Newsgroups: comp.publish.cdrom.software
Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!decwrl!hookup!swrinde!emory!nntp.msstate.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!aplcenmp!ded
From: ded@aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu (Don Davis)
Subject: Review of Day of the Tentacle (DOTT)
Message-ID: <Cn8twE.A2C@aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu>
Organization: Johns Hopkins Continuing Professional Programs
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 23:14:38 GMT
Lines: 47

I bought this game based on favorable recommendations appearing in this newsgroup.
Since my own impression was less favorable I thought I'd post a balancing opinion.

First off, there is much to like about DOTT.  It has some delightfully rendered
animated characters and sequences.  The voices were excellent, the music adequate.
Nice story.  Interesting situations.  Most people will like this game.

But not me.  

It suffers from the same flaws as most of these games: they aren't logical.
One does not solve DOTT by cogent application of clues and hints.  Well...sometimes
you can, but the point is that one can not finish the game via logic.  Rather
one must exhaust the possibilites.  Try the potato peeler on the potato, on the
watermelon, on the log, on other characters, on everything in sight until you
discover what works.  To me such exhaustive searches are...exhausting.  I don't
find them fun, but I do find them in games like DOTT.

I'm trying real hard not to give away clues, so let me use an example from a
different game.  While wandering through the mountains you encounter a Yeti.
You try everything you can think of to defeat the Yeti but fail.  This either
means you didn't try the right thing or you left something behind that
is required.  Perhaps you never found the thing.  Perhaps it is lying under an
unexplored tree.  Perhaps you had the thing but used it improperly.  If you
back up far enough, and don't eat the custard pie when you're hungry, then
throw the pie at the Yeti, it blinds him and he falls off a cliff.  Gee, wasn't
that fun to figure out?  

Why do they do this?  Call me a cynic, but the rows of $12 hint books lining
computer store shelves gives me a clue.  The real cost of the game isn't $40
but $52.

Now comes the surprise announcement.  The CD-Rom version of DOTT comes with
the hint book.  It's free (or at least included).  What's my beef?

Simply this: I like these games.  I enjoy following the story, figuring things out.
That's fun, especially when the game is as well conceived and implemented as DOTT.
But when I have a hint book and know the game is not logical, I
have a short fuse.  I don't want to spend a lot of time on a puzzle only to
discover it has an off-the-wall solution.  So I spend a little time on the
puzzle then resort to the hint book.  Then I'm disappointed when it turns out
I could have solved it logically if I'd only given it a little more time.

DOTT is filled with illogical puzzles.  If you like such things you will probably
enjoy the game.

						don davis