Fright of the Bumblebees continues to evolve Telltale Games' formula
for small doses of funny adventure gaming, and is my favorite
production by them yet. Part of it is my preexisting affection for the
Wallace and Gromit characters themselves, which isn't quite as true for
Strong Bad or Sam and Max (although I've come to be a big fan of the
latter). The world is just so charming, from Wallace's innocent
buffoonery despite his technical genius to the way Gromit silently puts
up with everything. The other people who live in town aren't as
immediately likable and probably talk a bit too much, but they did a
good job of growing the setting a little bit. It's not as laugh out
loud funny as other stuff but it's just pleasant to experience.
There are some small gameplay improvements, like finally the ability to
walk around using the mouse keys, making getting around less of a
monotonous click fest. The puzzles are mostly intuitive without being
too easy, although there are a few moments where you're supposed to
talk to a person you already have to activate something when there was
no indication you should. You bounce back and forth between the two
main characters, and the whole thing plays out feeling like one of the
old animated shorts. The final sequence is the best one I've seen from
the company, involving a high speed chase using one of their elaborate,
gadget-filled vehicles. I thought it was the perfect length, giving me
enough content that I felt satisfied without wearing out it's welcome.
I await the second episode in May.
