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Thimbleweed Park reviewed 30 Mar, 2017 / 10 comments

I mean, what the hell, right on the minute of the embargo being lifted too. This could make us the first site in the world to publish a Thimbleweed Park review.

And it is about as spoiler-free as it can get, with the only concrete examples coming from the two first hours of the game. We -- and I speak for all of Mojo, because nobody's editing this -- like Thimbleweed Park. A lot. And you probably will too, even though/particularly because the game is of an acquired taste.

Read! Agree? Disagree? Voice your opinions in the comments, all six of you.

And look for more Thimbleweed Park content coming soon, because we're gonna milk this cow 'til it's dry.

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10 Comments

  • Avatar
    Sven_Q45 on 23 Apr, 2017, 17:43…
    I think I said enought to it. :) Since LucasArts I didn´t play any game that "catches" me. I replayed very few adventure games but this one... Like the LA adventure games. Didn´t have that urge to replay a adventure game since LucasArts.
    And if they make new ones (the engine is new based on Scumm)I hope they don´t go the Telltale way...

    "Characters interacted with will not acknowledge that two different agents are coming in, asking the same questions, which is a bit of a drag."
    Well it´s unreal but gameplay wise very good. ;)

    The corpse at the beginning is btw Boris Schneider who translated all the LA adventure games into German.
    And the voiceactor of him is one of the main (German) actors of Daedalic afaik.
  • Avatar
    ThunderPeel2001 on 10 Apr, 2017, 09:58…
    I really love TP, but it very old skool in ways that I don't miss: Characters that are quite limited. Pixel hunting. Outlandish puzzles. A lesser emphasis on story and characters.

    Conversely, I felt BA lacked a bit structurally.

    If only Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer could work together on a game. Maybe one that Dave Grossman could get involved in, as well? Oh wait, they already did! And it resulted in my favourite game of all time.
  • Avatar
    Remi on 07 Apr, 2017, 17:17…
    Yeah, I think it's hard to compare Broken Age and Thimbleweed Park, but for the record, Broken Age ranks high on my favorite adventure games list.
  • Avatar
    Jones Jr on 06 Apr, 2017, 23:53…

    Rip

    I'm so happy Ron didn't go Tim Shaffer way. I was bummed after Broken Age.



    Having backed both projects I'm not sure that they are entirely comparable.
    Sure they were both Kickstarters for adventure games with a similar target, but the similarities end there.
    Ron came to the table with a clear idea of what he was going to make.
    Tim did not, but that was intended to be part of the "Double Fine Adventure".

    Ron made $625k. Tim made $3.3m
    And that is the thing that probably made the big difference.
    If DFA had done similar business to TP, there is no way that Tim could have gone down the design black hole that he did. Remember that the original idea was for a small, flash type adventure with a documentary. Once he got the backing that he did, he was kind of obliged to deliver something bigger.
    Though, he could have delivered what he promised and spent the rest of the money getting his car fixed! :-P

    I'm still playing TP and it is very, very good so far.
    I played Broken Age with my daughter. We both really enjoyed it. She was disappointed when it finished and wants BA2!

    The DFA documentary was a fascinating insight into the triumphs and consequences of crowd funded games.
    The TP blog and podcast were fun :)

    Not getting the final DFA reward for like 4.5 years after backing was not a massive deal, seeing as I'd already consumed all the content of the course of it's creation. It is now nice having the BA box on the shelf.
    People got bent out of shape that they didn't get BA in 6 months as originally promised. It always puzzled me that seeing as Double Fine got so much cash that a $3m game would probably need a longer development time. In saying that, they were probably justified getting upset when the game was split - Tim really should have designed a $3m game rather than a $3m half-game and now has to find more $$$ to finish it. At least they figured the funding out and delivered to the backers instead of dropping the bundle and leaving it unfinished. Part I was released just on 2 years after the Kickstarter started. Part II 14 months later.
    On the other hand, people seem to have let Ron off the hook that his game ran 9 months late, taking about 2.25 years since the Kickstarter started (and I'm one of those people letting him off, but it needs pointing out!).

    I'm very happy that I supported both campaigns.
    They have given me two unique experiences from two of my favourite developers.

    Double Fine Adventure was pretty much a story of "be careful what you wish for, lest it come true". And we got a nice, modern adventure game out of it.
    Thimbleweed Park got a little more than they asked for and gave us pretty much what it said on the tin: A modern classic.
    ...though I have to admit, I now officially prefer my verbs and inventory off-screen with the fantastic art in both of those games!

    It would be great if Ron and Tim could keep bringing us more adventurey goodness. Their different approaches have both brought us classic games over the years and while they can't always be 100% flawless (someone, somewhere will always find fault in something) they both bring us outstanding experiences.
  • Avatar
    Rip on 06 Apr, 2017, 19:05…
    Very good review. I wasn't thrilled by the soundtrack (it's not very 80's and not very memorable), other than that I agree with everything. And yes, Ransom should be the hero of the next game. I would love if they updated graphic style though to something like MI2 with higher resolution. I don't get what's so cool with pixelated graphics.

    I'm so happy Ron didn't go Tim Shaffer way. I was bummed after Broken Age.
  • Avatar
    Remi on 06 Apr, 2017, 03:43…

    AlfredJ

    Wait, so Mojo got a review copy of this game?

    Ron does what Telltale/Double Fine don't.



    Funny you should mention it!

    TTG does give us review copies, but they sometimes require some pestering. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Double Fine- for those who needs reminding, Spaff, our founder doles those review codes out now. And as is the way he always rolls, he promises them to us… and then goes quiet. Thankfully the Patreon fund covers Jennifer's expenses for Psychonauts VR.

    Ronzo himself has always been good to The Mojo, but his current PR person, Emily (formerly of TTG), has ALWAYS helped us out. She got us the review copy and many other site worthy items
    over the year.

    And that is the whole Mojo review copies story!
  • Avatar
    Kolzig on 04 Apr, 2017, 05:04…
    Only two hours into the game myself and it's such fun. I'm getting the same feeling like when I first started playing The Secret of Monkey Island when I was about 9 years old!
  • Avatar
    AlfredJ on 31 Mar, 2017, 21:01…
    Wait, so Mojo got a review copy of this game?

    Ron does what Telltale/Double Fine don't.

    Only got to play about half an hour so far. It's great. I was looking forward to it, but man I didn't expect to get hit by that vibe so much. Can't wait to play more. Easy guess is that this will end up my game of the year when we're going to vote again in december.
  • Avatar
    popularsoup on 31 Mar, 2017, 11:43…
    I love it. They really did a good job of keeping the nostalgic feel but adding just enough polish to keep it from feeling antiquated.
  • Avatar
    manny_c44 on 30 Mar, 2017, 19:41…
    This one is a throwback to games before my time (Curse of Monkey Island was the first I played in the series), but now maybe I will have to give it a go...

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