Litera and Akella bring us back, if only for a little while, to the old days when Adventures and Quest games were the king with their latest Wild Wild West game: The Bad, the Ugly and the Sober. And it's nice to be back! I remember in the old days when I used to spend hours on Lucas Arts games like Day of the Tentacle or Indiana Jones. The Bad, the Ugly and the Sober manages to recreate some of the thrill and excitement of the old school Adventures.

Story

You start as Jack, a now retired fast-draw sharp-shooter veritable cowboy. Kind at heart, Jack saves an Indian that is being chased by bandits. But because no good deed goes unpunished, you soon find out you messed with Black Bill, the most notorious bandit in the West. He and his gang manage to get revenge on you by burning down your house and all your possessions. Homeless and without any money, you head for Westtown, the nearest town to where you are now.

When you find out there is a major bandit-tournament, and that the winner will get quite some cash as a price, you decide you are going to win this and rebuild your home... and your life.

This is how the adventure starts for good ol' Jack... and for you, my reader.

What else you should know

Like every classic Adventure (yes, I'm going to call it a classic) there are objects to interact with, look at, pick up, and of course you have an inventory. Some actions are more obvious than others. While this is a fun game with really addictive music I must say, you will most definitely get stuck in a few situations, squashing your brains to end up with a solution to a problem. While older gamers will most certainly enjoy a challenge, most kids may not have the patience to investigate every aspect in order to "solve the case". The reward consists in solving a tough puzzle after a day's work for example, wondering around, clicking stuff and asking indiscrete questions.

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There are a few things I can tell you that will help you a lot with playing the game. Inspecting an object more than once is the key to success! You will see a "binoculars" icon whenever your mouse is over an object that Jack can look at. He will say something about that object. Click your mouse one more for another observation. Do this until he has no more new lines to say about it. This way you can't miss anything important. Some objects are only available to be picked up after a few examinations.

Don't forget to combine objects together in your inventory! Least imaginable scenarios can work where a logical solution might not. For example, you find an old boot right at the beginning, and you have a pocket knife on you. You will have to use the pocket knife to cut open the boot and get a ticket from it.

Talk to everyone and everything, and last but not least use inventory objects on stuff!

General thoughts

The Bad, the Ugly and the Sober revitalizes Adventure games with 3D interactive backgrounds, cool music and atmosphere, and promising voice acting and sounds (even though the version I tested didn't have the final and all voices and sounds). The decision to make it a classic style Quest game has its advantages and of course... disadvantages. A lot of fun and great casual gameplay, smart texts and funny jokes with references to games like Fallout... or to Bill Gates... "the slowest gunner in the West"; but also quite a few moments of "downtime" where you don't know what to do... and where a lot of patience is required.

Add to all that a few interesting mini-games based on reaction time like a boxing match with a bandit, or a cool Wild Wild West style gun-fight and you're beginning to see the whole picture about this game.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this game personally, for a multitude of reasons. A classic Adventure for the genre fans that may attract other players as well. Even if your game of choice is the newest fast-paced action shooter, beat'-em'-up or MMO, you might want to take a break sometime from all that action and enjoy a nice cup of coffee maybe along with a few clicks in The Bad, the Ugly and the Sober. But if patience is not your thing, this isn't the game for you.