PC Gamer: Day Of The Tentacle is remastered

Adventure games are a common staple of the current gaming ecosystem, however they weren't always as fleshed out as they used to be. In the early days of gaming, adventure games were disjointed messes that punished the player for attempting to solve it's problems, until "Maniac Mansion" was released. "Maniac Mansion" was a satirical take on goofy horror movies such as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," with a non-linear plot about a teenager rescuing his girlfriend from a mad scientist possessed by a meteor. The game was hailed by critics and fans alike for its well-written characters and how it made a compelling case for video games as an art form. However, when its sequel, "Day Of The Tentacle" was released, it completely blew it out of the water. Recently the game got a re-mastered release, and so I wanted to take a look at what made this game such a genre bender.

"Day Of The Tentacle" was directed, produced, and written by Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer, who later created hits such as "Grim Fandango," "Broken Age," and my favorite, "Psychonauts." After the positive reception to the announcement of the "Grim Fandango" remake, Schafer decided to pursue acquiring the license to "Day Of The Tentacle" from its original developer and publisher, Lucasarts, who had recently been bought by Disney. Luckily, most executives Schafer talked to had fond memories of playing the game, and were happy to assist with the rights acquisition. The game assets were then redrawn from the original design documents, the music was recreated, and the old assets were also imported so that you can switch between the old graphics, music and gameplay controls with the press of a button.

"Day Of The Tentacle" stars one of the playable characters, Bernard Bernoulli, along with his two friends, Hoagie and Laverne. Following the horror movie cliché based story of the first game, the three main characters all attempt to stop a sentient tentacle from taking over the world by navigating the motel belonging to the Edison family of the first game, with each character having been sent to a different time periods. While Hoagie tries to build a battery with the help of the founding fathers, Bernard is attempting to fix the time machine, and Laverne tries to get power for her time machine while sneaking around a future where tentacles rule the world. The new control scheme is much more efficient than the old SCUMM model, and the game looks modern without losing the original style of the game. The only issue is the lack of a option to quickly move between rooms of the motel, and I've heard some people say they feel seeing the low framerate animations on newer machines to be a bit jarring.

"Day Of The Tentacle" Remastered is a great recreation of the original, and is a great way to experience the classic game that helped bring gaming where it is today.

Theo Vlahogiannis is a 16-year-old Rutherford resident who enjoys playing unusual and creative games on a PC and is very interested in how they came to be. He hopes to eventually become an independent video game developer