I tried to finish Time Gentlemen, Please! (TGP). Really, I did. While I did find that my UI/UX issues from the previous game (Ben There, Dan That!) were addressed, it seemed like the developers became conscious of their not-so-humorous sense of humor and took it to further extremes. Not to mention, the concept of time traveling adds another “dimension” (if it were a 3D game instead of a 2D game, I’d consider labeling it a 4D game) of complexity to the point I essentially got lost and my interest followed it out the window.

TGP is a continuation of Ben There, Dan That! (BTDT). While BTDT was straightforward, TGP feels more meandering with puzzles involving revisiting older areas. From the previous game, Ben and Dan find themselves as dictators of a brain-washed world. In their negligence, they manage to kill off the world’s population (except for themselves) in the space of 2 weeks. So, they decide to use the time travel stick obtained in BTDT to stop their past selves from sticking a clothes hanger out the window. How do they do this? By preventing the clothes hanger from being invented in the first place…

Controls are more or less the same with some tweaks. The UI has changed only slightly (there is now an obnoxious curtain cord to remind players that there is a menu up top). I was amused, when I first started the game, that instead of being simply pointed to the top of the screen where the inventory and other menu options lay, there was a little sticky note letting you know you can right click to change the action. I learned that I could also use the scroll wheel to also change the action. Unfortunately, it does not differentiate between an upward scroll and a downward scroll, so to go from one action to another may involve an entire cycle.

Controls aside, I was excited to start the game but the excitement quickly went downhill. There are more sexual innuendos. About 50% of the time pretty much outright lines rather than witty banter. And some of the topics are not brought up just once, but multiple times. It reminded me of teenagers. As a sequel that takes place only 2 weeks later, Ben and Dan should not be devolving into teenagers but that is how it felt to me.

The puzzles are a little more complex. The design of the puzzles are meant to encourage the player to revisit old areas because new methods might be available to pick up items previously left behind. For example, when Ben and Dan travel to Nazi Germany, they are captured and thrown into prison. The prison cell has a hanging cage with a skeleton holding a diskette. Ben clearly states that he wants the diskette, but there’s nothing (at that point) you can use to get it, so you go on your merry way. A few puzzles later, you encounter a computer. Requiring a diskette. Well, unless you have good memory or are playing it in one sitting, the thought of the diskette back in the jail cell might have been pushed out of your memory. It was in mine, but I was also playing in short bursts every other day or so. Nonetheless, I encountered this issue a few times before deciding to put the game down and move on.

Another issue I found was because you are essentially forced to revisit areas, you are never quite sure you got everything done before moving on. I spent a lot of time in a cave trying to set a fire under a pig, but was told it needed fuel. I tried using a flask of oil on the coals underneath, but Ben refused to use the oil on it. Eventually I consulted a guide and found that I had done all that I could at that point.

I think what really killed it for me was the sense of humor that was more crude than refined. Meandering puzzles I have a little more patience with, but the core of the first game seemed to be lacking in this sequel. I’m not particularly interested in knowing the rest of the story, either, and I take that to be a telling sign. That said, if you can handle the crude humor, playing the game through should be doable. The length of the game is a little longer than BTDT and the puzzles a little more complex, but all doable in a weekend if you are willing to sink in the hours.