Have you’ve ever fancied saving an entire kingdom as one of the Knights of the Round Table? Not just any Knight, but King Arthur's very own right hand man? The great brave warrior known throughout history as one of the worlds best. The noble Knight Lancelot!
Well I’m sorry, you’ve come to the wrong party.
Lancelot's Hangover comes from first time Belgian developer Jean-Baptise de Clerfayt. If Monty Python ever made a Point and Click adventure game, they’d make this one. Let’s just tick the check list shall we. Blasphemy: Check. Nudity: Check. Ridiculousness Overload: Check. Hilarity: Check. We’re not here to conquer the world with stone faced knights of the round table. We’re here to ParrrtTayy!! And who better than our lad Lancelot. Turns out, against all odds, no one better.
If you’re familiar with the legend of Lancelot you’ll be mighty surprised to find our Lancelot here is a bit of a tool. God is on the lookout for the Holy Grail and needs someone to go fetch it for him, anyone, except Lancelot, But after all His options have been exhausted and using the power of ‘asking a lot until the point of utter annoyance’ we convince Godit's truly our chosen mission. We don't want the Grail just to appease God though but because it’s magical powers help us not only live longer, but gives us the power of allure, which in turn gets us the girls. This is NOT Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. In place of razor sharp blades and Faith, are instead tourists, rapping bears and bloody foreigners. If you have a weak stomach and are easily offended by religious blasphemy, do NOT play Lancelot's Hangover. The subtitle will give you a clue. The full title of the game is Lancelot's Hangover: The Quest for the Holy Booze.
Lancelot's Hangover is a ridiculous game, and an entertaining one with real puzzles and dialogue that could shock the knickers off a Nun. As we run maniacally across France there are half a dozen locations to visit including a mystical forest complete with unwinnable maze (a la Monkey Island), a French village with it's token Witch, and the brilliant RedemptionLand, a take on the holier than though DisneyLand. Each location has some quirky personalities to meet. The Witch located in the sleepy (yet violently mobbish) French town is dazzlingly rotten. The guy tied to the tree is quintessential Monty Python and the dance/rap duo of Bear and Mime located in a more metropolitan city should have their own spin off.
Lancelot himself is what you'd expect if you've gotten this far in the review. He's an incompetent fool, in bright speedos. What can be described in the current climate as 'A Lad'. He only has eyes on getting with the girls and, well, that's it, and he'll cross all sorts of barriers to do it.
What looks on the surface as rushed, almost childlike art, is much more imaginative and calculated. The slapdash design of the entire game gives it that drunken, student feel which suits it to a T. If it’d been a more polished look, I think it might have not have got away with it. Add in the music which is mainly classical, with a hint of trip hop here and there, and it blends together nicely. One of my favourite sections is when the use of drugs need to move the story on, it all comes together in music, art and story.
Dialogue throughout is pretty top notch and if anything, some of it goes on a little too much. Happily though, just clicking the mouse skips to the next line. Although the game took me about 2 and a half hours, I did zoom through it, skipping a lot of dialogue. Lancelot rushes around the screen pretty fast so if you have an idea of what to do, regardless if you need to visit 2 or 3 different locations to solve a puzzle, it can be done super quick. We can hold quite a bit of inventory some of which is used in inventive ways. We have to think like this plank does to move the story on. On the whole it's all inventory based puzzles and pretty even, however one or two puzzles right towards the end really didn’t make sense to me too, but apart from that it was plain sailing throughout. Not too hard, not too easy, but very, very provocative.
The save feature in the game was a bit of a pain. There’s a large cog in the bottom right that you sometimes can’t help but click due to where it is on the screen, it gets in the way a bit. Sometimes I'd want to exit screen right but ended up clicking it. More than twice did this happen and it became a little annoying.
If you’re looking for an heroic pursuit throughout Europe then this isn’t for you. If you’re a fan of the point and click games, love a bit of Monty Python and also don't get offended easily then I think you'd have a great time.
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Get your copy of Lancelot's Hangover on Steam.
Michael
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