I don't play modern games much, almost not at all. But I'm a fan of retro games that I grew up with, and still play some of them from time to time. So, I'd like to do some retro reviews on Steemit every once in a while.

This series will be called Schattenjaeger's Previously Owned Reviews.

I finally bought the remastered version of the 1993 Lucasarts adventure game Day of the Tentacle yesterday, and here are my thoughts on it. This is mainly written for people who have not played the original game.

Day of the Tentacle is a point and click adventure game, where you control your character with the mouse, talking with people, picking up items and using items on other items and people, trying to solve puzzles. It was released in 1993 on CD-ROM and floppy disk (remember those?).

This year, it got an HD Remake with updated graphics, as well as compatibility with modern systems. The remake was released on Windows, OSX, PS4, PS Vita, iOS and Linux in 2016. I played the Windows version.

Plot

Like in all old point and click adventure games, the plot is the main meat of the game, and the reason for playing it.

Day of the Tentacle is intentionally absurd, and at no point takes it itself even half way seriously. The game is a sequal to the late 80s adventure game Maniac Manson, but it's not required to play Maniac Manson to enjoy Day of the Tentacle. In fact, Maniac Manson is included inside Day of the Tentacle, as an easter egg, inside an in-game PC.

But suffice to say, five years prior, mad scientist Dr. Fred Edison had created Purple Tentacle, an insane mutant that was supposed to work as his lab assistant. At the start of the story, Purple Tentacle drinks some sort of toxic water from a river behind Fred's lab, which results in him growing arms - which he previously didn't have.

The growing of arms then makes it possible for Purple Tentacle to start taking over the world. Taking over the world without hands can be extremely tough!

After receiving a letter from Green Tentacle, Purple's friendly and less insane brother, that asked for help, the protagonists of the story, Bernard, Hoagie and Laverne travel to the Edison mansion to see what is going on. How Green wrote the letter with no arms, I spent most of my childhood trying to figure out.

Bernard is a pencil neck geek, a nerd with a fascination with thermo-dynamics, which no one is ever interested in hearing about. Hoagie is a rather round, long haired metalhead stuck in the 80s. And Laverne is an eccentric medical student. The trio makes up an entertaining unit of different personalities and different ways of interacting with situations that makes the game remain fresh throughout the story.

It turns out that both tentacles had been captured by Dr. Fred, but naive Bernard, not knowing that Purple had become an evil megalomaniac, sets both Purple and Green free. Purple escapes, and this sets up the plot for the rest of the game.

Since Purple is now free to act on his evil plan to take on the world, and him growing the hands through drinking the toxic sludge was the result of Fred's own science experiment, the only way to stop him is to travel through time to yesterday to stop the toxic, mutating waste of ending up in the river. I mean, obviously, if you're going to stop an insane, mutant tentacle set on taking over the world, time travel is your best option. It's only logical.

Luckily for our crew, as well as the entire human race, Dr. Fred has been working on a time machine, and our three protagonists get to be the first humans to ever travel through time. And it's for the good of mankind, no less.

Naturally, the time machines, called Chron-O-Johns, are built from toilets, because why not.

Fred is successful in sending the heroes through time, but unfortunately, it doesn't go quite as planned, because Fred had been a cheapskate and used an imitation diamond as the power source of the time machine generator, instead of a real diamond, as was intended. The diamond cracks midway through the process, resulting in Hoagie landing 200 years in the past, Laverne landing 200 years in the future, and Bernard returning back to the present day.

This is the premise of the game.

All three adventures take place at the same motel, but during three different time periods. Things done in the past will affect the future, and are required to solve a number of the puzzles.

In the past, Hoagie is faced with the task of somehow finding electricity in order to plug in his Chron-O-John. Bernard will have to find the required funds to purchase an actual diamond to use with the time machine to get his friends back. In the future, Laverne founds herself in a world enslaved by Tentacles, where human beings are merely pets to the suction cup master race.

The plot is crazy by design, and relies on humor and the innate absurdity of the premise. The story is very traditional, but its told in a non-traditional milieu.

Lucasarts adventure games were always about their humor, but unlike past titles, like the Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle emphasized visual humor, as opposed to verbal humor. There is still a lot of funny one liners and verbal comedy in the game, but the visual jokes clearly take the driver's seat.

All in all, I still found the story enjoyable. I liked it as a kid, and liked it when re-playing it. It's not to be taken seriously, it's light hearted in nature, but it still gives the player a reason to care about the story, since the characters are likeable.

The time travel concept works, and allows for plot lines such as needing a vacuum cleaner in the future, and amending the constitution in the past, to include a part that requires every American household to have its own vacuum cleaner. Because of course!

Overall, the story is original and entertaining, and does its job very well, as it should as the backbone of the game. Not to spoil, but you run into George Washington, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, a manic-depressive novelty designer, fascist mutant tentacles, and a talking horse, among other things. What's not to like?

The plot does get a few minus points from me for not succeeding in being quite as clever* with its humor as previous Lucasarts titles, such as the aforementioned Monkey Island series.

GRADE: A-

Graphics

The main thing the HD Remake does is update the graphics. The graphical world of Day of the Tentacle was still enjoyable, which is impressive, considering that the game came out in 1993, but the face lift is very nice to have.

The remake doesn't attempt to redesign the game at all, it simply replaces the pixelart from the 90s with a modern graphical design. The game looks cartoony, which fits the theme of the game, with its exaggerated expressions and overall Looney Toones-esque presentation. The game doesn't try to be realistic in any way, and it's not something that is expected from it in the looks department.

Since the story, in all three times, takes place at the same mansion, it's fun to see how things are different in the present, 200 years in the past and 200 years in the future. A lot of character models are recycled through the different times, but it doesn't come off as lazy, since the joke is that these are ancestors and future grandchildren of the characters. The different times have different enough feels to them that it doesn't get tiresome playing in the same general area in three different centuries.

The world is very colorful and rarely is it dark, even though one might expect it from a plot that has to do with mutants taking over the world, but the whole game is tongue in cheek, so it works out.

The graphical overhaul is nice, though if you have played the original, and go into this expecting something new, you might get disappointed. However, if you're just expecting a nice face lift, that's exactly what you're going to get.

The graphics are pleasant, there's nothing wrong with them, but they're not super spectacular, either. Not that it's even their intent. They do their job, and don't feel lacking.

GRADE: B

Sound

Next to the story, the sound design was always the second most important aspect in a point and click adventure game. Especially back in the day when graphical limitations were far greater than they are now. It was paramount to engage the player with a great sound atmosphere.

Day of the Tentacle does not disappoint in the sound department. The voice acting tracks have not been changed from the original game, like I was originally worried that they might be. Everything sounds pretty much the same as the original game, albeit in higher quality. The soundtrack of Day of the Tentacle varies from funny to gloomy, perfectly shaping up the game world, and never feeling tiresome. In an adventure game, it's very important to have an enjoyable ambient soundtrack, since you're likely going to get stuck in between puzzles, and will spend a lot of time in the same screens, searching for items you haven't picked up, and things you haven't tried your items on, etc.

I am happy to say even after having spent hours with the game, in the same screens, the ambient is barely noticeable, but noticeable enough to add to the atmosphere - which is basically exactly as it should be in a game like this.

The music does a good job presenting the different centuries in different in ways that make them feel different.

The voice acting is over the top in a good way, since the game is comical in nature. It's of high quality, and the funniness never seems forced, which is a great feat. The actors seem to have fun, the characters are distinct and have their own unique quirks to them. In a game where the characters often lack facial expressions, outside of very specific cutscenes, it's important to have the emotions and character traits come alive through the voice acting, and the cast Day of the Tentacle does just that.

GRADE: A

Gameplay

It's hard to rate the "gameplay" aspect of a point and click adventure game, since the genre is so unlike any typical videogame genre. The original Day of the Tentacle used the SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine, where the player would have the inventory and available verbs at the bottom of the screen, and would choose either a verb or an item, with which to interact with the gameworld.

The remake gets rid of the SCUMM egine, which was revolutionary for its time, but can feel a bit clunky by today's standards. The new system is similarly a mouse controlled system, but a much quicker, sleeker version. I didn't run into problems and it did its jobs. I'd say that it's pretty much as quick as a point and click game can hope to be. It's not about reflexes like most games, but rather solving puzzles and studying your environment.

It works for what it's supposed to do, it's nothing special, but it doesn't have to be. Like was stated earlier, the emphasis is on the story, so the gameplay is only there to make it quick and smooth to advance in the gameworld. That it does. Things are quick and natural.

I refuse to give it an extraordinary grade, since there's hardly anything spectacular about - like was the case with the original SCUMM engine in the late 80s - but it's solid and there's nothing wrong with it.

GRADE: C+

TL;DR

Day of the Tentacle holds a special place in my heart, since it was one of my first PC games as a young kid in the early 90s. Nostalgia no doubt plays a part in my warm feelings towards it, but even when trying to remain objective, I feel the game delivers. It's not for everyone, since it's not a strategic or reflex-based game, and adventure games will always be a very niche product. However, if you're into adventure games and somehow managed to miss Day of the Tentacle back in the day, I'd urge you to pick up the enhanced remake now that it's compatible with modern operating systems. Also, if you're into absurd humor and would like to give adventure games a try, Day of the Tentacle is a fantastic place to start. I have played through most of the Lucasarts and Sierra adventure games back in the day without walkthroughs or hints, and can say that Tentacle is positioned somewhere in the middle, leaning towards the easier side, in the world of point and clicks.

It's not as hard as Secret of Monkey Island, or LeChuck's Revenge (which both had me scratching my head for weeks at certain parts) as far as puzzles go. Most of the puzzles require some creative thinking and cleverness, but are easy to figure out if you just pay attention. The fun thing about adventure games is the rewarding feeling you get when you manage to solve a puzzle, and eventually the entire game, without a walkthrough, so that's what I would urge everybody to try.

The remake offers very little to old players of Day of the Tentacle, but it's a very enjoyable trip through memory lane. The game also comes with an additional Developers' Commentary, which I have yet to listen to, but I will, because I'm a sucker for those types of things.

It's also possible to jump between the original version of the game and the HD remake at any point during the game at the player's leisure.

Ever, during you life, wondered what possible hard could an insane, mutant tentacle do? Maybe it's time for you to find out. You know, to prepare for the future. While everyone else is preparing for a zombie apocalypse, tentacles are free to take over if we're not prepared.

I picked mine up at https://www.gog.com/ for $9.99 and will give the game a final grade of..

FINAL GRADE: WORTH IT

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

@schattenjaeger