by Will Moczarski
When I started playing Pepper's Adventures in Time for the blog (way back when) I singled out the manual as a true labour of love. I stand by my assessment. However, I also remarked: "This is beginning to sound like work, or worse - school." And if I ask myself the pertinent question: was the game fun and did it meet its goal of teaching me something as well? I'm not sure what to answer. Did I learn something? Yes, lots of trivia. Would I have learned more had I known next to nothing about US history? Possibly but...the game tends to work sort of like an old-school museum. The "TRUTH" button is a stand-in for reading the plaques, and you learn a lot about the artifacts but not so much about the broader strokes of history. Your mileage may vary but I felt that a kid playing Pepper will pick up a lot of tidbits and facts which means that the most absurd ones will probably stand out and continue to linger in the back of their head. The game is edutaining, but is it educational? I doubt it.
On the other hand, TAG regular Vetinari claims he learned a lot about history when he played Pepper around the time of its release. Maybe I'm wrong but the TRUTH button sure felt a bit like the Neuschwanstein episode in Gabriel Knight 2 at some point - I fear it belongs in a museum.
But we're not here to rank a game based on its educational merit but rather to see how it fares with our six PISSED categories. Let's do that instead of waxing didactic, shall we?
But does he make the game better?
Puzzles & Solvability: The dual nature of Pepper's Adventures in Time means that there's a difference between puzzles you need to solve in order to enhance the plot and things you need to find out if you want to pass the quiz at the end of the act. If you don't mind losing all of your points at the beginning of each act it's actually possible to solve the game without passing any of the quizzes. You just go back to the main menu whenever the game wants to test you and just choose to play the next act. This is quite the loophole but it's also good design. I like that you can skip an act if you don't like it or get stuck but still need to persevere if you want to get the full set of points, bragging rights and all.
That said, the majority of puzzles is quite enjoyable. The game eases you in at the beginning and gets a bit tougher by act 3. I could do without the usual 1990's adventure game banes of pixel hunting and (even worse?) searching for exits. Pepper was not a bad perpetrator in neither regard but there were a couple of situations that really bugged me. Apart from that, there are some time consuming tasks that are just no fun at all. You need to visit all of the inhabitants of Philadelphia not once but twice, once to deliver some words of wisdom to them, and one more time to rally them so they will march on Penn Mansion.
I don't know if this is the right category for it but the game over screen was really lovely. Also, you get some helpful hints when you die. I remember some text adventures did this back in the 1980's but do you remember examples from other graphic adventures?
Last but not least, about solvability...well, for one thing this is a game aimed at children and it almost made me request your assistance. I was not alone, either, as some of the commenters also admitted getting stuck at the tomato puzzle in act 3. What's probably worse, though, is that the sliding block puzzle was not solvable at all. You had to use the HELP button (which I did). It worked just fine but every kid who ever played this game must have lost a tiny wee bit of their self-confidence right there and then. 6.
What does 'floppy' refer to? (a) the disk, (b) the hippie, (c) the toss.
Interface & Inventory: I already said it but I really like that you can pick the act you want to start with. It gives you a kind of freedom that's rare in early 1990's adventure games. Apart from that, the interface and inventory are designed in typical Sierra fashion. Being able to pick the starting act also meant that the inventory was automatically cleaned up every hour of playing or so which is always a good thing. Or does anybody really enjoy using that obscure Bobby pin sign from the beginning to unlock the pyramid hours upon hours later...but I digress. Two things stand out: the aforementioned "TRUTH" button adds a nice touch for quite a while but it becomes old after three or four acts. It's a mixed bag, really. Maybe they should have tried different approaches for infodumping wisdom on the children instead of relying on just one. And then there's Lockjaw, your dog. You take control of him every once in a while but I think that it didn't really add anything good to the game. Playing as Lockjaw felt like playing an inferior version of the game. Positive and negative aspects kind of even out, so I'm going with Reiko's score for Ecoquest 2 here and give the game another 6.
A better invention than the glass armonica.
Story & Setting: Well, it's a time-travel plot, and that's fine but you only get to see one time and one place, really. I would have liked to jump around some more. The past-present-future dynamics of Day of the Tentacle are the obvious point of comparison, and what can I say? Pepper just uses it as a plot device and nothing more. Going back in time doesn't affect the puzzles in any way. The little subplots (visiting young and older Ben, respectively) don't work as well as the meat of the game but I'll get back to that in the E category.
The setting is alright although Philadelphia becomes a bit boring once you got rid of all the hippie nonsense. There is some underlying conservatism in the depiction of hippie culture, I guess, but for story purposes Uncle Fred's revenge is still quite funny, at least in the beginning. Visiting the Constitutional Convention only to learn about gout is a major missed chance. In general, the acts are very uneven, not only puzzle-wise but also story-wise. Some work well, some not so much. If it weren't for Day of the Tentacle coming out later the same year, it would be quite the unusual setting, however, so let's be lenient here. 6.
Sound & Graphics: The graphics are quite quirky and reminded me a lot of Day of the Tentacle although that is apparently a coincidence. LucasArts apparently went comic-book Caligari mad in 1993 with Sam & Max released the same year. When did this happen to Sierra? I think they were a bit earlier in terms of graphical wackiness, weren't they? The music is okay to good apart from some stinkers. It's not a soundtrack for the ages but it works. Some of the pixel art is really pretty, I have to admit, although I'm not usually a big connoisseur of Sierra's art style. However, the animations are quite clunky and the screenshots often look better than the screens if you're actually playing the game. The protagonists are generally cute - with the major exception of Lockjaw who strikes me as plain ugly. Is that supposed to be edgy? No matter what, it's another 6.
Environment & Atmosphere: I think that the game's creators noticed at some point that just hanging out in Philly (which is quite small in the game) all the time was becoming a bit boring. Their solution was to add more time travel plots (young Ben, old Ben). While the young Ben plot was lovely it also felt like it belonged in a very different game. The old Ben plot was just underdeveloped.
Many locations have to be revisited but not much changes between visits; sometimes the same situation is repeated (Pepper gets imprisoned, Deborah aka Poor Richard gets imprisoned), adding to the monotony. The game is already quite short but it should have had more varied content, I think. The way things are the atmosphere is fine but I got worn out with slogging around 18th century Philadelphia quite early on. Also, as I discussed with PsOmA in the comments, Penn Mansion is kept off-limits for the majority of the game but once you get to enter it's not all that spectacularly different from the other locations. It doesn't help that you got to know several locations inside the mansion already while controlling Lockjaw. Probably the game's weakest category. 5.
Dialog & Acting: The self-referential introduction is absolutely adorable. Apart from that, the writing is a bit of a mixed bag. Some parts of the game are quite funny, some just try too hard - hey, it's just like my write-ups! There are dozens of funny bits hidden away in object descriptions making it worth your while to explore everything thoroughly although it's often unnecessary for solving the puzzles. Then again, many of the walls of text popping up when examining the same objects again with the "TRUTH" button can be a bit dry at times. 5.
That gives us a score of 56,6666666666... so let's say 57. Andy_Panthro came closest. Congrats, Andy!
Pepper's Adventures in Time is a good game that - despite its short duration - overstayed its welcome all too soon. The opening acts are a lot of fun and it could have been a very good game. However, I suspect that the deadline for its release date came a tad too early for the developers to tie up all of the loose ends and apply some polish. As it is, it's not a hidden gem but still an enjoyable addition to the Sierra catalog of the early 1990's. Needless to say, it doesn't stand up to Sierra's greatest achievements (the Quest for Glory series, the Christy Marx games, Gabriel Knight, imho). But if you're a fan, you should really check it out.
So, what's next for me? I've already started playing Star Trek: Judgment Rites so expect to see the introduction post soon. After that, there'll be another simulblogging event with Jason Dyer from over at Renga in Blue. And there's still an age-old marathon waiting to be finished. Finally, let's shower you with some CAPs, shall we?
CAP DISTRIBUTION
100 CAPs for Will Moczarski
35 CAPs for LeftHanded Matt
30 CAPs for Andy_Panthro
20 CAPs for PsOmA
20 CAPs for Torbjörn Andersson
10 CAPs for ATMachine
10 CAPs for Vetinari
10 CAPs for Michael
10 CAPs for Busca
5 CAPs for Alex Romanov
5 CAPs for MenhirMike
5 CAPs for Laukku
5 CAPs for Zach
5 CAPs for Rowan Lipkovits
5 CAPs for Ross
5 CAPs for MorpheusKitami
wow 2 guesses in a row ! Must be my lucky year !
ReplyDeleteSorry to break it to you but it was my mistake: Andy_Panthro was closest.
DeleteErrr, I'm counting 34 points over 60, which is 56,666... rather than 46,666.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's embarrassing. I evidently left out one of the categories. Serves me right for dishing out so many sixes in a row.
DeleteThank you anyway, Anonymous!
Delete57 actually feels a lot righter than 47, too. Seemed a little low, to be honest.
Delete