Day of the Tentacle Remaster (PS4)

Geoffrey Wright | March 30, 2016 | Review | No Comments

For anyone who played the point and click games from the mid 90’s will know how important the Day of the Tentacle was for the genre. It moved the entire genre forward and even after 23 years since the original release, it holds a very special place in my gaming memories. But, how does the remaster hold up against the original? Does it still contain the same charm that made me fall in love with it back then? Only time will tell!

Day of the Tentacle (Dott) follows Bernard Bernoulli, Hoagie and Laverne as they attempt to stop the evil Purple Tentacle from taking over the world. Your adventure will take you to the distance past, the far future and the present day. By using time to your advantage you goal is to solve puzzles to buy a 2 million pound diamond that will transport you to yesterday to stop the uprising of the Purple tentacle. You could say that it is going to be a busy day for our three young heroes.

Dott is by far one of the easier point and click adventures I have player. The goals are very simple and do not take much thinking to solve and as soon as you work out that you can modify time to progress the plot, it will all fall into place (remember, wine can turn into vinegar if you leave it long enough – wink, wink). You can get to points in the game where you hit a brick wall but it is designed to allow multiple routes to a single goal. This adventure is a real case of doing a million other task before finishing the one you originally started with.

The main thing to remember is that this came out at a time when the Internet was not a common thing to have access too. If you complete a quick Google search you will find a guide to finish dott in a very short time. At the time of original release though your only real way to solve a puzzle was to keep trying all options or by discussing it with friends. This is what I loved about this genre when I was younger.

This is my first time with Dott for a long time but everything that I loved about it is still there – the bright graphics, the insane camera angles and the unfortunately script. It’s a blast from the past!

The gameplay has not been messed with at all to be honest. The only thing that has been updated is that all the action buttons along the bottom have beem removed and assigned to the square button – it is all very neat and tidy. You still move around and interact with a cross hair but this is something that i would not want to change – it is a point and click adventure after all.
The main items that have been heavily remastered are the graphics and sounds. The backgrounds and models have all been brought to the 21st century but still keep the glorious cartoon feel in tack. A quick press of the touch pad switches you to the original graphic and it is amazing how far gaming has come in 23 years ( yes that long!). It only feels like yesterday i was playing this on an old 15″ CRT monitor in my bedroom basking in the glorious midi soundtrack.

Dott is a great way to relive old times. It is also a great education to newer gamers to see where we have come from and how far we have advanced in telling a story through the medium of video games. The characters are comical, it is an simple, entertaining script that is easy to follow and is just a joy to play.
This is a game that I would recommend this to any fans of old 90’s adventure games and to anyone wanting to play a slice of gaming history. Long live the Purple Tentacle!