish too.

The Last Resort is the second game in the Wallace and Gromit: Grand Adventures series by Telltale games. It begins stormy clouds and merciless rain ruining our  dynamic duo's beach vacation plans. (Britain must be a lot like Seattle.)

Wallace -- true to his whimsical, entrepreneurial spirit -- decides not to let the rain stop them from enjoying a good holiday, and turns their humble house on West Wallaby Street into a beach vacation resort, complete with sand, water, a mechanical puppet show, an automatic cotton candy machine, and even a water slide.

Of course, once the resort is running and filled with paying customers (almost all of them the same characters that appeared in Fright of the Bumblebees), things don't go quite as planned -- and Wallace and Gromit soon find themselves with a sinister mystery to solve.

I won't divulge any more about the plot to avoid spoilers. Suffice to say that if you enjoyed Fright of the Bumblebees or just like Wallace and Gromit in general, you'll likely enjoy The Last Resort.

Personally, I thought the writing was cleverer and a little funnier this time around. I was initially a little dismayed in the first chapter because it offered few puzzles of any interest and felt like an unnecessary prelude.

Fortunately, chapter 1 is very short, and once I got through it I liked the game a lot more. This time around you'll get to see some places -- like Wallace and Gromit's living room -- that you didn't get to see in the first game. Otherwise you'll be adventuring through most of the same locations that were in Fright of the Bumblebees. On a side note, I was a bit disappointed that the shed with The Wrong Trousers hooked up to a lawn mower had gone missing.

The Last Resort is a little more polished than Fright of the Bumblebees, although it still has a few tiny foibles. For example, it displays 'press the A button on the controller' (or a similar message) at the very beginning of the game. (Let's remember that this is a PC, OK?) I also encountered some occasionally odd cursor behavior, but far less than I encountered in Fright of the Bumblebees. I also got 'stuck' (once, and only once) in a close up of my 'to do list' early in the game and had to exit the game and re-load to recover.

Otherwise -- like its predecessor -- The Last Resort sports the same basic game mechanics, and it never punishes you for failure. You always have as much time as you need to solve any given puzzle -- no matter how dire the circumstances may seem -- and you can exit puzzles at any time and return to them when you're ready to solve them.

The Last Resort offers about 2-4 hours of gameplay. Overall,  The Last Resort is a slight improvement over Fright of the Bumblebees. If you're a fan of Wallace and Gromit and like casual adventure games -- especially family-friendly ones -- I highly recommend it. My five-year old son enjoys playing the game alongside his dad -- and he can even help solve some of the puzzles.

Visit Telltale Games home page for more info

More casual game reviews 

Wallace and Gromit's Fright of the Bumblebees

Cogs

The Magic Toychest