Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town – Impressions (PC)
Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town is a classic point-and-click adventure in the vein of Monkey Island. Willy is aware that it is the tenth anniversary of his father’s disappearance when a mysterious letter shows up from the past. Willy recognizes the aspects of the letter and decides that he would go on an adventure to Bone Town in search of his long-lost father.
Set against the backdrop of a modern pirate adventure, Willy will go on a journey he’ll never forget.
Gameplay is simple as all point-and-click games are. A brief tutorial will show you how to see what items you can interact with and then how to interact with them. The last thing you’ll learn from the incredibly brief tutorial is how to look through and ultimately combine your items that you are carrying around. You’ll need to explore everything and get creative as you look for ways to solve the puzzles and advance the story and Willy’s adventure.
From the get-go, Willy is contradictive and annoying as hell. For example, looking at the microwave will have him talking about needing something to cook, but go to the refrigerator and he’ll tell you that he doesn’t want any food because he just ate. There’s a lot of things that you’ll look at that have no purpose other than wasting your time. It’s no fun when you feel like a game is wasting your time and, unfortunately, from the start that’s how this game feels. They plant a key in the first room that he’ll immediately tell you that you can’t use because it’s too early and… where’s the fun in that? Where’s the fun? Not in that gag. Puzzles take way too long to figure out and simple answers that would work are dismissed for much harder ways of moving on to the next segment of the game. Once you finally get out of Willy’s house the game becomes more interesting, but the puzzles still seem almost too well thought out at times.
The visuals are fun and cartoony – everything has this cute twisted way of existing in the world. Doors aren’t completely square; mirrors may be rounded in areas and straight on other ends. It has a Wonderland feel to it, for sure.
The story is where the game actually shines. Willy’s journey through the pirate-based levels are exciting and you’ll genuinely care about whether or not he does indeed find his long-lost father.
If you really are in desperate need to play through a point-and-click adventure, you might have some fun with Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town. Otherwise, it’s really hard to recommend this game to anyone that isn’t looking for some of that old Lucas Arts nostalgia.
*Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town was given to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*
