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The Bogey man is gonna get’cha
“The Bogey Man” is the fourth episode of “Wallace & Gromit’s Great Adventures” game series and features a good majority of the series main characters, as well as a few minor characters. The story involves Wallace solving a mystery regarding the country club which he has just joined. In the process, he’s dealing with a marriage that he thought was a dream until Gromit shows him the morning paper.
Gromit is off doing detective work of his own trying to solve the mystery of Wallace’s marriage. In the game, you go back-and-forth playing as Wallace and Gromit as you try to uncover each one’s respective mystery. The game is rather short and only takes a little less than 2 hours to complete. The game play is very much a “point-and-click” style with not a whole lot of depth. Going around to different parts of the town, clicking on characters to hear them ramble on for 2 minutes or just searching the room for small pieces of paper over and over isn’t the most entertaining thing in the world to do, but the story is interesting and the well-animated cut-scenes make up for the lack of depth in the gameplay.
The publisher includes a tutorial to help you along, but since the game is not that complicated I don’t see the point. The cut-scenes are the focal point as much of the game consists of watching the story unfold with character dialog and interaction. Many of the comical bits are very cunning and got a few chuckles out of me. The story is presented in a way in which anyone can play and know what’s going on, not just Wallace & Gromit fans. This is a major plus in my book. The graphics stay true to the art style of Wallace & Gromit and represent the claymation style well. The environments are well done and compliments the game play.
The voice work is top-notch as most of the original voice-actors have returned to reprise their former roles. Because of the graphics and art-style and game uses, many people with lower-end PCs can still play the game as the system requirements are not nearly as demanding as most of the games in today’s market.
Overall, I think Wallace & Gromit: The Bogey Man is worth playing if you’re a fan of mystery games. The game play is a little dull for my taste, but the story is well delivered. It works well given that this is a simple mystery game that is meant to appeal to people of all ages. I do wish the game was a little longer.
I rate Wallace & Gromit’s: The Bogey Man a 7 out of 10.
Bonus Video: Monty Muzzel’s Sales Pitch
