Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures: Fright of the Bumblebees (PC) Review
Posted by Jonny Richardson on 03.27.2009
Cracking Episodic Game, ‘ey Gromit?
Title: Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: Fright of the Bumblebees Publisher: Telltale Games Developer: Telltale Games Genre: Episodic Adventure Players: 1 Available on: PC, Xbox 360
Since they first appeared on British television screens in 1989, Wallace & Gromit have become cult heroes. To date the dynamic duo, hailing from the north of England, have appeared in 5 hilarious short films and 1 feature length film – each painstakingly created using stop motion clay animation. Wallace (the one which isn’t the dog!) is an inventor and entrepreneur, whose inventions and doziness almost inevitably lead him into trouble. Standing ever faithfully by his side is Gromit, a mute character, but incredibly expressive, intelligent and resourceful. Both have a penchant for the quiet life, and an unhealthy obsession with cheese.
Right. With the abridged history of W&G now out of the way, let’s get down to business. Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures is a new series of downloadable adventure games that’ll be delivered episodically by developers Telltale Games. For those of you familiar with the developers, you’ll recall that this is the same team which gave us the excellent Sam & Max and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People series. For those of you who were unaware of those facts, or even of the existence of the aforementioned games, give yourself a slap around the ear and go and educate yourself with their reviews, courtesy of 411mania games: ( Sam & Max Season One, Strong Bad Episode 1, Strong Bad Episode 2, Strong Bad Episode 3, Strong Bad Episode 4, Strong Bad Episode 5)
Fright of the Bumblebees is the first of Wallace & Gromit’s grand adventures, and it kicks off season one of this new franchise tremendously well. Although it’s extremely short for a game that costs $34.95 (£25.00), (I managed to meander my way from start to finish in a paltry 4 hours) it’s important to realise that this is episodic gaming, and the cost covers the next three adventures, the first of which, ‘The Last Resort’, is set to be released in just over a months’ time.
Gameplay
Adventure games typically forego the fast paced gameplay we’ve come to expect from genres such as RTS’s and FPS’s for the sake of imaginative, immersive worlds, full of well canvassed characters and witty dialogue. This is certainly the case for Fright of the Bumblebees. The gameplay follows the tried and tested adventure game formula of; in-game cut scene which presents problem, followed by in-game action where the player attempts to use objects and his environment in order to solve the problem. For those of you who’ve played adventure games before, you’ll know that this model either works, or leaves you with tears of frustration, angrily clicking every god forsaken object in the hope that something’ll happen to enlighten you as to what to do next.
Luckily, Fright of the Bumblebees strikes the perfect balance between challenging and rewarding puzzles. That being said, I’m not a particularly adept player of adventure games, and therefore seasoned veterans may find this game an absolute doddle to play. Thankfully, the game includes a ‘hint’ system which you can alter to your liking, which effects (as far as I can see) how often characters present you with clues as how to solve certain puzzles.
There isn’t much traditional gameplay to discuss, save for the fact that the W,A,S,D system controls your movement, and that the rest of the game utilises a point and click system which works fairly well. That being said, there are times when you’ll spend a few frustrated seconds clicking on an object only to discover that for the game to respond, you should have clicked a few centimetres to above where you were originally attempting.
Without revealing any spoilers, I can say that the story is a short but well written one, and involves the fate of Wallace’s latest debt avoiding business plan – home delivery honey. A lot of effort has clearly gone into character dialogue . In an extremely short space of time, it establishes faces which you won't quickly forget - Major Crum and the Gabberley's for instance.
I feel I should make a warning, however: the dialogue here is not for the faint hearted. I've grown up in a family which is predominantly from the north of England, and as such I managed to cope with the barrage of northern dialect fairly well. If your vocabulary doesn’t include words like ‘gubbins’ ‘daft ‘blithering’ or ‘lug’ole’, you’ll struggle to understand what’s going on, word for word. If this is the case, just smile and nod and assume the characters are insulting one another!
Graphics
Wallace & Gromit is, and always has been a plasticine based cartoon. It’s great to see that developers Telltale have honoured this tradition by rendering each of the characters in the typically cartoony manor – with fingerprints and smudge marks giving them the look of plasticine figurines.
Telltale has also managed to stay very true to the W&G universe. The game is rich in disciplined continuity, and there are abundant references to prior adventures which fans of the series will take delight in. The characters look good, and the environments varied, colourful and vibrant.
Special mention ought to be given to the fantastic job the Telltale have done with animating Gromit. Wallace’s canine ally has always been a wonderful straight man dog to his master’s general ineptitude at life. The way he reacts to situations around him with his expressions, eyes and body language will genuinely make you laugh.
Sound
This is one area in which the game has let itself down badly in. The sound as a whole fits the mood setting well, and the dialogue is spot on. However, the sound is in need of some desperate tuning, which is a shame, because the problems I noticed were only very minor – it just happens that there are a lot of them.
For instance, the dialogue of the characters often sounds crackly, as though some North English civilians are speaking through guitar distortion pedals. The music, which I’d like to stress is characteristic of Wallace & Gromit, is often too loud, drowning out dialogue of characters at certain points.
Another example of flawed sound was in (without giving away the plot) there’s a mini disco in the Wallace’s basement. For some reason, the sound in the actual basement is nowhere near as loud as the sound when you’re standing outside, above the basement. Similarly, one of the puzzles in the game demands that you change the music in the disco (for mysterious reasons that I’ll not go into!), yet if you stand in a certain location, you can still hear the old music. These are only minor points, but if a little more time had been spent on this department, it could’ve been easily sorted out. Expect a patch soon!
Also, for those of you who’re familiar with the series, you’ll be sad to note Peter Sallis, the man responsible for voicing Wallace in the films, isn’t on vocal duties for the game. Thankfully, producers of the W&G film series, Aardman, lent their official backup voice actor, Ben Whitehead to be the man with the mic. He does a cracking job.
Lasting Appeal
The appeal of any adventure game is the mystery of where the story will take you. Gameplay largely consists of you fulfilling whatever criteria the game demands for the story to be able to continue. As such, once you’ve played through the game once, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to return to it again anytime soon, especially when the solutions to the puzzles are still fresh in your mind.
Thankfully, it won't be long to wait till the next episode, which hits in a month time. Then, a month after that, the next episode is released, and then the month after that, the last episode!
Fun Factor
It’s a charming little title, that's short, but a blast to play. Easily the most fun I've had playing a video game this year. You may not burst out laughing, but it'll definatley make you chuckle.
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Nicely rendered characters, made to look like the original plasticine models!
Gameplay
8.5
Interesting, easy to solve puzzles, a funny script and memorable characters? Check!
Sound
5.0
In keeping with the W&G traditions, but let down by poor mixing and bad editing.
Lasting Appeal
3.5
Due to the nature of adventure games, and it's comparatively short length, you wont want to play it again. Mostly because the next episode is out in a months time!
Fun Factor
9.0
Its short, easy to play, and is suitable for everyone from children to people who dont normally go for point and click adventures!
