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Studio: |
Sierra
On-Line |
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Designer(s): |
Al
Lowe |
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Part of series: |
Leisure
Suit Larry |
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Release: |
June 15, 1993 |
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Main credits: |
Lead programmer: Juan Carlos Escobar |
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Useful links: |
Complete playthrough, parts
1-7 (7 hours 36 mins.) |
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Basic Overview
To Al’s credit, he must
have understood and taken to heart all the problems connected to Leisure Suit
Larry’s crossing over to the age of the point-and-click interface, and if you
play all the titles in chronological order, Larry 6 gives a very clear impression of a lesson learned. First
of all, Al decided to return to the series’ roots in that he completely
stripped the next game of anything even remotely resembling a plotline — from
now on, it would all be strictly about Larry’s attempts to get laid within the
confines of a certain mini-universe, precisely the way it was in the Land Of The Lounge Lizards. While, in
theory, this was not necessarily a perfect decision — after all, there was
nothing wrong with the plot elements in Larry
2 or 3 — in practice, if you
were given the choice between a plot-based Larry game like Larry 5
and a Larry game that refused to
tell a story on principle, the choice would be obvious. By the early 1990s,
adventure games had evolved, demanding better and deeper developed storyboards,
and Al, a natural joker but not such a natural storyteller, clearly had to
struggle to satisfy those demands (remember that Al’s funniest story-driven
game, Freddy Pharkas, actually
required collaboration with Josh Mandel to get off the ground). So if you
cannot come up with the idea of a great adventure for Larry Laffer, better
not let have Larry Laffer experience any adventure at all — other than the
greatest adventure of them all, that is (you know what I mean). Second, with Sierra gradually learning to
adapt to the strategies and aesthetics of the point-and-click universe, a lot
more care was invested into the overall design of the game — especially now
that it was completely plot-free and left everybody’s hands untied for
deepening and broadening the little closed open world of Larry Laffer.
Graphics, music, puzzle design, depth of interaction, optional choices,
Easter eggs: Larry 6 has improved
on the quantity and quality of all these aspects, and on top of that, it was
the first Larry game to finally endorse voice acting. What was not to like?
Clearly, it was a return to formula, and, in fact, an iron endorsement of
said formula for eternity; but as long as the formula could come in fresher
and brighter colors with each new game, it was sure to find a base for
support, at least among the hormonally active segment of the gamer population
(and that’s, like, approximately 150% of it). Even if the overall results did not
particularly amaze critics and fans at the time — it would be fairly
difficult to make as much of a sensation of Leisure Suit Larry in 1993 as it made in 1987 — the game still
had a solid commercial showing (which ultimately guaranteed the future of a Larry 7), and, in retrospect, is
frequently seen in retro-reviews and top lists as one of the best entries in
the entire franchise, beaten out only by the first game (for reasons of
historical importance, because how could the first game not be the best game?)
or by the last one (for reasons of a more technical nature, because how could
the latest game not be the best game?). Certainly it is the first Larry game
which — potential offensiveness and issues of «misogyny» aside — could be
fully palatable for a modern audience, given its halfway decent graphical
resolution, voice acting, and near-total independence from the previous
titles in the series. Whether it is the perfect and quintessential envisagement of the iconic character of Larry Laffer is another, more questionable matter of a more philosophical nature (and few of Sierra’s franchises, of course, raise as many philosophical discussions as Leisure Suit Larry). In any case, One thing is certain: unlike Larry 5, Larry 6 is definitely a game I would enjoy to write about, so let’s just get to it. |
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Content evaluation |
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As I already wrote, Larry 6 has none, though I guess this
is not entirely true if you embrace a very literal understanding of the term
«plotline». At the beginning of the game, our old friend Larry Laffer —
probably once again suffering from acute amnesia, since no details of his
eventful past ever resurface during the game — is found loitering around the
beach, where he is chosen to take part in a TV game show and rewarded with a
week-long stay at the lush tropical health spa of «La Costa Lotta» (big hello
from Leisure Suit Larry 2, but one
thing you gotta get ready for is Al mercilessly rehashing motifs from older
games). Once over there, our hero quickly
learns that he can check in any time he likes, but he can never leave — at
least not until he has The story is thus laid out in a hierarchic
fashion: to get to the Top Girl, you first have to go through a series of
Everyday Girls, each of whom eventually leaves you sexually dissatisfied but
with a little special «gift», all of which you then have to bring back to the
Top Girl in order to win her respect and have her accept you as her spiritual
and, ultimately, physical guru. This is, indeed, the exact same formula that
had been used by Al in the first (and, with a few extra twists, in the third)
game, except that this time around, you can actually get to Shamara’s
penthouse very early on in the game (Eve, the Top Girl of Larry 1, could not have been found
until almost every other puzzle had been solved), meaning that your final
goal can be clearly defined right from the start, so that the game does not
produce such an «aimless» feeling as its predecessors. Predictably, all of your game time will
be spent roaming the (rather vast) expanse of La Costa Lotta in an open world
manner: you can tackle the Everyday Girls in almost any order you like, but
the Top Girl shall remain out of your reach until you properly go through all
of them. Along the way, Larry will also bump into various other stereotypical
characters, such as the Strong Sexy Black Lifeguard, the Wimpy Gay Towel
Attendant, the Stupid And Pervy Security Guard, and, of course, Ken Williams
and Al Lowe themselves (don’t let the name «Art» for the latter fool you —
the appearance is unmistakable). But, as befits the spirit of the franchise,
male presence throughout is strictly limited compared to female one: as the
narrator admonishes our protagonist during an unfortunately embarrassing move
in the male shower, "why are you looking at naked men? you are supposed
to be looking at naked women!" It goes without saying that you are not
going to remember much of the «story»; however, you may well be left with
memories of some of the characters, because the sarcastic, satirical vibe
that Al had in him from the start had only strengthened and expanded with
time, and this time around, Larry’s «victims» are written much more sharply
and in juicier detail than ever before. There is a funny stereotype of a
Latin American immigrant ("you must enjoy working with children?" —
"no, making children much more
to my liking!"), a super-sporty girl suffering from «bungee addiction»,
a health-crazy socialite who enjoys bathing in yak’s milk ("besides, the
yaks seem to really enjoy seeing me naked!"), a dominatrix who "got
more leather for you than you know what to do with", a sequin-dressed
Southern gal who "ain’ no goddam blues singer, am country thru’ and
thru’ and proud of it"... and, well, others. Modern sensitivity will probably be
ticked by some of the ridiculed clichés, and particularly by the
portrayal of a trans character — or, more accurately, the portrayal of
Larry’s reaction when he learns that the character is trans — but this is
where a smart person will just have to keep in mind the age of the game. In
general, however, the one simple thing that you have to remember about Al
Lowe is that he always tries to be funny, never hateful; and, additionally,
that both male and female stereotypes that he makes constant fun of are every
bit as real in life as non-stereotypes (but you do not even have to play a Larry game to be aware of that). If
there is a true downside to Al’s
humor, it is that with each new game in the series it tends to go a little
deeper down the toilet (almost literally so) — episodes such as Larry’s
subjection to Rose’s "High Colonic Treatment", or all the incessant
dick jokes, are something that the game could probably live without and still
be hilarious, as the earliest, more cautious and generally self-censoring,
games in the series prove all too well. On the other hand, with the help of the
character of Shamara Payne Al delivers probably the most vicious and
brilliantly worded destruction of the «New Age philosophy» type that I have
ever seen in a video game — I have no idea which particular spiritual leader
pissed in Al Lowe’s coffee around 1992, but it must have been a big one,
given the sheer amount of ridiculously pseudo-mystical dialog he wrote for
his character. Perhaps the underlying idea — that Shamara’s one-woman journey
toward Spiritual Enlightenment is really just a side effect of her sexual
frustration — is rather predictably cheap, but hey, you have to consider it
in light of the general philosophy of Leisure
Suit Larry, which is, of course, that «nothing is real but the sex», and
that the sooner all of us, men and women alike, give in to our animal urges,
the closer we are to achieving true bliss. That one true bliss you always
achieve at the end of a Leisure Suit
Larry game, that is. (Except for Larry
5, but this is precisely why that one was such an affront to the
franchise!). |
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Enough philosophizing, though, let us rather
discuss the puzzle design. First, the game is smart enough to retain what was
good about the re-design of Larry 5
— namely, the impossibility of getting stuck and the lack of death scenes
requiring the player to restore a game — and correct it to better match the
classic Sierra spirit. This means that death scenes are back with a glorious
vengeance — the health spa of La Costa Lotta packs more dangers to your
health than a trip to the Central African Republic — but after each of these you have the additional option to «Try
again», reverting you to the precise location at which you were in that game
before taking that fatal, fatal step (such as unzipping in front of Gary the
Towel Attendant!). I may be wrong, but I think that Larry 6 was the first Sierra game to implement that trivial, but
efficient mechanics, ensuring that you can leisurely explore all the risky
options without crossing your fingers or having to press the Save button
every five seconds. Second, the challenges this time are real, compared to the laughable lack
of difficulty in progressing through Larry
5 — but very rarely are they tough;
completing the game is more a matter of meticulously exploring your
surroundings, picking up all the necessary hints, and keeping sharp track of
your surroundings and inventory than of rising to some sort of outstanding
intellectual challenge. As usual, in order to get where he is going, Larry
has to demonstrate occasional elements of street-savviness, but I can
remember of only two puzzles which did indeed include a few cases of putting
two and two together — the quest to steal a pair of handcuffs from the
security guy, and the quest to provide Merrily the Redhead with free means of
admission to the Bungee Jumping Tower. Everything else was more or less self-understood... ...well, maybe except for a few cases
which could have been designed better. In one situation, for instance, you
have to take a couple of items from an NPC without actually seeing them on
the screen — you have to blindly «Operate» on the guy to come into their
possession. In another situation, you are commissioned to bring a bottle of
mineral water which appears out of the blue in a location that you most
likely have already explored previously (and far from the most obvious one,
either): this feels like a bit of lazy, last-minute design that should have
either been rethought or altogether cut out. In yet another case, in order to
get a required object you have to «Operate» on it several times in a row
without getting any serious hints that you are getting anywhere near your
goal — also far from an ideal strategy to save players from frustration, the
necessity (in 1993) to order a hintbook, or (in 2020) to keep that Internet
connection close. These are, however, little nitpicks in
comparison to all the big lessons which Al must have learnt from the failures
of the previous game. Another nicety carried over from Larry 5 is the lack of arcade sequences, which in this case is
observed by Al with military-level loyalty — there is not a single moment in
the game that would require nimble fingers, which, I think, goes fairly well
hand-in-hand with Larry’s general character. You are simply encouraged to
walk around, take in the sights, try out potentially useful and useless
actions, and beat the game by using nothing other than simple logic. Speaking
of which, while some of the situations in which Larry gets himself are
patently absurd, in keeping up with the laws of Larry’s universe, pretty much
all of the puzzles are surprisingly logical — yes, even the one about
inflating a beaver. Okay, maybe the
task of producing the world’s smallest swimsuit defies logic a bit... but
maybe don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. |
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Well... this is a game about meeting a
lot of beautiful, rich, spoiled, (mostly) vapor-brained women with early
1990s hairdos on the grounds of a lush, gaudy, grotesque, (mostly) tasteless
tropical resort. What sort of atmosphere, really, would one expect from such
a setting? At least all the previous Larry
games took place in less confined environments — even in the city of Lost
Wages, you had the relative freedom to move from seedier to gaudier areas of
the town, whereas further titles would have you travel all over the world (Larry 2), between civilization and
jungle (Larry 3), or at least
between different coasts of the US (Larry
5), much as the game’s budget made them all look similar. Larry
6, in comparison,
feels almost theatrical. At least you can go outside the hotel building to
visit the local gardens and beaches — otherwise, it would be not just
confined, but claustrophobic. The building itself is loaded with artefacts
springing out of the deep well of Al Lowe’s berserk-libidinous imagination —
hot tubs in the form of huge champagne glasses, barrooms with windows into
the bottom of the swimming pool, bungee towers with warning lights for
airplanes, and an entire Cellulite Drainage Salon in which you are guaranteed
to spend a long time (not because you are in need of draining some cellulite,
but because it takes a whole lot of operations to repair the damn machinery).
But whether it is truly «atmospheric», and whether there is some sort of
weird pleasure to be derived from exploring its nooks and corners, I could
not truly say, since I always felt weird about trying to intentionally
immerse myself in this «atmosphere». Instead, I think, both Larry 6 and its sequel (which follows
an almost identical formula) draw 99% of its atmosphere from the dialog —
either between Larry and his inner voice (the Narrator), or between the both
of them and the beautiful, rich,
spoiled women. Do remember that even at their most rambunctious, the Larry games are not only not
pornographic games, they are not even erotic games — they are essentially
comedies, where even most of the erotic moments are played for fun. In a good
RPG, you get your kicks out of running through the woods, hunting rabbits,
watching out for monsters, and listening to tiny wisps of wind on the water
(or at least pretending to listen,
if your RPG is old enough to not support serious sound cards). In a Larry
game, you get your kicks out of mouse-poking scantily clad women over various
parts of their bodies and getting humorous replies in response ("you
surreptitiously extend a finger and, as gently as possible, touch her hand. Instantly
you feel a jolt of pure chemical attraction pass between you, a spark of
sexual tension that can only mean one thing: raw mutual lust!" — Gammie:
"OW! You shocked me! Stop rubbing your feet on the carpet!"... you
know, that sort of dialog). It’s all silly, and the corny titillation factor is there all right, but in the end, it is all played for parody, and if it is not New Age philosophy to come under Al Lowe’s warhammer, it can be erotic pulp fiction, Cosmopolitan, healthy lifestyle ads, Southern charm, or BDSM. Considering that Al has always valued quantity over quality, you have to be prepared for plenty of cringey banality in the amount of silly jokes he throws at you with that dialog — but for every bit of cringe, there is something genuinely funny or even witty. (Sue me, I have even laughed out loud at a couple of beaver jokes, hard as it may be to believe that one). I do not know if it is necessarily a good or a bad thing, too, that the focus of Al’s sarcasm has largely shifted from the social to the personal in between Larry 5 and Larry 6: on one hand, good humor about corporations and the record industry can be more intelligent and less offensive than humor targeted at human stereotypes — on the other hand, the latter kind of humor is arguably the one that Al does best, and I’d much rather hear him crack jokes about Southern belles, Valley girls, leather-clad mistresses, and even gay people than about the hip-hop industry or the US Congress. But to each his own, I guess. |
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Technical features |
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Like many other Sierra products at the
time, Larry 6 was originally
shipped in a floppy disc version, without any voice acting and with low-res
320x240 VGA graphics. The following year it was re-packaged on CD-ROM,
replacing the original pictures with hi-res 640x480 SVGA, a major and
stunning improvement on the original back at the time — and even today, might
I add, looking fairly respectable when you run the game in full screen mode
on modern displays, arguably the first Sierra game to do so. For Larry
5, Jane Cardinal had been the principal graphic artist — I do not know
too much about her, but she was clearly a newcomer and outsider to the
series, which did result in a relatively unique cartoonish style, as
bizarrely incompatible with the spirit of the franchise as were so many other
things about the game. Fortunately, for Larry
6 Al got back veteran Sierra artist Bill Skirvin, who had been there for
him ever since Larry 2 — and even
though some changes could no longer be reverted (such as the new big-headed
Larry sprite), Bill does his best to return the visual aesthetics of the game
to the slightly more traditionalist «tastelessly realistic» look, one that
might occasionally poke fun at Modern Art, but does not try to become Modern Art, if you know what I
mean. While most of the hotel interiors still
retain the weirdly angular style of Larry
5, as opposed to the generally straight and unassuming lines of the
EGA-era games (for instance, all the doors look like unevenly sided
parallelograms rather than being rectangular), overall emphasis is still
placed on detalisation: the fact that you are strictly limited to the prison
space of La Costa Lotta has to be compensated for by cramming as much stuff as you can into these small
interiors. Rooms such as the Cellulite Drainage Salon, with its overabundance
of weird-looking machinery, or the High Colonic Treatment Suite, with its
dazzling ikebana arrangements, are likely to bring terror to the souls of
knowledgeable gamers because of all the potential hotspots on which they
should be clicking (luckily, most of these details in practice turn out to be
irrelevant for progressing in the game). All of this rococo aesthetics, along
with elements of garish art design (e.g. the "innocent blush brush about
to be penetrated by a large lipstick" on the walls of the makeup salon),
contributes heavily to the atmosphere of the game, making La Costa Lotta the
epitome of Rebelliously Bad Taste for the Rich and Stupid, not to mention a
living symbol of all the unhealthy side effects of the sexual revolution. Then again, who are we kidding? You are
not here to admire the weirdass design decisions for a health spa; you are
here to ogle the lovely ladies, and in this department, Skirvin and his team
deliver the goods with so much gusto that Larry
6 is officially the first Larry game whose girls have graphically
survived into the modern age — as good as the art was around 1989, it would
still take some serious retro-adaptation to get excited at the sights of
Tawni or Bambi from Larry 3,
whereas the beauties of Larry 6,
while obviously not up to the technical standards of the 21st century, are
nevertheless every bit as eye-captivating as... actually, with
de-sexualization of the female image in video games being a common trend right
now, they might be more eye-captivating than just about anything. Naturally,
you’d have to look past the affronts of the late Eighties / early Nineties
look (all that large hair!), but on the whole, there is no denying that the
portraits were done by big admirers of the female face and the female form (of course, most of the close-ups picture the
girls from the waist up, giving the player ample point-and-click opportunity
to practice their perverted fantasies). It is, however, amusing to note that
there is even less actual nudity in the game than there was in Larry 2 or Larry 3, where the problems of pixellation actually allowed to
play a bit around the issue — here, at the very best, as a punishable Easter
Egg you can get a quick look at a single pair of boobies before suffering an
inevitable and ignoble death as a result. (The endgame, too, will be
disappointing for all you horny players, as the final triumphant consummation
between Larry and his gal is played out in clichéd allegories). In a serious (and relatively rare for Sierra) change of design, the main graphic screen of Larry 6 is compressed to about 2/3 of the screen, with an irretractable status bar at the top and a large, also irretractable, dialog screen at the bottom, making it look somewhat similar to the classic LucasArts design. This is not a big issue, considering that Larry 6 is not that hot on panoramic views and most of its action takes place in relatively small rooms and corridors; it does, however, give the artist an opportunity to have a mid-size close-up of Larry and a mid-size close-up of most of his talking companions on screen at all times, which helps enliven the game a bit. Larry himself looks a little less grotesque and deformed than in Larry 5, though many of that game’s aspects of his depiction have been retained — including the disproportionately huge head, the ridiculously large nose (anybody ever accuse Al of anti-Semitism?), the clear signs of middle age, and, worst of all, that constant lecherous grin on his face (somehow we could avoid having that and still have our fully authentic Larry Laffer back in the days of 1987-89). Oh well, at least all those appearance features seem to agree fairly well with Larry’s new voice, so let us now turn to the audio aspects of the game. |
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The musical soundtrack for Larry 6, credited to Dan Kehler (who
also wrote the music to King’s Quest 6
and Space Quest 6, if you are truly
interested), is not particularly interesting: I think the artist was simply
told to write a set of reasonably catchy, but inobtrusive lounge muzak tunes,
and this is precisely what he did. In a nice nod to Larry 3, many of the «sex scenes» (more accurately, «anti-sex
scenes») are accompanied by the same variation on Ravel’s Bolero (I don’t
exactly know why Al chose this theme as his dream soundtrack to Foreplay
Fiasco, but I have to admit there is something mystically appealing about the
idea). In another nice nod to the Larry
franchise in general, the main Larry theme, reasonably stripped of annoying
extra florishes, plays every time you enter your personal suite. That’s about
all the nice nods there are. Arguably the most memorable musical
moment in the entire game is a full-fledged country-western tune, played and
sung by Burgundy (one of Larry’s potential love interests) in the spa’s
barroom — called ‘Cell Block Love’, with lyrics written by Josh Mandel, it
will be of particular interest to fans of the Police Quest saga, recalling the love affair between Lieutenant
Sonny Bonds and his former high school sweetheart turned street hooker, Sweet
Cheeks Marie. Luckily, the song works even without the backstory, but it will
be truly funny only if you do know
the backstory (I suppose the subject matter came around because Sierra was
preparing a VGA remake of the original Police
Quest at about the same time as Al was working on Larry 6). Rumor has it that ‘Cell Block Love’ was pretty popular
among fans, which must have led Al to embracing the idea and milking the hell
out of it in Larry 7, with its
country-western mother-daughter duo and a whole arsenal of parodic songs in
their possession (although in that game, all you’d get would be little
snippets). Still, the most important thing,
sound-wise, about Larry 6 is
clearly not the music, but the talking: this was the very first time that a Larry game could finally get a full
acting cast, and Al made sure that everybody was up to the task. The role of
Larry himself went to Jan Rabson, a veteran Hollywood voice actor who, up
until then, mostly got bit roles here and there; after Larry 6, Rabson became the
Leisure Suit Larry by definition, continuing to voice the little guy in all
of his Sierra (Larry 7),
pseudo-Sierra (Magna Cum Laude),
and post-Sierra (Wet Dreams Don’t Dry)
incarnations all the way into 2020. In other words, Rabson pretty much
completely merged with his character, much like Dominic Armato with Guybrush
Threepwood — his prickly, whiny, nasal twang is just so naturally associated
with the image of a little, insecure, slightly pervy, yet generally harmless
middle-aged guy that nobody could ask for anything better. I do have to
remind the general public that this was not at all the image projected by
Larry Laffer in Larry 2 and Larry 3 (I truly struggle trying to
picture these games voiced by Rabson if they ever decide to remake them,
which is not very likely at this moment) — however, the image and personality
of the Larry in Larry 6 (and 7) does indeed agree with Rabson’s
voicing strategy to a tee. (And, for the record, no, he does not sound like that at all in real life: if he did,
he’d probably have been committed a long time ago). My own attitude towards Rabson’s work
with the character remains ambivalent (I admire the effort, but he does not
quite fit with my own ideal of Leisure Suit Larry). The rest of the cast,
however, I have absolutely no beef with. As Narrator, Neil Ross is second
only to Space Quest’s Gary Owens
with his ability to deliver hilarious and/or sarcastic messages in a deadpan
manner. The lovely ladies are all brought to grotesque life with intentionally
over-the-top vocal deliveries (to emphasize the caricaturesque nature of all
the characters); top prizes go to Iona Morris for her almost terrifyingly
dominant Thunderbird ("YOU are the PUPPY DOG, and I’M the MUMMY
DOG!"), and to Marcia Mitzman for her more-Southern-than-the-South
Burgundy ("..but right now these country-singin’ lips are
dryyyy!..."), but really, everybody does a fine job. And I simply must throw in a special mention for
Dave Fennoy, still a long way from voicing Lee Everett in The Walking Dead but already
irreplaceable as Billy Dee the Lifeguard in his role of ideal and absolute
contempt for the title character ("may I call you Billy?" –
"preferably, don’t call
me"). In many Sierra On-Line games, voice
acting is nice to have around, yet it does not constitute a truly integral
part of the game: King’s Quest 6, Quest For Glory 4, any of the
late-period Police Quest games,
etc., are all perfectly playable and atmospheric without voicing. The
late-period Larry games are a major
exception: the intelligent and expertly delivered comedic diction emphasizes
the humor tenfold, and often makes even the dumbest of Al Lowe’s jokes come
to life the way they’d never otherwise come to life if you were to just read
the text on the screen. A perfect example is the optional set of personal
insults you can get for free by calling Carlos the Concierge — actually, the
alias of Carlos Escobar, lead programmer for the game: reading their
seemingly inexhaustible array on screen gets tedious in about five seconds,
but when they are delivered by Carlos in person, in a clearly exaggerated
Spanish accent ("you’re nasty, repulsive, repugnant, disagreeable,
offensive, belligerent, pugnacious, and antagonistic... and ZEESE ARE YOUR
GOOD POINTS!"), it is somehow possible to become glued to your monitor
(and speakers) for half an hour. And yes, for better or worse, they just
don’t make video games like those
any more. |
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Interface Although the base mechanics of Larry 6 remained essentially unchanged
by Sierra standards, the game’s overall structural look got quite a big
overhaul. As I already mentioned earlier, the main game screen was slightly
compressed to free up a large strip of space for a permanent dialog window at
the bottom (maybe Al was playing too many LucasArts games at the time). The
top menu was also permanently fixed, in addition to being artistically
redesigned in garish blue and pink colors, and now included a scrolling menu
of inventory items — apparently, the idea was to avoid having any pop-up
windows at any time, although in reality it does not work properly, because
pop-up windows still appear whenever you want to save or restore a game or
change any of the in-game options. (Perfectionists like Steve Jobs would
never have approved). Point-and-click options remain almost
the same as they were in the previous game (except that Operate has been
separated into Touch and Pick), and also include the infamous «Zipper» icon —
but, much to Al’s credit, it must be said that now it all works well, and
using the Zipper with various objects is really fun to do, because every once
in a while it gives you an unpredictable and/or hilarious reaction (e.g.:
using Zipper on an innocent sign in the lobby yields "The sign has
already been screwed into the wall" — no big deal, but far more
satisfactory than getting a generic "Don’t do that to the sign!" as
you did all over the place in Larry 5).
Addition of separate Touch and Pick Up icons also makes sense: «Touch» almost
always produces a different response (it is particularly tempting to use
Touch and Pick Up on the eyeballs or noses of the various ladies to hear
their reaction — that is, unless you’re the type who would take the MeToo
ethics with you to a Leisure Suit Larry
game, but then, if you’ve already read this far down, you’re probably not). Honestly, I do not recollect a single
action where the Touch or Zipper icons could actually be crucial toward
beating the game (there is one action when using the Zipper instead of a more
obvious solution gives you a bit more points, though); their addition simply
makes you want to spend a little more time with the game, as you uncover
little semi-hidden jokes and puns scattered all over the script. You shall
probably also want to spend quite a bit of time at the phone in your room,
not just to hear all of Carlos’ insults, but also to dial all the Easter Egg
numbers (now handily available from various walkthroughs and wikis on the
Web), some of which lead you to brief snippets of dialog by some of the
game’s creators, and at least one of which gets you in touch with La Costa
Lotta’s free Phone Sex Service (predictable spoiler: you are bound to be
disappointed, but at least you do get to fiddle around with multiple choices
for a while). Other than that, the game is fairly
barren of extra goodies: no boss keys, favorite trite phrases, or whatever it
was with which Al used to fill up all that space in the overhead menus. You
get the option to turn on auto-saving and save reminders, which is fairly
useless because you can’t properly die or get stuck anyway, and besides, I
think the Save-o-Matic option is bugged anyway, at least in some versions (I
always turn it off, but it still keeps popping up after each Important
Event). And there does seem to be a «Filth» level control in the menu, but I
am not exactly sure what it does because, like any reasonable Larry player, I always turn it all the
way up from the start. The gameplay is fairly straightforward,
without any arcade sequences in sight; a few of your actions are timed (but
if you miss, you can always retry) and that’s about it. The quest to assemble
all 1000 points in the game is extremely tough, though, and a few can be very
easily missed even with a detailed walkthrough in hand — and sometimes, when
they are missed, they are missed for good (like, for instance, if you forget
to take a shower after the sauna, which is very likely to happen if you
already had a shower before). In any case, I’m assuming that, as it often
used to be in previous games, the only reason behind these little optional
mini-tasks yielding tiny handfuls of points was to get the player more
involved in general exploration and in making the best possible use out of
the point-and-click interface. And at least in the case of Larry 6, this strategy actually pays
off, because the writers are always ready to reward you with a little
something extra. |
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|
In some ways, Larry 6 can be
understood as Al Lowe’s admittance of defeat: the man is just too old and out
of breath to think up a genuinely imaginative new twist on the story, image,
and character of Leisure Suit Larry — all the man really wants to do is just
keep on telling us jokes. It’s largely the same old jokes, but he’s churning
them out like pancakes, he got millions of them coming, and he’s never gonna
stop. So why grumble, why complain? The packaging is nicely updated to match
advances in technology, the girls look stunning, the voice actors give it
their all, the puzzles are intelligently designed, and the humor always
trumps the smut anyway. Still I reserve the right to just a little bit of grumble over what I
perceive as a historical injustice. Had Larry
2 and Larry 3, the two games in
the franchise that actually had some genuine substance to them, come out in
the era of point-and-click interface, SVGA graphics, and voice acting, chances
are that they would be the
games-to-go-to whenever we were talking about Leisure Suit Larry. Instead,
that honor fell to Larry 6 and 7 — excellently designed, beautifully
drawn and expertly voiced titles which reduce their protagonist to a shallow
caricature. At least in Larry 2 and
3 our hero was actually «looking
for love», and there were interesting lines drawn between his various passions;
Larry 6 sweeps those excuses at
seriousness under the carpet and assumes a completely nihilistic stance. From
a feminist point of view, Larry 6
is definitely much more offensive than Larry
3, which at least opposed the relatively wholesome character of
Passionate Patti to all the vapor-brained stereotypes; Larry 6 has nothing but stereotypes — which is not really a
problem by itself, given that it is just a simple piece of entertainment that
plays everything for laughs; but as long as there is a gold standard for
comparison, it will be a problem in
the larger context. But now that I’ve grumbled out the grumble, let me roll it all back
and say that as a game, as a
puzzle-based, exploration-oriented adventure game, that is, Larry 6 is a total hoot, on the top
level of Sierra’s Silver Age (which I usually define as 1992-1995). And with Freddy Pharkas coming out the same
year, it can be safely said that 1993 marked Al Lowe’s peak creativity: never
again would he rise to the occasion with that
much firepower in his hands. |
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