Thimbleweed Park Reviews

A point and click adventure for the now, Thimbleweed Park takes everything great about classic Lucasfilm games and leaves out the flaws. You might not love all the central characters, but this is as  weird and compelling a town as Twin Peaks.

Point-and-click beginners may struggle with the myriad puzzles Thimbleweed Park lays across its curiosity-piquing plot, but its developers have rightfully made it possible to get ahead even when all you see are dead ends, with the inclusion of the tips line. It means that what would have been an essential only for a very specific audience is, with no explicit fail states, easy for anyone to not just enjoy, but actually finish. And going around for a second time is still a treat, much as Monkey Island et al were, as you can clearly see all the pieces of the grander picture coming together to comprise a fascinating whole, climaxing with one of gaming’s better twists.

A buddy-cop duo, a gypsy-cursed clown, and a hopeful video game developer walk into a reboot of Maniac Mansion. Jokes ensue. Thimbleweed Park's sense of humor works best if you can easily laugh at easy laughs. It's a great throwback, but I don't expect today's adventure games to borrow much from this lovingly refurbished template. You don't have to be a Gen X'er to appreciate it, but it wouldn't hurt.

A point-and-click adventure bound to make you feel old while bringing a smile to you face.

Thimbleweed Park is a game that was created with a specific audience in mind, and that audience is adults who grew up on classic LucasArts adventure games.  If you’re part of that audience, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  If you aren’t, there really isn’t much for you here.

Thimbleweed Park’s problems all stem from the fact that it’s a Kickstarter game that is not afraid to please its fans. If it’s anything at all, Thimbleweed Park is a brave game. It’s a standalone adventure with no sequel tie-ins. It’s a self-contained story with interesting characters and an intriguing mystery to solve. It’s unafraid to embrace its heritage and it’s not afraid of modernising to improve on the old formula. Possibly bravest of all, though, it’s an old-school point and click graphical adventure game. As a fan, it’s everything you could want it to be; *BLEEP* everybody else.

Thimbleweed Park is a game that will resonate strongly with those who enjoy adventure games, and especially fans of some of the older games in the genre. It is a labour of love and that’s something that shines through the game. There are points though where some puzzles can feel a bit too obtuse in relation to their end goals, leading to a bit of frustration, though that can be countered with the casual mode. Thimbleweed is a strong entry to the adventure genre from the minds of those who helped cement it, though it can be tough at times.

The best point ‘n’ click adventure since the glory days of LucasArts, filled with smart dialogue and even smarter puzzles.

When the Kickstarter for Thimbleweed Park was launched, the stated goal was to create a game that plays like a lost LucasArts adventure title. In my opinion the developers succeeded brilliantly, creating a game that feels like a forgotten relic of LucasArts’ heyday, but with enough touches to make it a little more relevant to a modern audience. It’s fair to say no one makes them like this anymore, particularly since Telltale discovered a more lucrative formula based on popular franchises and keeping track of player actions. It was a rare pleasure to get to play a game like this again. I had a blast exploring Thimbleweed Park, and if you’ve ever enjoyed telling Bernard Bernoulli or Guybrush Threepwood what to do, you will too.

Instead, Thimbleweed Park shows that adventure games very much have a place in 2017 as they did in the '80s and '90s thanks to its loving callbacks to the genre, but also its willingness to improve upon them in many ways. As the game's trailers have used the slogan that "a dead body is the least of your problems" in the game's dilapidated town, Thimbleweed Park hides many more secrets and ways of enjoying it beyond its murder-mystery plot, for those willing to look just a little bit deeper.

Something strange is going on in this town.

You certainly get your $20’s worth out of Thimbleweed Park. The voice cast doesn’t elevate the script in the way they always did in the LucasArts “talky” days, but an enjoyable, self-referential story and hundreds of puzzles to solve make it worthy of a place on your shelf next to Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island.

Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick’s new point-n’-click adventure game is about, well, point-n'-click adventure games.

Thimbleweed Park provides a very intriguing, out of the box story and well thought out characters, but the determination to adhere to retro adventure game mechanics can be a bit of a hindrance.

After the slight disappointment of Broken Age I’m happy to say that LucasArts veterans doing Kickstarters can still result in a great adventure game. Thimbleweed Park has a few small flaws but nothing that stopped me immensely enjoying myself. This is very much a classic comedy adventure in the LucasArts style, and that’s exactly what I wanted. Don’t expect massive dramatic character arcs but do expect really fun insane characters that you’ll want to spend all your time with, along wi...

Spiritual successors are abundant in video games, and often developers hope to deliberately evoke nostalgia to remind us of the old days. Thimbleweed Park, a point-and-click adventure game from the co-creators of 1987’s Maniac Mansion, rides on that sensation, but has enough of a modern touch to feel fresh. Thimbleweed Park knows the past wasn’t always better, as it mends the flaws of classic adventure games with more logical puzzles, while still being a love letter to a bygone era. It is an enthralling, quirky game that genre enthusiasts can appreciate, but remains inviting enough for modern audiences.