Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Dry Twice

Developer: CrazyBunch | Publisher: Assemble Entertainment | Release Date: 2020 | Genre: Point & Click Adventure | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Two years ago CrazyBunch dragged Leisure Suit Larry kicking and screaming back into the 21st century with Wet Dreams Don’t Dry. This was quite unexpected as the adventures of his cousin, Larry Lovage, tarnished the reputation of the brand severely. While WDDD wasn’t perfect, it did manage to capture some of the spirit of the older point and click adventures, which is more than can be said about disastrous attempts like Box Office Bust. It would appear that enough players enjoyed the fish out of water adventures of Larry Laffer that he has now returned in a brand new sequel, Wet Dreams Dry Twice.

Wet Dreams Dry Twice picks up directly after the events of Wet Dreams Don’t Dry, so playing its predecessor first is highly recommended. For those who have forgotten what happened, one of the NPCs provides an optional recap to remind players of how Larry has ended up stranded on the island of Cancum. Since losing the love of his life, Faith, at the end of the previous game Larry has somehow been roped into marrying the most beautiful woman in the village. He’s not too sure about the wedding, though, especially as he’s not allowed to see his bride beforehand. However, when he discovers that Faith is not only alive but might be lost somewhere at sea, Larry quickly bails on his wedding and sets out in search. Thankfully, he still has his PiPhone with him, along with the personal assistant on it that helps him out and tries to keep him in line. Despite setting out on an ocean voyage with little more than a raft built out of junk Larry manages to track Faith down to a series of islands, which is where most of his adventures in this game are set.

Anyone who has played the prequel, or point and click adventure games in general, will know exactly what to expect from Wet Dreams Dry Twice. Larry has to once again explore his surroundings and pick up anything that can be swiped in the hopes that it will help solve a puzzle somewhere. Along the way, he can interact with a crazy cast of characters who will either help him out or get in the way of what he is trying to accomplish. WDDT features a cast of over 40 characters, although a few of them are returning faces from the previous game. Larry’s primary quest in this game is to track down Faith, but it soon becomes clear that he’s not the only one searching for her. Since her disappearance, her old company, Prune, has fallen under new management with a CEO that is even more unscrupulous than Bill Jobs.

Larry ends up with an assassin tailing him on his travels, but as is expected from his personality, simply thinks that he has a stalker. Surprisingly, Larry even ends up having sex with her, which is one of the things that is a little odd about WDDT. Unlike previous Larry games where the protagonist is desperate to “score” and usually end up in ridiculous or embarrassing situations in the process, Larry is quite a ladies man in this game. Almost all of the women that he encounters in WDDT are happy to throw themselves at him even if they complain about his performance afterward. It gets to a point where Larry even has sex with a ghost simply because she feels like she missed out on the act while still alive and would like to experience it before moving on. Instead of making the woman “prizes” for Larry to win as in some of the previous games, sex with them are now just extra steps in whatever puzzle that he is trying to solve, which isn’t much better.

The story in WDDT isn’t too bad and the whole island vibe of the game is a nice throwback to Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (in Several Wrong Places.) There are more than 50 hand-drawn locations in the game and it is definitely one of Larry’s lengthier adventures. The art style is the same as the previous game but looks good and there are plenty of pop culture references everywhere. On the other hand, each location is also filled with at least one phallic-shaped object, which kind of cheapens the gag. The amount of suggestive imagery is also ironic considering how vehemently the developers have been about their stance against nudity in the game. At least the sunny island locations are a lot different from the seedy ones where Larry spent most of his time in the previous game. Along with the large hotel and its surroundings on Kalua’a, Larry also gets to visit Muffington Island, which is inhibited by lesbian cannibals, GoFuku Island, where a group of sci-fi nerds hangs out, and more. The amount of locations and the large inventory of objects that Larry can carry around does mean that there is plenty of backtracking involved, which can become somewhat annoying. It’s also impossible to fast travel directly to many locations. So, for example, if Larry is on Muffington Island and wants to visit one of the hotel rooms on Kalua’a he has to travel to the island by raft, walk through two exterior locations to reach the lobby, then take an elevator up to the room. It also feels like the maze beneath Prune Headquarters, where the final act takes place, was added just to pad out the game in the most annoying way possible. Thankfully, the final set of puzzles in the game makes up for this, especially if you are a longtime fan of the series who can still remember the EGA days of the original series.

It sounds like all the voice actors and actresses from the previous games have reprised their roles for WDDT, so the game sounds good. The same goes for the music and sound effects, which are all very fitting for a Larry game. Although WDDT has quite a few challenging puzzles, the game shouldn’t pose too much trouble for veteran fans of the genre. A few of the puzzles had us stumped for a bit, but thankfully there were only a couple of genuinely obscure ones. The interface for the game is very easy with a left-click to interact with objects and a right-click to examine things. It’s also refreshing not to pixel hunt for usable objects as holding down space bar or the middle mouse button highlights everything that Larry can interact with. Accessing your inventory is also as easy as scrolling the mouse wheel which, considering the number of times you have to do it, is a blessing. Larry can still carry around an obscene amount of stuff, even if it would be physically impossible. Suffice to say that at a certain point in the game he was even carrying around a drunk pig in his pocket. Larry’s handy PiPhone, also comes with a to-do list, which makes it easier to keep track of what he still has to accomplish in the game. Along with it, there is also a blueprint app, which helps when it comes to combining objects to create some of the larger items needed in the game.

Our biggest complaint about WDDT is that there is virtually no laugh out loud moments in the game. Sure, the game is filled with an ungodly amount of puns, but many of the actual jokes feel a little dated. The most obvious example would be the “Galaxy Festival” that was supposed to be held on the island but turned out to be a huge scam. Some of the other humorous elements in the game are also a bit hit or miss, but at least all the nods to genre classics are quite cool. The game is also still very enjoyable and solving some of the tougher puzzles feels very satisfying. While it might not be the Larry game that some old school fans would have wanted, it is a great sequel to Wet Dreams Don’t Dry. Despite some annoyances, this is a point and click adventure that we recommend to all fans of the genre.