Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry

Developer: CrazyBunch | Publisher: Assemble Entertainment | Release Date: 2018 | Genre: Point & Click Adventure | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

It is hard to believe that it has been over thirty years since the polyester-clad protagonist of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards burst onto the scene. Few could have predicted the success that he would go on to enjoy, not with the ladies whom he so desperately pursued in his games but with fans of his adventures. However, after a string of successful games, Larry’s star also began to dim, and everything after Love for Sail! in 1996 is probably best forgotten.

Fans definitely still have a soft spot for the original game, though, as it received two remakes, first in 1991 and then again in 2013. However, the chances of a brand new Larry game seemed unlikely after duds like Box Office Bust. That is until a German team called CrazyBunch made the startling announcement that they would be responsible for the fate of everyone’s favorite loser.

Larry’s latest adventure is set in modern times, but luckily for everyone involved, it does not take place in a retirement home or feature his irritating nephew, Larry Lovage. Instead, Larry wakes up in the 21st century without having aged a day since his adventures in the eighties. How exactly this occurred is a mystery that the game isn’t very keen on explaining, but it does set things up perfectly for an authentic Larry adventure. Of course, as Larry is from an age where 386 computers were seen as state of the art, the modern world is quite a shock to him. Larry has also brought all of his outdated views of the world with him, so instead of trying to make sense of his bizarre situation, he instead gets right back into his old patterns of trying to hook up with as many women as possible.

Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is set in Larry’s old stomping grounds, Lost Wages, now called New Lost Wages, which means there are some familiar sights, such as good old Lefty’s. The town has obviously changed a lot during Larry’s absence and now boasts a pier, hipster vegan bar, sex shop, and more. In total, there are more than 30 hand-drawn venues for Larry to explore, and each of them is as colorful as it is detailed.

Shortly after stumbling into Lefty’s, Larry discovers that in this day and age, everyone is addicted to their phones, and a company called “Prune” seems to have a monopoly. Prune is, of course, a thinly veiled jab at Apple, and it is run by a man named Bill Jobs, or “BJ” for short. Larry has an opportunity to meet BJ when he discovers an advanced cellphone, complete with artificial intelligence, stuck in a pile of goop at Lefty’s.

In the process of returning the phone, which threatens to self-destruct if he doesn’t, Larry also falls hard for BJ’s assistant, Faith. Too bad for Larry, she quickly points out to him that she would never date someone below a specific score on “Timber,” a parody of Tinder. Undeterred, Larry vows to sign up for Timber and have enough successful dates with other women to accumulate the points needed to impress Faith. Since this is Larry we are talking about, things don’t quite work out how he thinks it will, but that is half the fun.

Most people associate the Larry games with sex, but while it is typically their primary focus, the early games were actually pretty tame in this regard. Later games obviously ramped up the sexual content, but overall, the games never really crossed too many lines. Wet Dreams Don’t Dry also follows this path and leaves a lot to the imagination, but it certainly isn’t a prudish game. In fact, this might just be the Larry game with the most puzzles ever based around sex toys and other bizarre items. One particular puzzle springs to mind that is just so unlikely that the game even jokingly offers you the opportunity to refund it. The game also doesn’t miss an opportunity for Larry to spout some innuendo or to plaster each scene with a variety of penis-shaped objects.

Larry travels around New Lost Wages via “Unter” taxis, and the story progresses in a typical point-and-click adventure style. This means talking to everyone you meet and finding out what you must do for them to get what you want from them. After setting up his Timber profile, Larry can begin dating the ladies he is “matched” with, and while none of them are quite as memorable as the ones from Larry 6 or 7, they are an interesting bunch. Obviously, it would be impossible to make a game that focuses this much on sex without depicting people of different orientations these days, and Larry actually handles this aspect quite well. Larry encounters a couple of gay characters and even a drag queen, but all of them are incorporated into the story naturally without feeling forced. Poor Larry is obviously way out of his depth regarding the more liberal dating app scene of the modern age, but he still manages to take most of it in his stride. CrazyBunch had a difficult task on their hands with the depiction of various characters, and we think that they pulled it off admirably. There will still be some Larry fans who feel that he is acting out of character or that the developers are pandering to a more diverse audience, but it still feels like a “true” Larry game.

The game’s visual style has also come under much scrutiny by fans because of the more realistic approach taken. Larry himself looks a lot more realistic and in shape compared to how he looked in Love For Sail! but this also fits with how he looked in earlier games. The visuals are very colorful, and each scene is packed with detail. However, although the backgrounds are very detailed, the number of spots you can interact with is minimal. Those looking forward to clicking on every object in sight to hear a humorous voice clip from Larry will be disappointed in this regard. This cuts back on pixel hunting, especially as you can just hold down the space bar to show all the available hot spots, but it does make the scenes feel a bit emptier.

The audio is one area where the game doesn’t disappoint, as it sounds exactly like a Leisure Suit Larry game should. In addition to a couple of familiar and very catchy tunes, the sound effects are also all crisp and clear. Best of all, CrazyBunch managed to enlist Jan Rabson’s talents to voice Larry. Fans of Larry 6 and 7 will immediately recognize his voice, and having Larry sound just like he did in the older games is a big plus for Wet Dreams Don’t Dry. The voices of the other characters are also reasonably good, and while none of them stand out as particularly great, they get the job done. One thing that we did notice is that the voice lines don’t always match the subtitles, but this is a minor issue. Another annoyance is that many lines are repeated when clicking on items or talking to people, which can grate when you are stuck on a puzzle.

Speaking of puzzles, the ones in Wet Dreams Don’t Dry are pretty good and logical for the most part. We were rarely stuck for long, although there are a couple of instances when you really have to think outside the box to proceed. Thankfully, none of the puzzles are as illogical or obscure as some of the older point-and-click adventures, and you usually have ample clues to point you in the right direction. It is usually also possible to tackle a different puzzle if you are stumped in a particular area. The game does feature a lot of backtracking to solve some puzzles, but the fast traveling via Unter taxis makes this more bearable.

Wet Dreams Don’t Dry uses a pretty straightforward point-and-click interface. You left-click on things to interact with them and right-click to examine them. Holding down the space bar or the middle mouse button highlights all the hotspots on the screen, and you can access your inventory by pressing the scroll wheel or selecting it from your “PiPhone” tucked away at the bottom of the screen. This PiPhone can also be used to access the Unter, Timber and Instacrap apps. The only annoyance with this approach is that it is too easy to accidentally close your inventory while scrolling through the items in it. We didn’t encounter any bugs while playing the game, although the developers have released a couple of patches to address issues affecting some players.

In this day and age, the thought of playing a full-fledged Leisure Suit Larry seemed highly unlikely, at least in the manner that we have come to know and love the character. However, CrazyBunch managed to exceed our expectations and delivered a game that is definitely worthy of the title, even without the involvement of the original creator, Al Lowe. It may not be the best Larry title in the series, but overall, CrazyBunch did a great job with the source material and created a game that remains true to the character while still making him appealing to a whole new audience. This is quite a feat, and hopefully, it is something that they will be able to pull off again in the future, as this game deserves a sequel.