The Idiot's Tale

So my brother and I were going to have this big, multi-week adventure game marathon -- a Click-a-Palooza '24 -- and we have tried this several times before. And you know what usually happens right at the enthusiastic beginning? Yours truly inadvertently torpedoes the whole thing by picking a game that's so moldy, broken, or tiresome that we get sick of adventures for a while. And so it almost was this year! I chose Return of the Obra Dinn for our opener because we both liked The Case of the Golden Idol so much, thinking it was more of the same. And guess what: We were both bored to tears by that widely lauded, sepia-toned ship-searcher! (We especially didn't enjoy being jerked around by that impertinent magic compass or playin' Match 'Em with sixty-odd highly similar sailor faces.) Begorrah, It was about to happen again!

We had to try and save Click-a-Palooza '24 with some colorful, fun, more traditional entry -- so we dropped Obra Dinn cold went with The Idiot's Tale, which ended up being the stout shot in the arm our two-person event needed! This is probably one of the most solidly designed, transparently interfaced adventures on Steam; you don't need instructions to immediately jump right in and start gathering random items. The puzzles are chewy and might stump you for a bit -- they're designed to heat up the moon logic sectors of your brain, after all -- yet nowhere are they cruel or stupid. But funny, yes, and referential to oldish Internet culture without quite going overboard. We have the de rigueur trollish protagonist, a stick man no less; everyone else in Dodotry is dumb and the game world is a delightfully schizophrenic mess. The Idiot's Tale is about as traditional as a new adventure game gets, while still possessing a fair number puzzles that you haven't quite seen before (I've played a lot of these games).

That's why I talked about Obra Dinn so much at the beginning: The Idiot's Tale is a perfect remedy to frustration with the underwhelmingly experimental, the newfangled that falls short of fanging your novelty centers. If you find yourself longing for something old-but-better-than-old (remember those game blocks and ruined saves?) this humble-looking stick guy adventure should be your first pick!

(Still a little disappointed I couldn't kill the last evil wizard.)

The game is pretty funny. I had trouble figuring out some of the puzzles but thankfully there's a built-in hint system if you get stuck.

The Idiot's Tale - ★★★★☆

"The Idiot's Tale" is a fun point-and-click adventure that offers a unique blend of humor, creativity, and challenging puzzles.

The game's humor is the biggest highlight. The witty dialogue and absurd situations had me chuckling throughout my playthrough. And the game's distinctive art style perfectly reflects its offbeat story. The hand-drawn characters and environments exude charm and personality, enhancing the overall immersion.

"The Idiot's Tale" does stumble in terms of pacing at times. There were moments when the narrative felt slightly disjointed. And while many puzzles are cleverly designed and provide a sense of accomplishment when solved, there were instances where the difficulty spiked, leaving me scratching my head for longer than I'd like. A slightly more balanced difficulty curve would have made the gameplay experience smoother and less frustrating.

Overall, "The Idiot's Tale" is a charming and imaginative point-and-click adventure that offers a fresh take on the genre. With its distinctive art style, humorous writing, and brain-teasing puzzles, it's a must-play for fans of the genre who are looking for a dose of whimsy in their gaming experience.

This is a hilarious throwback point-and-click game. It's clearly spoofing King's Quest but the sense of humor is much closer to LucasArts games. I definitely recommend this if you're looking for a hefty adventure game with a pretty dense puzzle tree.

This game had me smiling, even when I couldn't figure out the puzzle. The plot and theme is pretty clever, and the "meta" scene near the cliff was pretty fun. There are plenty of hints in case you get stuck, which is good, because the solution is not always obvious, and may involve something you looked at over an hour ago. One of the first items I picked up was among the last I needed.

Don't forget to (manually) save. This game doesn't seem to have an autosave system. It's not super long, either, so not a huge deal.

An amusing Pn'C that's going to be too old-school for some, because a few puzzles are the epitome of nonsensical.

Either that or they rely too much on private jokes and can only be understood if one was born in the makers' village, and around the same years. They are still doable, of course, if you try everything on everything,
More problematic is the integrated help, which is a disorganised mess resulting in unwanted spoilers when it should simply explain the private jokes. Avoid.

Apart from that, the gameplay is pretty good, and the mechanics surprisingly more sophisticated than the presentation had me expect.

Even after reading really positive reviews on my favourite adventure game review sites, I still wasn't convinced to try it looking at such awkward style graphic in-game screens. Well I'm happy that I finally changed my mind.

The game is great in so many aspects: clever writing, good humor and almost perfectly balanced level of puzzle difficulty, simple but comfy interface, smart hint system and even those graphics started looking so much better when playing.

Instant classic, will be remembered!

Do you like point-and-click adventure games? Do you like games that are

- logical
- funny
- a joy to play

If so, GET THIS GAME! This game is 100% proof that graphics don't matter in an adventure game. This game is very well thought out by designers/devs who clearly have a passion for point-and-click adventure games, and have put in a ton of effort/love into this game. Don't let the graphics or odd trailer fool you, this game is great. Like all good adventure games, it has great dialogue, item descriptions, puzzles, in-game hint system, forth-wall-breaking-self-humour, etc etc.

I really wish this game had more reviews so it would get more exposure on Steam. This game is a gem. Hopefully one day it will get this exposure it deserves.

Don't be fooled by the wonky Flash cartoon graphics: Idiot's Tale is a hilarious, well written adventure with good puzzles AND a good interface. It's rare that I come across a game which tickles my sense of humor the way this game does.
Although the puzzles can be confusing (as with many adventure games) you won't necessarily need Google; There is a built-in Hints System, and you can ask for progressively more specific tips if the vague hints aren't enough.
The designers of the game embraced the wonky flash cartoon look, but I still get the sense that they put in the effort to make the style look good. They did a lot of work to make the game appear hastily made, if that makes any sense.
Definitely worthwhile if you're a fan of classic point-n-click games.

THIS IS A GREAT GAME!

Do you love telltale games? Did you love playing games like Monkey island? Do you miss those old FLASH Games? Then I bet you'll love this one. Idiots tale is a great story driven point and click adventure. I downloaded it on Sunday afternoon and beat it Monday morning by 2 am. the Artwork is consistent throughout and does a great job of drawing you in. The Dialog had me smiling and even laughing throughout the whole game (when I wasn't yelling at my computer because a puzzle was stumping me) Speaking of the puzzles they all fit a logical order so even if they stump you for awhile once you solve it, it's always satisfying. I should say this game doesn't take itself too seriously or even a little serious for that matter, so if you are looking for the next 'elder scrolls' keep looking but if you are looking for a fun game that will have you smiling at its stupidness for hours on end you can't beat this one. I'm excited to play it again to look for more hidden easter eggs that the creative shoved throughout the game, showing how much they themselves, love games. That love can clearly be seen in this Game.

10/10 would - and will - play again!