Having recently had to replay this (past two years) to test out if a bug existed in SCUMMVM and replaying it now, I did find that it wasn’t as tedious as before because I remembered some of the more difficult/tedious puzzles.
I find it to be a better game on first sitting than in later ones, with more gags and looking around and completely useless dialogue and mini-games.
As was with this era in total, the manual is a mandatory part of the game.
I remember the final puzzles for the totems to be a bit meh and quizzical first time around, and even this time I simply didn’t remember where the last ‘pond’ was and how to get there, which requires a bit better telegraphing on how to get around and what to do.
Overall I find it less enjoyable vs. other Lucas games, although due to the lack of seriousness still better than the dig.
I can understand the US-centric viewpoint which is a bit of a downer, although they were rather well known in Europe, such as ‘completely useless landmark for a place that is otherwise not known for anything (see ball of twine)’ or a fast-food chain which is everywhere, but has a bit of local flair (I assume people noticed while visiting each Snuckey’s location).
Having played the TellTale games also for this month, I can see where some of the (internal) political and geographical commentary comes from.
Too bad we never really got the comics here before the game.
