Thimbleweed Park

X-Files Theme

As a person who played a lot of LucasArts game I had to get Thimbleweed Park made by Ron Gilbert, the guy behind Monkey Island and such. The game pretty much looks like the old games that used the SCUMM-engine with both graphics and inventory and command fields. It begins with a german financier following a set of instructions that ends with him being killed by an unknown assailant. The game then shifts to two of the games playable characters, Agent Rey and Agent Reyes from the FBI.

Agent Scully and Agent Mulder

They begin to investigate the murder in Thimbleweed Park and find out the history of the town that have fallen on hard times with the Pillow Factory being closed downed and the town founder dying from a heart attack a few days ago. They also met other characters like Delores Edmund, the niece to Chuck Edmund, the founder of the factory. Ransome the *beeping* Insult Clown that was cursed by a gypsy on his last show to forever where his clown make-up and lastly the ghost of Franklin Edmunds, Delores father that have been trapped in the towns hotel.

The whole cast

So first part is finding the murderer, you do that but also uncovers other stories, like Delores trying to get her uncles will read, Ransome finding the doll prototype he created with Franklin and Franklin just trying to get to the afterlife. Also as the game goes on you also suspect that Rey and Reyes have other motives as well. And some things I saw a mile ahead, but at the end of the game it pretty much broke my suspension of disbelief. And it's pretty much a problem with all the fourth wall breaking as it is dragged into the plot of the game itself. And at that moment I began thinking, why should I care about these people? They are just pixels (as stated in the game pretty much). Before that I actually cared about them. I wondered how Franklin died and felt pity for him not being able to stand up to his brother and carve his own path. Same for Delores who just wanted to be a game designer, Ransome learning humility to be a better person instead of the bitterness and cynicism that put him in his situation. And then everything is just joked away in a "it's just a game and nothing matter". 

It was fun as long as it lasted, but some things spoiled the taste afterwards. Mostly because the game just ended.