Groundhog Day
Randal’s Monday is an indie-point and click (or Point and Geek as they call it) adventure from Daedelic Entertainment. It stars a man named Randal who is an immature, kleptomaniac who ends up pawning his best friend’s engagement ring. What follows is a Groundhog Day situation where he must relive the same day trying to fix what goes wrong…
It’s very much your typical point and click game, although the puzzles require more “Monkey Island” thinking, luckily you can go to the hints menu and find exactly what to do…at the cost of killing cats by clicking a button, which also nets you achievements (which is always good) and sometimes it’s necessary since the solution would have you scratching your head for hours, if not days otherwise. The story itself is priceless with hilarious dialogue from start to finish, it also includes plenty of game, TV and film references including lines that involve the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda, a reference to Jessica Chobot and signs for Futurama drink “Slurm” and Simpsons’ own “Duff”.
The cast of characters make Randal’s Monday shine; even during some of the more frustrating puzzles you’ll get a laugh or two from someone. The locations vary well and although it’s not the longest game, I found myself going through it at least twice to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The cartoon-style of the game really sold it for me…even if it’s not the best animated game there is, it still looks pretty impressive for an indie game.
The voice-acting is superb with Jeff Anderson, best known for starring as Randal Graves in Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Clerks II, voice acting the main character in the game, as well as helping with the script and in-game dialogues and Jason Mewes of Jay and Silent Bob is also present in the game as his most famous character. The music is also pretty good, I will say though that the sound quality itself is a mixed bag, especially the opening cutscene…I found it way too loud to hear clearly, but other than that…the presentation is impressive.
The Verdict
While not exactly reinventing the point and click genre, Randal’s Monday is an impressive effort with hilarious dialogue, tough puzzles, and a great cast of characters…not to mention a damn funny story too. If you’ve been missing the classic point and click game, then look no further….
