Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PS2, XBOX)
Publisher: Vivendi Universal Developer: High Voltage Software
*This review is based on the PC version of the game, which is the only version Amazon.com carries at the moment.
First of all, I must preface this review with a back story. I've read a few reviews of this game on the net, and they're pretty skewed. Perhaps they're not comparing Magna Cum Laude to any of the previous Leisure Suit Larry games because they've never played any of them. Or, they're just trying to keep things positive after all of the store/internet promotion they did for it. I have to be honest, though. It's an OK game, but it's NOT a Leisure Suit Larry game.
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When I was growing up, there was a series of games on the PC known as Leisure Suit Larry. As a kid and teenager, they were "forbidden" games, as they contained lots adult content, and they definitely weren't aimed at kids, like so many other games were at the time. They were fun games to play, and I still dip into my collection to this day. LSL games were point and click adventures, released only on the PC. The objective was always the same (Larry's trying to score), but there was always a lot of clicking around to find items and discover secrets. Each game had a great story, all of which revolved around Larry's attempts to get chicks into bed. It was all good clean (and dirty) fun. Larry officially died in 1998 when Sierra let most of their big name programmers and designers go, including the series creator, Al Lowe.
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After 6 long years, VU Games decided to revive the old Sierra series, and update it to the 21st century. Unfortunately, they didn't involve any of the original programmers or designers, include the actual star (Larry Laffer), or even keep the filth to a "fun" level. The game style has changed a lot, and it's not true to LSL form.
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Gameplay: 5
The gameplay is totally different from any previous LSL game. For instance, everything used to be point and click, but now it's controller based. You have to move Larry around manually, and it seems much more like a Super Mario style game that way. This isn't a bad thing, but it's just not like the six previous games in the "series" ...
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Besides the actual controls, the game doesn't feel like a Larry game. Every time you talk to a girl that you're trying to get with, a little mini-game with a floating sperm dodging obstacles comes up. (This actually guides the conversation. If you hit a green thing, Larry says something smart. If you hit a red thing, Larry says something stupid.) It was fun to play at first, but gets old after two or three conversations. What happened to good old fashioned talking? Every other action in the game involves some other repetitive mini-game like quarters or dancing. Sure, Larry's nephew is in college, but is drinking and dancing all that college kids really do?
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Did I mention that there are a lot of loading screens? Every five seconds, you get a "Now Loading" message making you wait. This was poorly planned. Other than that, the game just isn't lots of fun. Sure, I kept playing just to see the story unfold, but it wasn't easy to keep playing. The mini-games get old fast, and it's easy to see where things are going in a conversation.
Graphics: 8
MCL's graphics are standard for today's adventure game. It's a 3-D sort of affair, and everything seems to work like it should. The camera keeps good angles, and things weren't too quirky. My only gripe is that some of the cut scenes looked a little grainy. It's animation, so that should have been done a little better.
Sound & Music: 2.5
Ever since they introduced speech in LSL 6, listening to Larry's conversations with women has always been fun. That wasn't the case in MCL. The dialog has changed quite a bit over the years, and things just didn't seem the same. Many of the characters use the F word incessantly, and this is something I could have done without. Don't get me wrong, I love the F word. It's great, if used in the right context, but don't just work it into every conversation. It has no place in a Larry game.
Besides the F word, everything else was wrong with the speech in MCL. Previous LSL games didn't have to outright describe dirty sexual acts with obscene language. They used funny terms and innuendo, and left the rest for the player's dirty mind to fill in. MCL spouts the filth outright.
Story: 6
The story is pretty standard for the series. There's a dating show filming on campus, and Larry Lovage (the original Larry's nephew) is trying to get on the show. He's got to prove that he's a man about campus in order to impress the host, so he has to go from girl to girl trying to flex his skills. Larry is just as much of a loser as his uncle was, although he seems to do much better with talking to women than his uncle did. It's a pretty standard story, and it's OK to play through just to see how it all unfolds.
Replay Value: 2
Magna Cum Laude seems to have bad replay value. The games get old fast, and I'm not sure I could sit through it again. If I want to be entertained, I'll play through any of the original games from Al Lowe's time. They have much better replay value.
To buy or to rent?This game won't work for everyone. I'd definitely rent it before shelling out the $50 on it. (It's usually a good idea to try before you buy anyhow!) Although, if you are looking to buy, I'd recommend the PC version. It's like $20 less, as long as you've got a PC that can run games.
Overall: 5.5
Overall, the game has several shortcomings, but I was able to play through it once. If you've never played a Larry game before, that might actually help. You've got no basis of comparison, and you won't be wishing of days past. It might not be a bad game on it's own, but they had to slap the Leisure Suit Larry name on it to sell more copies.
If you have played LSL before though, think twice before picking this one up. It's an OK game by itself, but is is not worthy of the LSL name. For an actual Leisure Suit Larry experience, please hop on over to www.allowe.com for more information on Larry games of the past.
Additional Information:
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Memory Required: ?
Rating: M (for Mature)
Extras: None
POST REVIEW UPDATE:
OK, let me sum things up easily. It's not a true LSL game not just because it's changed, but because it changed too much. There were no mini-games in the old games. There's no item hunting in this game. The language is awful in this game, when compared to the previous ones. (Again, I love foul language. It fits well into this game, but NOT a LSL game.)
The other thing that's really missing though, is the challenge. This game involves ABSOLUTELY NO THINKING of any kind. The entire game is based on your ability to push buttons at the right time. That's the thing that's really lacking. In the real games, you had to figure out that you could use certain items together. There was no black book to tell you exactly what to do next, and everything wasn't so crystal clear. The old games kept people busy for a long time (partially due to the fact that you couldn't hop online and find answers everywhere), and that was great. I got a maximum of 6 hours out of MCL, and that was the first time through with no help. The graphics were fabulous, and the game was good, but at what price?
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