The International House of Mojo

Chris ‘The Tingler’ Capel stares into the Internet for too long, and finds it staring back into him.

So, can they do it? Can Telltale jump the astonishingly high bar they set for themselves with Abe Lincoln Must Die? Or will their entire endeavor crash and burn and Telltale will have to start making text adventures instead? Read on to find the exciting answer!

My God… it’s full of ads!

Okay, by now your eyes have already drifted to the score on the right, so you know that I was mightily impressed by Reality 2.0. It’s very good indeed. However, to get some narrative structure into this review, we’ll do the bad stuff first so that the good stuff can fight back and eventually win the day.

It may seem redundant to call an episodic game “too short”, but after being spoiled by the huge Abe Lincoln (no pun intended), Reality 2.0 is over all too quickly. Secondly, when it all comes down to it, you are basically just wandering up and down Sam & Max’s neighborhood for pretty much the entire game. Even Culture Shock had another location to travel to, as well as the driving sections. Aside from a quick trip to the bank, you stay resolutely street-bound.

My final criticism is that the puzzles are, for the most part, either too easy or too obtuse. I was delighted to find myself utterly stuck at a couple of points, before I solved it just by trying a random item on something. I know it’s hard to make true brain-teasers in such a small space, but you’ve proved you can do it Telltale. Defeating Brady Culture in Episode 1 is a good example.

Is there a place on the Web that panders to my lust for violence?

Right, I’m done. Now then, let’s get going with the good, for it is plentiful. First of all, despite the rather familiar surroundings, with two steps Telltale have managed to make it possible to actually enjoy walking up and down the same street you’ve walked down in four previous episodes.

First of all, everything’s the same – and yet everything’s different. Every single comment in the game has been rewritten, so no matter what you click on you’ll get a funny remark you haven’t heard before. Furthermore, there are changes to all the locations. Liver & Onions have been cancelled! The White House carpet adorns the office! There’s a new sewer grate in the street! Even – shock horror – the Road Kill Calendar’s been changed, complete with a witty joke to explain why it didn’t change before! Woo! Right, that’s me satisfied, can I go now?

But wait, there’s that second step! After discovering the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society (see, I remembered!), you gain access to… wait for it… Reality 2.0! Best described as a large amount of Tron mixed with a large dollop of The Internet from Futurama, and a dab of System Shock (menacing green godlike female avatar watching your every move), you really won’t want to spend your time anywhere else.

Nowadays we have a type of game played entirely on video... we call it a ‘videogame’.

I was wondering how Telltale would top parodying the American Government with Episode 5. They decided to go straight for their fan-base, just in a more affectionate way. Reality 2.0 pokes fun at videogames and the Internet, with loads of nods at many different areas of gaming, old and new, although that doesn’t stop jokes from other sources from filtering in. Amongst others I caught references to Mario, Zelda, Bugs Bunny, Turn-based RPGS, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (ahem) and – yay! – Monkey Island.

It must be said that the writing is of a very high standard indeed. I am proud to give both Brendan Q. Ferguson and Dave Grossman my highest honour, the Tingler’s Excellence Award (TEA) for their work on this series. A few fans had doubts after the name Chuck Jordan turned up in Episode 4’s opening credits and the writing quality shot through the roof, but now it’s just back to just the two of them and the level has been maintained. Kudos!

Another TEA can go to Jared Emerson-Johnson, who manages to somehow make me long for the days of MIDI music again. Both Bosco’s and Sybil’s are drastically improved by the simpler but more dramatic scoring, and the epic theme of the Control Room is incredibly intimidating – you really believe these guys could take over the world. Considering he voiced all of the COPS and snuck an unnecessary but welcome song in too, I think that TEA is well deserved.

A woman… I’m scared!

Thought I’d forgot the story, didn’t you? Although you don’t get a specific place to go to as soon as you start, regulars Bosco, Sybil and Jimmy help steer you to your exciting first steps into cyberspace. From there unfortunately it gets a little vague, so if you’re looking for an exciting plot with twists and turns, stay with Episode 4. Reality 2.0 is more about exploration and, well, playing a game.

One of the reasons this game is over quickly is that you can’t stop playing it. Everything about Reality 2.0 is a joy to play, and was obviously a joy to make too. Telltale could’ve done a whole game on this concept alone, and I hope we see it again somehow. There are tons of hysterically funny gags in here, from simple things like sound effects (the ‘squish’ when Sam & Max put on their VR goggles makes me cringe every time) to cute interpretations of pop-ups and Firewalls… and is that a Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em ad I just saw?

I have to stop there before I ruin everything for those that haven’t played it. Suffice to say that despite some faults, Reality 2.0 is loads of fun from start to finish, which is how I judge the game to be a success. I’m also glad to say that after Max stole the show last time Sam gets a lot of good comedy moments this time too. My last suggestion is that while as usual Episode 5 is playable on its own, play Episode 4 first if you haven’t already or you might not understand some of the President Max jokes. Oh, and it’s got the Geekiest. Ending. Everrr. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and make those TEAs...

4.5 skulls out of 5

Pros: Well written, joy to play all the way through.

Cons: Story a bit lacking.

This article was originally published on April 15th, 2007. Most older Mojo articles were lost, and we've been forced to resort to The Wayback Machine to revive them. Unfortunately, the layout and media of the original article is often not salvageable, so if you want an idea of how this feature looked in its original form, check out this snapshot.

Oh yeah, and here's the original news post, since we have trouble linking those correctly, too. ¬¬