PC Gamer - UK 2020-04)

Itopensina Peruvianjungle,

immediately establishing its central

hook. While Ben is dedicated to

point-and-click conventions, Dan has

reinvented himself as an indie

platformer hero on an emotional

quest. If you haven’t

played the earlier Ben

and Dan games, you

could be forgiven for

thinking you were in

for some self-

consciously edgy

humour with a side of

clever-clever

postmodernism. Yet it

takes great care to position its leads

as the butt of most jokes.

When I say ‘emotional quest’,

that’s exactly what it becomes. Ben

and Dan wind up in London, where

the capital has taken an apocalyptic

turn. Here they discover an AI that

puts them through a series of

experiments, harvesting their

response to emotional stimuli to

better understand humankind. What

follows is an imaginative journey

involving plenty of character-

swapping fun, as you make use of

their disparate skillsets. Dan can

reachplaceshiscounterpartcan’t,

while Ben can pick up and combine

objects to help his friend, creating

power-ups such as a double-jump.

There are minor control issues

with both. Ben is blighted by an

interface that feels

slightly fiddly however

you play. And while

Dan’s obstacle courses

are creatively designed,

he’s hardly Celeste’s

Madeline in precision

and responsiveness.

Though it avoids the

irritating pixel-hunts of

many vintage point-and-clicks, the

platforming creates a few sticking

points. Giving Ben a piggyback

speeds up your movement, but it’s

possible to pass by environmental

features or objects. You’re not always

confined to a small locality, nor will

you always be aware which character

you should be controlling. Such

moments are rare and dialogue tends

to subtly seed hints – though on a

few occasions you’ll find yourself

trying out every possible combination

of objects (not that your inventory

ever becomes unmanageable).

Somehow,it hardly matters. Dan’s

gleeduringtheplatforming set-pieces

is infectious– just witness his

responsetohisdiscovery of ‘left

gravity’.Andany minor annoyances

arequicklyforgotten when you’re

neverfarfroma pun, a one-liner, or a

creativesightgag.

THROWING SHADE

Its sense of humour might

occasionally be too caustic for some,

while others might be uneasy at the

pot-shots it takes at other games. Yet

the tone is usually either cheeky,

affectionate, or both. As often as it

takes the piss (sometimes literally), it

celebrates the kind of games it’s

joking about. It doesn’t stoop to the

usual type of videogame satire, where

a game does the very thing it

complains about, outside of one

sequence that deliberately riffs on

that idea, where the payoff is the

reveal of the emotion being tested.

Elsewhere, there’s a frankly

brilliant section that interrogates the

process of respawning. One chapter,

where the two need to impress a

social media feed of youngsters to get

into a club, risks devolving into

condescending references to young

people and their weird lingo, but

defies expectations with a self-aware

twist. And one elaborately silly joke

involves a punchline that’s delivered

piecemeal within the opening

moments of a visual novel, Devil’s

Kiss, that’s bundled with the game.

Surprises are scattered liberally

throughout. Some deliberate

misinformation prompts an ingenious

mechanical twist, and you’ll mow

down waves of piñata minions with a

screen-shaking gun. Yes, a few gags

fall wide of the mark. But Size Five’s

ballsiest adventure to date is the kind

ofgameyou’llbequotingforyears.

NEEDTOKNOW

WHATISIT?

Platformermeets

point-and-clickinthe

third(andfinal?)Ben

andDangame

EXPECTTOPAY

£15.50

DEVELOPER

Size Five Games

PUBLISHER

Size Five Games

REVIEWED ON

Intel Core i3-8350K

CPU, 8GB RAM, GeForce

GTX 1060

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

sizefivegames.com

83

“Not every conspiracy

has to be the fucking

Templars.” If that made

you smile, buy with

confidence.

VERDICT

Its sense of

humour might

occasionally be

too caustic

for some

G

enuinely funny games are a rarity. So without overlooking

the ingenuity of a game that fuses point-and-click adventures

with platform-puzzlers, the highest praise I can give Lair of

the Clockwork God is that it made me laugh from start to

finish. Its central pair – alter-egos of creator Dan Marshall

and co-writer Ben Ward – would hate the phrase ‘interactive comedy’, so

I’ll simply say that this is a gag delivery device with an outstanding hit rate.

HYBRID HEAVEN

The genre-hopping LAIR OF THE CLOCKWORK GOD could be

2020’s funniest game. By Chris Schilling

GAGGING ORDER

Thetypesofjokeyou’llfindinLairoftheClockwork God

Creativeswearing–21%

Unorthodoxuseofbodilyfluids–18%

Good-badpuns–17%

Mockingvideogameconventions–16%

Referencestowilliesandbums–11%

RidiculingDailyMailreaders–9%

Walking-simulatorparodies–5%

Intense dislike of slippy-slidey ice levels – 3%

21%

18%

17%

16%

11%

9%

5%

3%

Lair of the Clockwork God

REVIEW