Geekscape Games Reviews Da New Guys: Day of the Jackass
A point and click adventure game about wrestling? Why the hell not!?!
Wadjet Eye Games and Icebox Studios have decided that their latest game, Da New Guys: Day of the Jackass can provide a necessary can of whoop ass to the genre and to that I say “HELL YEAH!”
With any PC point and click adventure game, the right mix of story, puzzles and atmosphere of the setting of the game is what separates the decent ones from the really great ones. Da New Guys starts off with a great opening. From the main menu’s music having a similar sound as Eye of the Tiger to the very first puzzle, you get a sense that you are in for one hell of a good time. After a brief opening puzzle, you learn that your teammate, Brain, has been kidnapped while trying to escape an angry mob of wrestlers at your apartment calling your win of the title belt a sham. They demand that Brain should give it up to one of them. Playing as the other two teammates, The Defender (he gets upset when you don’t add the The when saying his name) and Simon, you must figure out who would want to kidnap Brain and rescue him.
The first half of Da New Guys suffers from a lack of engagement when you’re stuck just going back and forth between the same areas ad nauseum. I was quite frustrated by how many times I had to travel to one area to get or do a specific thing, only to have to travel back to my previous area to do another so many times in a row. Repeated actions without changing up the routine just a little is a good way to make someone bored with your game.
I also never found the puzzles too hard but there are some that need a little more thought to grasp the answers to. Try not to over think most of the puzzles. You would be surprised at how simple the solution usually is. I am trained for the crazy solutions due to games like the Monkey Island games and Maniac Mansion so it was hard for me to think “simple” enough when presented with a puzzle. Some may see an issue with simple solutions in a point and click adventure and that is understandable. I was okay with the simplistic nature of some of the puzzles. It let me enjoy the story more.
I do have to say that I was ready to give up on Da New Guys after the halfway point. Issues with the pacing, compiled with the dull voice acting, which at times sounded like either the mixing was bad or the voice actors were too close to the mics, had my mouse hovering over the “quit” button. Then something amazing happened that I never would had expected in a point and click adventure game: a top down point of view stealth mission! Okay, I know that doesn’t sound like something that should be mind-blowing but to me it was. Between the top down view stealth and puzzle solving, this was a great change of pace for the point and click adventure genre. Da New Guys even throws in a crazy car chase scene and let’s the player interact in a really inventive way that I’ve never seen yet. I don’t want to ruin it but it involves guns. Good on you Icebox Studios!
Little things like the voice acting, some of the character designs not fitting right with certain things, a slow beginning to the game and not being able to change the resolution hurts Da New Guys a little and may be hard for people to want to give it a shot. If you can manage to stick it out past the first half of the game, I promise Da New Guys will be a treat for anyone who likes point and click adventure games and wants something new in the genre that is a refreshing treat.
