Posted March 05, 2016
As someone who knows the comic book writer personally, and as a fan of the books, I was really happy to see this one come to GOG. Fortunately, it ended up being a point & click adventure, which is also one of my favourite video game genres. Unfortunately, though, it's not a great game. Not a bad one, by any means, but definitely not one of the best out there.
I knew nothing about OKAM as a studio, so I went completely blind into this. The art style is gorgeous, and even though Juan Cavia, one of the co-creators of the books and illustrator, only worked on some of the backgrounds, Santiago Villa (the other illustrator for the comics) apparently did a lot of work, so, at least in terms of art style everything looks like it should. As for the script, I figure Filipe Melo (the Portuguese writer who created Dog Mendonça & Pizzaboy with Juan Cavia) wasn't involved at all -- he ended up doing some dialogue revision, but that's it --, so it isn't exactly up to par with the writing in the books. Sadly, since the comics are very clever and funny, and the game ends up trying to bite more than it can chew, trying to be funny all of the time, but failing at doing that a lot of times.
It took me a bit under six hours to finish the game; it's a bit on the short side -- though, being an adventure game, I guess a 6-hour completion average isn't that bad? I mean, Fran Bow and Stasis took me 8-9 hours to finish, so, I was probably expecting it to be a bit longer. Also, you don't go to that many locations, and they're all pretty small with very easy puzzles throughout. The dialogue is OK, but I was a bit disappointed by the fact that a game based on a Portuguese franchise didn't even had PT-PT voice acting (listening to English speaking actors trying to pronounce Portuguese words is downright cringeworthy, especially when you spend three quarters of the game looking for Dog Mendonça, and *NO ONE* voicing a character in the game has a clue on how to properly say that last name). Though Filipe Melo did some sort of revision and proof reading of the dialogue, some parts of it still have English subtitles mixed with Portuguese ones, and there are a *LOT* of obvious "Google Translate" Portuguese words when it comes to hotspots you have to click on (for instance, in the motel, if you try going down to the basement -- "cave", in PT-PT -- you have an indication to go to the "porão" -- PT-BR).
It was nice to see my city properly and respectfully portrayed in a video game, though, I'm not going to hide that. No specific places in the game, per se (other than the iconic art déco train station of the Rossio), but Lisbon, in general, looks like it should look and feels like it should feel. The game manages to pull some good, refreshing jokes every once in a while, but after a bit it just starts getting tiresome by abusing the humour and keeping trying to be funny *all of the time*. Gameplay is just your standard point & click mechanics; you point, you click, you can examine/talk to/use/pick up stuff and/or people (there's no "double click an exit to skip walking animation" that most modern point & clickers have, too, and Eurico walks slowly as heck).
I loved the atmosphere, the art style and the characters are just like I remember them from the comics. Nice portrayal of Lisbon in a video game, too. Standard mechanics, poor translation, easy puzzles, short completion time, decent voice actors that unfortunately couldn't speak European Portuguese to save their lives -- even though they are supposed to be voicing Portuguese characters --, meh writing all around that tries to be too funny and 4th wall breaking for its own good (albeit a lot of the jokes do end up working, mind you) is what I get out of this game. I will replay it soon, to get a better understanding of it, trying different stuff, and all that.
I'd recommend this game if you like point & click adventures, if you like good hand drawn art, if you're a fan of the comics or if you somehow like Portugal and/or the city of Lisbon. For everyone else, if you're still remotely interested in the game for some reason, wait for a discount and get it then, as you probably won't find it worth €20.
I knew nothing about OKAM as a studio, so I went completely blind into this. The art style is gorgeous, and even though Juan Cavia, one of the co-creators of the books and illustrator, only worked on some of the backgrounds, Santiago Villa (the other illustrator for the comics) apparently did a lot of work, so, at least in terms of art style everything looks like it should. As for the script, I figure Filipe Melo (the Portuguese writer who created Dog Mendonça & Pizzaboy with Juan Cavia) wasn't involved at all -- he ended up doing some dialogue revision, but that's it --, so it isn't exactly up to par with the writing in the books. Sadly, since the comics are very clever and funny, and the game ends up trying to bite more than it can chew, trying to be funny all of the time, but failing at doing that a lot of times.
It took me a bit under six hours to finish the game; it's a bit on the short side -- though, being an adventure game, I guess a 6-hour completion average isn't that bad? I mean, Fran Bow and Stasis took me 8-9 hours to finish, so, I was probably expecting it to be a bit longer. Also, you don't go to that many locations, and they're all pretty small with very easy puzzles throughout. The dialogue is OK, but I was a bit disappointed by the fact that a game based on a Portuguese franchise didn't even had PT-PT voice acting (listening to English speaking actors trying to pronounce Portuguese words is downright cringeworthy, especially when you spend three quarters of the game looking for Dog Mendonça, and *NO ONE* voicing a character in the game has a clue on how to properly say that last name). Though Filipe Melo did some sort of revision and proof reading of the dialogue, some parts of it still have English subtitles mixed with Portuguese ones, and there are a *LOT* of obvious "Google Translate" Portuguese words when it comes to hotspots you have to click on (for instance, in the motel, if you try going down to the basement -- "cave", in PT-PT -- you have an indication to go to the "porão" -- PT-BR).
It was nice to see my city properly and respectfully portrayed in a video game, though, I'm not going to hide that. No specific places in the game, per se (other than the iconic art déco train station of the Rossio), but Lisbon, in general, looks like it should look and feels like it should feel. The game manages to pull some good, refreshing jokes every once in a while, but after a bit it just starts getting tiresome by abusing the humour and keeping trying to be funny *all of the time*. Gameplay is just your standard point & click mechanics; you point, you click, you can examine/talk to/use/pick up stuff and/or people (there's no "double click an exit to skip walking animation" that most modern point & clickers have, too, and Eurico walks slowly as heck).
I loved the atmosphere, the art style and the characters are just like I remember them from the comics. Nice portrayal of Lisbon in a video game, too. Standard mechanics, poor translation, easy puzzles, short completion time, decent voice actors that unfortunately couldn't speak European Portuguese to save their lives -- even though they are supposed to be voicing Portuguese characters --, meh writing all around that tries to be too funny and 4th wall breaking for its own good (albeit a lot of the jokes do end up working, mind you) is what I get out of this game. I will replay it soon, to get a better understanding of it, trying different stuff, and all that.
I'd recommend this game if you like point & click adventures, if you like good hand drawn art, if you're a fan of the comics or if you somehow like Portugal and/or the city of Lisbon. For everyone else, if you're still remotely interested in the game for some reason, wait for a discount and get it then, as you probably won't find it worth €20.
