Admittedly, I have never played a title from the Leisure Suit Larry series of games, although I have always chuckled and admired the comedic names the developers come up with. It’s difficult to believe that Leisure Suit Larry has been in the gaming industry for almost as long as I’ve been alive and started way back in 1987. Over thirty years later and I’m diving into my first-ever playthrough of a Leisure Suit Larry game. The games follow main character Larry Laffer, a balding, suit-wearing male in his 40s. The games generally revolve around Larry usually unsuccessfully attempting to seduce attractive young women.
Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry has actually been around for a couple of years now. Its first arrival was on PC back on 7th November 2018, Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 followed on 13th June 2019 and finally Xbox One on 15th September 2020. Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is an adventure game developed by German Studio Crazydream and published by Assemble Entertainment.
Now in the 21st century, Larry attempts to follow the world of online dating, to try to find his dream girl. The game starts off with Larry waking up in an almost pitch-black room, puzzled and unaware of what is occurring. Here you’ll navigate your way around the room and find clues on how to exit, eventually elevating yourself up out of a manhole onto the main road in front of a bar known as Lefty’s. Here Larry realises things have changed, and the area differs from what he is used to. When you chat with Lefty the odd-looking barman, he tells you that you have been missing for thirty years and that there has been a lot of change in that time period. Much to Larry’s confusion, as he hasn’t aged one bit in that thirty years.
In this scenario, you will be able to chat up some young lass at the bar, only for her to end up being an “influencer” in the online world. Obviously coming from 1987, Larry does not understand what she is banging on about and doesn’t even know what a mobile phone or the internet even is. You’ll soon learn that is a simple point and click adventure game with some very humorous and deep dialogue thrown into the mix. What really impressed me was how they have managed to set the scene of someone not living in the real world for thirty years and conversing about all the changes in that time. Larry’s sense of confusion and zest to learn what things are and how to adapt really sucked me into reading every drop of subtitles that appeared on screen. The voice acting is fantastic and you really get a feel for the characters on screen.
After a few bevvies at the bar Larry is desperate to empty his bladder, but the toilet door is locked. After a chat with the barman Lefty, you obtain the key to unlock the door. In order to progress through sectors of the game, you must use your point and click techniques to acquire usable items that may be useful in your next move or phase of gameplay. Once you’re in the loo, you find a Pi Phone which is an experimental prototype and must be returned to Bill “BJ” Jobs at Prune Headquarters.
Eventually you will head to Prune Headquarters to return the device. This is the moment I had the first real belly laugh at the game. The headquarters has been designed to look like a giant penis with a fountain imitating ejaculation by spurting out of the top. Once you enter the building Larry may as well be jizzing his pants as he meets Faith who is Mr Jobs beautiful assistant who states that she only dates men with a perfect score on the dating app Timber. You’ll quickly learn that because of copyright reasons, a lot of the correct names for social media platforms have been adapted to different names, which I found better in all honesty.
Now if I keep talking, I will reveal the entire plot of the game which I don’t want to ruin for you, but you get the general jism, I meant gist sorry. The next path for Larry here is to score some other chicks to get them to rate him on Timber and try to gain high scores in order to try to get in Faith’s knickers. This direction really is the meat of the game and will set you off on a mission of exploration, solving small puzzles and encountering new people and interacting. As you explore the world, you can pick up items, sexual ones amongst them. One minute you’ll be picking up some boring old shoelaces and the next a cheese flavoured dildo or an extra-large rubber Jonny. Do people still call them rubber jonnies anymore? Is that how you even spell it? Anyway, back to it.
I particularly enjoyed traversing from scene to scene and exploring and trying to find things. The controls seem a little awkward and fiddly at first, and I can only imagine this is because it was originally designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind. I had to figure the control system out myself and could have done with a little sense of direction at the beginning to simplify what was happening. I did like the fact that you could go back to a scene you saw at the very beginning and new items and interactive elements would appear. It was brilliant how they implemented the need to revisit certain areas of interest. Some items can be combined to make another item and occasionally this will require some thought and decision making to see if they are compatible items to gel together. It is really a simple process of dragging the two items together, and it is satisfying when something works.
It was great using the Timber app to find dating experiences whilst using Instacrap to show off other moments like romance, for instance. There are some unlockable pictures here and one that made me properly belly laugh was the Screwnicorn. Bet you didn’t know this represents two raging lesbians with dildos strapped to their heads whilst they crawl around on all fours attempting to penetrate each other. Well, now you know! As you scroll through Timber, you’ll get names popping up such as Anita Dickinme with her age and a caption. I was getting an aura of the South Park titles whilst playing this and I was mesmerised at how unique the game really was and how intrigued I was to see what I could stumble on next.
The most impressive feat of Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry was the incredible artwork. I imagine as it’s all cartoon that every scene has been hand drawn and displayed in high resolution on Xbox One X. Whether it was displaying in 4k resolution I am unsure but it appeared to be. It has vivid bright colours and really makes you feel like you’re playing a real-life cartoon as you work through the game. I smashed a solid 10 hours into the game in one day, partly through console streaming on Xbox One and then a full session through the night and it hooked me. I haven’t completely finished the game as yet, but have been warned there is a good 15-20 hours gameplay, which is a fair amount for a title of this calibre. Whilst it is a linear on the beaten track experience it offers a constant projection of tasks to do and dialogue is genuinely interesting and addictive to read and take in. I have had an absolute blast with Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry and I would highly recommend it to anyone who would love a casual point and click adventure game full of sexual innuendos and laugh out loud moments. It is genuinely up there as one of the best indie titles I have played in 2020!
REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Microsoft Xbox One code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.
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Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry Review
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Gameplay - 8/10
8/10
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Graphics - 9/10
9/10
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Sound - 8/10
8/10
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Replay Value - 7/10
7/10
User Review
( votes)Overall
Summary
Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry, offers a fantastically beautiful artistic point and click adventure game full of sexual innuendos and laugh out loud moments. One of the best indies I’ve played in 2020.
Pros
- The art is absolutely stunning.
- The dialogue and voice acting is superb.
- Plenty to do to keep you engaged and enticed.
Cons
- Controls can be fiddly at first.
- Backtracking and revisiting scenes could get tedious to some.