PC Reviews

A foul wind, heavy with the fetid stench of a trillion tons of human refuse, blows across a desolate cityscape. Eternity stares into your cold, robotic eyes, as a never-ending obstacle course stretches out before your dirt-stained, rusted treads. And it only gets worse from there.

The most surprising thing about Telltale Games’ latest episodic adventure is that you quickly forget it’s from an American developer. That’s no small feat when dealing with something as quintessentially British as Wallace and Gromit, nor is that – for the most part – it feels right.

Although we’re certainly a fan of the plasticine pair of Wallace and Gromit, we have to concede that our review of the first episode was spot-on. While the game was a great adventure, the humour evident in the Wallace & Gromit films and Telltale’s other games was lacking.

After the bland trip to The Last Resort, Muzzled is a much needed return to form for the Wallace & Gromit point-and-click episodes. It’s by far the closest the series has got to nailing the spirit of the original animations, with a proper villain, lots of fun contraptions, and a stronger level of puzzles.

That makes three out of four sub-par releases for Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures. They’ve felt like Telltale’s red-haired stepchild over the course of their short run. Sadly this, the finale, is easily the worst.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate is like a cheeseburger. Okay. Bear with us. There’s nothing clever about it; no technical genius; and certainly nothing especially well-crafted. It’s a game you’ll blaze through in under four hours, with no multiplayer modes to bring you back for more.

It’s games like this that make Relic one of the best PC developers operating today. When I reviewed the outstanding Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, my chief criticism of the campaign was the excessive repetition of simple “fight from point A to point B, then fight a boss” missions.