Missing celebrities found in "Les Manley in: Lost in L.A."!

You watch that bay, dude!

After exploring L.A. during my previous game session, I didn't really have a clue as to where to go or what to do next. Thankfully the solution soon presented itself, but also leads me to a big gripe I have about Les Manley in: Lost in L.A.: the fickleness of the walk-icon! Coupled with the fact that I didn't know how to open up the map from my inventory, I often spent some time frantically clicking the borders of my screen to get Les to move to the next screen. This also means that sometimes, I didn't even realize there was a next screen!

Look behind you! A two-headed... No, better not go there...

So after I pretty much accidentally stumbled onto the beach I hadn't yet found earlier, the game took off again with one thing leading to another. Since I'd already done most of my other exploring, I quickly figured out where to go next this time, and I could finally enter the mud-wrestling club as well, which led to a cutscene consisting of a series of still shots of bikini- and lingerie-clad women, immediately making obvious this game's notoriety.

So this was the hideout all along?! Would never have guessed!

Next up it was straight gaming into the finale, though not without a couple of reloads because I had missed some things and found myself in a soft lock, though thankfully not as many as in the first game. By now I must confess the game had grown on me a bit. Yes, it's cheesy as hell, and you don't want to ignore Les's touch-icon, especially near the end. And yes, there were even some genuinely funny moments. Though only some absurd ones that only seem to exist as an excuse to hand Les an inventory item he will need to tackle some obstacle later on.

I don't think Les is in for a nice massage...

After almost three hours of gaming, I reached the end, which was much faster than I had antipicated. Truth be told, I expected to get stuck a lot more times, similar to the first game. Instead, there were enough clues to keep you going, and even when I encountered a game-over screen, the text shown would give a suggestion on what I should better think of the next time. Not really giving away the solution but at least making you aware that you're still missing something and thus nudging you in the right direction.

I wouldn't really go that far, personally...

In the end, I enjoyed this game a lot more than the first game, but of course I was pre-warned how terrible it would be. So with very low expectations, I can certainly say it was indeed an improvement, but perhaps too silly a story and also too 1991 to pass not only today's standards but also today's morals and values (though sometimes reading the news and watching TV I do doubt if things have rilly changed that much since then...)

Next up I'll play a more modern game again - though it's almost twenty years old as well by now! - about a female vampire, since there's a sequel in the works...

You can find Les Manley in: Lost in L.A. on Steam and on GOG!

Classic playthrough: "Les Manley in: Lost in L.A."

"New" game!

After the disaster that was Les Manley in: Search for the King, my sadomasochistic side played up again and enticed me to boot up its sequel, Les Manley in: Lost in L.A. Now, considering the current climes, the only way you could find me lost in L.A. is indeed in computer game form. But the change from a text parser to a true point 'n click interface did fill me with a little bit of hope; though I also heard mention that this sequel makes the first game appear like LeChuck's Revenge...

Ooh, inventory...

The story so far: Helmut Bean, tiniest man in the world who helped me retrieve something from a pool drain in the first game, is now living the L.A. dream with actress LaFonda Turner, only to find himself kidnapped like so many other celebrities seem to be these days. After he called me, Les Manley, to come and visit him, he's nowhere to be found. The quest to find him naturally falls to me, then.

No way to get lost with such a detailed map...

So for about an hour I've been traipsing all over L.A., talking to some people, acquiring a handful of inventory items, like a fake celebrity selfie, a spare travel map for some reason, an elastic piece of pigeon poo (!) and a free pass for a mud wrestling club. The logical places to visit won't let me in yet. So these obstacles still need to be vanquished, though I have no idea what exactly that will lead to. But some items come without a clear goal of where to go and what to do with them exactly. Which is classic adventure game fare, of course...  

Yes, be your own game and stop referencing the clichés...

I guess there's nothing else to do for now than revisit all locations and see if there's something else I can do there. So far I'm quite appreciative of the smart-cursor interface, the graphics style and, well, the typical 90s style adventure game music. I have a feeling this game is also more forgiving than its predecessor, though it's still early days and I might regret having said that that in my next blog post...

You can find Les Manley in: Lost in L.A. on Steam and on GOG!

Finished "Les Manley in: Search for The King" but not without lots of help!

Phew, glad that's over with...

Yes! Les Manley in: Search for The King, this evil spawn of text parser moon logic, has been vanquished! My final impression of this game: how are you supposed to figure out half of this stuff? Like asking for a soda. And how you can make a sandwich without even knowing there's bread around. And apparently there are many uses of candle wax I wasn't aware of. I also had to look up a word I had never encountered before: rosin, a solid form of resin, which provides grip for gymnast, but which seems to have the exact opposite effect in this game for some reason... And "the dream"! How out of the box are we supposed to think here?

Creative candle holders...

So, once I had figured out I needed to gather pieces of a look-a-like costume, I was better able to focus my search. Back at the circus, I also discovered a new location in the form of Madama Zamooska's fortune telling wagon. Her hypnotic blue eyes didn't really have much to offer, and then she even vanished when I got too close to her, but at least then she couldn't stop me from further examining the stuff on her table, even if that didn't give me any new ideas, either. But by now I had a couple of items in my inventory, so I referred to the age old technique of trying to use everything on everything. I went back to the other circus people and went through the list, when suddenly Luigi, the strongest man in the world, accepted something and finally started his act. I still don't know why...

Still no idea if this place serves a purpose...

Then I went on a limb and tried to give a hungry lion the only food I had on me, even though it wasn't meat as the beast's thought balloon seemed to prefer. Thankfully it worked and I was able to discover another part of the costume. Which I probably wouldn't have recognized if I hadn't skipped ahead first in my previous playthrough to figure out what I was actually looking for. Which left Helmut, the smallest man in the world, and that's the point where I'm sorry to admit I consulted an article written by Richard Cobbett which can also function as a walkthrough. And while I feel bad about that, I also don't because no way would I have been able to figure out how to help Helmut. But then I had to reload from an earlier point, after accidentally losing Helmut when I finally moved on to Las Vegas.

Cuter than Lo Fat, at least...

The Vegas sequence was a bit easier, but perhaps only because by now I had come to expect the limited replies from the text parser, so I knew I had to go into detail myself. I had learned by now that usually it wasn't enough to just look at objects; you have to look inside them as well. There was a kind of invisible door I didn't notice at first and an item in a bathroom I hadn't realized was there, either. But at least it was more logical than some of the things I had to do before. Finally moving on to Graceland, I still got the message that I might have forgotten something. But by the life of me I had no idea what that could be. So back to the walkthrough it was, and turns out there was indeed a part of the costume to be found at the pool of the Las Vegas hotel. I had actually seen that place, but other than getting myself killed there I had no idea what you were supposed to do. I guess in hindsight it was obvious, looking at all the pictures of The King, but still, quite far-fetched...

Wish I had gone on vacation instead of playing this game...

The final sequence at Graceland was quite straightforward, except for the invisible bread I mentioned earlier. There was one other issue where I had to reload again because I didn't notice I lost one of my inventory items at an earlier puzzle; and yes, I had to take a peek at the walkthrough for both these issues, sadly enough... I guess the second one is on me, but the bread is unforgivable: there is absolutely no indication, not a single description mentioning the bread is there. I can't call this anything other than bad design.

Johnny has left the game, thank you very much...

So all this led to a very strange but eventually happy ending. I won't play it straightaway, but I heard the sequel, Lost in L.A. has dropped the text parser for a point 'n click interface, so at least I have that to look forward to. Lets hope the rest of the game design is more user-friendly as well. Next up, though, I'm going to play a more recent game about a teenage girl growing up on an island, because its sequel is coming out this month and I want to be prepared!

I don't know why you'd want to, but you can find Les Manley in: Search for The King on Steam and on GOG!

Working backwards in "Les Manley in: Search for The King"

Some heavy thumb usage...

Feeling totally lost during my first playing session of Les Manley in: Search for the King, I decided to give up my plans of a normal playthrough and instead just try to see how far the soft locks would still get me. After all, when I first reached Las Vegas, I got a message I probably didn't have with me everything I needed, but I could continue playing anyway. I also knew from that overview map there is a third location, a type of Graceland. Working on a hunch, and after some creative use with the text parser, I actually succeeded in getting there as well, once more with a message I might have forgotten some things.

Roadtrip!

But doing this finally made clear my primary goal in this game. After traipsing around on another overview map, I wound up at a pub with quite an ostentative banner for a look-a-like contest. So I have to dress up like The King! Now, all that's left is figuring out how exactly to do that, since so far I haven't seen anything that might be part of such a costume.

Where to go?

So I went all the way back to the start, and focused on the first obvious puzzle: getting those keys from my boss's desk. Once more that took asking the exact right question with the text parser, after finally obtaining an easy to miss clue in Les's office. You might think this got the ball rolling, as such a thing would often cause a domino effect in adventure games. Sadly, not so here, and I kept getting stuck.

Being held hostage...

Literally, even. Besides not knowing how to help some people at the circus, like Helmut the world's smallest man, and Luigi the world's strongest man, I wound up inside the house of a woman who is a big King fan and actually has part of his costume on display, but she didn't allow me to leave anymore once I sat down on her couch! Trying everything I can come up with in the text parser, three hours into the game I'm starting to wish for a point 'n click remake of this game, with a more intuitive control system and at least a bit more signposting... Preferably made by text parser queen Julia Minamata! I'm clearly missing lots of stuff here, things that were probably very obvious to the developers at the time but that I'm just not able yet to link together... I think it might be time to consult a walkthrough...

If you're really sure, you can find Les Manley in: Search for The King on Steam and on GOG!

Classic time: "Les Manley in: Search for The King"

New game!

I don't know why I never played the Les Manley games by Accolade before. I think it's because I had the assumption they were just Leisure Suit Larry clones, too sexual themed for my taste. Turns out that's totally not the case for Les Manley in: Search for The King. 

What a crummy office...

Les Manley works for a television network that has just launched a competition to get more viewers. The first person who succeeds in sending in a photograph of the legendary musician The King will win one million dollars! Of course Les jumps on this opportunity and plans to take a snapshot of The King during his lunch break.

Saw that coming from a mile away...

I didn't take long to get my first death scene. I could easily have avoided it but I didn't really know what else to do so I just went for it. This is a text parser game, predating the point 'n click era, which makes it very hard to find the things you need. Especially when the first command you would normally type - look around - doesn't provide any clues whatsoever. You get a description, but it doesn't mention anything you might examine next.

Looks like a fun place...

After leaving the office, I found a couple of other locations without any clear goals of what to do there. There's a bus station that doesn't seem to lead anywhere, and a circus where I got eaten by a lion. I was also accidentally launched all the way to the other side of the United States by walking onto the High Striker platform. Looks like I'm actually supposed to do that, but I got a message that I probably didn't have all necessary inventory items with me yet, so I guess I softlocked myself there...

Where's Reece Witherspoon?

I did succeed in earning myself a free ticket from the circus director by helping him out with the elephants, though it took me several tries in formulating the right commands in the text parser. But after one hour of playing, I still have no clear idea of what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm just trying stuff out and hoping for no more death scenes or softlock instances. I better dust off my English vocabulary and try to beat this text parser mechanic...

You can find Les Manley in: Search for The King on Steam and on GOG!