Hollywood Monsters

Get ready for some of that classic graphic adventure game fun with 1997s Hollywood Monsters by Pendulo Studios. Take control of a pair of reporters who investigate a murder in a world where the classic Golden Age monsters are just regular working Joes, they’re still monsters but they lead normal lives around the films, it’s weird but it works y’know?

Gameplay

This baby can fit so much point and click gameplay in it. As a graphic adventure game the primary idea is that you travel around the carious scenes and collect items, talk to non playable characters and solve puzzles; click as much as you can, on everything! Much like The Secret of Monkey Island, there is a small menu at the bottom of the screen that gives you a series of options in what you are physically able to do.

Interestingly, this title features a nonlinear progression, there is no death or anything like that, and you can just travel to any place at any time. In typical fashion of these titles, you collect a lot of items which will help you progress through the story, but it also retains that amusing penchant for having timed actions, repeating the same action multiple times to get a different response as well as red herrings and word play.

Setting and Story

Set in an alternate history where Golden Age monsters are normal people with everyday lives. Within this world, Frankenstein’s monster is murdered and it’s up to investigative reporters Sue Bergman and later, Ron Ashman. There involves a tremendous amount of travelling as you are required to visit multiple locations but it isn’t cumbersome or annoying in any way, it’s actually quite fun.

You must solve the puzzles and reveal what happened to Frankenstein’s monster all while helping whoever else you can along the way. There are some interesting satirical takes on real world ideas within the game that I found refreshing and amusing.

Visual Style

The games backgrounds and set pieces are actually really quite good, art and shading is well done and it’s never difficult to see what every item on screen with clarity and detail. The only part that raises an eyebrow is the character models, as from a distance they are perfectly fine, they do a serviceable job but when up close they lack a lot of detail.

Although you are still able to see facial expressions and everyone looks different enough that people’s uniqueness is apparent, there is still an MS Paint style look to a lot of their profiles that can sometimes seem a little silly as it breaks the illusion a smidge. After a while you get used to it and stop evening noticing so it’s not a huge deal.

Pros

• Great artwork
• Brilliant story

Cons

• Poor character models