Finished Scott Whiskers: The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw in 10 hours!

It takes a long time for someone to show up here...

Even though it has its flaws, I did enjoy playing through it. I kinda rolled into it the further I got, it's fun doing all the quests. The art style might not have always been my thing, but there are some good scenes as well. I often stumbled upon what I call chronology errors in the dialogue options; to give an example, it's sometimes possible to ask a character something with dialogue option #4 first, which then contains information Scott only acquires by asking dialogue option #2, so which should be impossible chronologically speaking. But even if that part of the conditional programming could have have used a bit more work, all the different storylines still pulled me in and made me want to complete them. 

Now these are very transparant living arrangements...

The final chapter wasn’t that long but still well designed. I finally met the owner of the back alley business that was always deserted for most of the game, and finally a connection with the first NPC you meet in the game. Turns out I actually found Mr. Fumbleclaw pretty early on at the start of the third and last chapter, but then my objective changed a bit, which led to a couple more good puzzles. What I really enjoyed in this game is that you can take a Polaroid photo of all NPC’s; they’re actually the Steam Achievements! Sadly enough I figured out pretty late how I had to recharge the camera, and by then one of the NPC’s was no longer available, so I didn’t get 100% achievement!

There's something hidden here and it's not what you think...

There was a funny section where you listen to an NPC who is playing through the original Police Quest off-screen, though some people might find it a bit long-winded, but then again I never watch videos or streams of people playing games myself so that might be my reason for thinking so (I tried making playthrough videos once but they weren’t very popular it seems so I stopped doing that, lol!)

Mission accomplished!

Overall, it was a fun game but perhaps a different kind of funny. I didn't think it was as "laugh out loud" funny, it's not that "in your face", it's more "silly" funny. Should I compare it to Lucasarts Games, it's no Sam & Max or Day of the Tentacle, but more Monkey Island and Indiana Jones. A more serious premise but still including humor. I think the dev and I look at puzzle designs in very similar ways. I see the obstacle, I imagine a possible solution, so then when I eventually find what I need I just need to take it back to the obstacle. Even the instance where Scott mentions "moon logic" was pretty obvious for me.

I'm certainly looking forward to see what this developer does next!

You can find Scott Whiskers here!

Reached chapter three of Scott Whiskers: The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw after eight hours of playing.

It's true I'm not overly critical...

I just finished one huge puzzle, where I had to assist a movie director with some problems on his set. I’m actually not quite sure why I had to do all that, since I’m supposed to be looking for the cat Mr. Fumbleclaw. But Scott keeps telling people he loves solving problems and will gladly put his main objectives aside for that. But yeah, it was actually a pretty fun puzzle that took me quite a bit to figure out all necessary elements.

That is one good looking dog!

Turns out that now, finally, the local veterinarian has opened up his business. That’s the one place I couldn’t really explore yet.

What a maniacal looking mansion...

The only thing that keeps bothering me a bit, is the many black screens where you’d expect some kind of extra animation. Sometimes it works and it’s even funny, but sometimes there’s an entire conversation happening “off-screen” so to speak. Thankfully there are also some good cut-scenes.

My Steam library of unplayed games...

There was a pretty long section where the developer promotes an earlier game of his, which is probably inspired by Cobb advertising Loom in The Secret of Monkey Island (next to Futurama, obviously) but a lot more elaborate and this particular NPC really has no other reason to be there, though for a moment I thought it would lead to another puzzle, but there was never such an objective added to the in-game journal.

You can find Scott Whiskers here!

Four hours into Scott Whiskers: The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw and I’ve reached chapter two!

Meet Ricky, hairdresser of the furs!

After visiting the pet salon where Mr. Fumbleclaw was last seen, I snuck my way into the security room at the police station to check the surveillance tapes. Captain Pauli, guardian of the realm, is easily my favorite character in this game. They really got his graphic design nailed, because he actually looks like some real cops I know, lol! And I even found my own likeness between all of the wanted posters on the bulletin board (a reward I received for testing this game…)

Lies, all lies!

A trip to the post office gave me several leads as to where Mr. Fumbleclaw could’ve ended up. I visited a bunch of new locations, talked to some extra characters, and now I’m trying to figure out where to go and what to do. I have a feeling there’s a clear order in how to go about this next section, so I think I’ve got a lot of running back and forth ahead of me.

You gather quite an array of inventory items in this game...

I must admit though, a couple of exterior background designs of these new locations lack a bit of quality compared to what I’ve seen so far. And there are a couple of cliché characters some players might take offense to; Alfredo, the very much Italian accented pizzeria owner (and the Tarantella Napoletana constantly playing in the background doesn’t really help either), and Ricky, hairdresser of the pets.

Of course I am!

You can find Scott Whiskers here!

New game: "Scott Whiskers: The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw" playthrough

New game!

I've started Scott Whiskers: The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw and I'm 1 hour into it!

I'm the titular Scott Whiskers, volunteer at the local animal shelter who is called in for some work, since his colleague Jack couldn't make it. Once the chores are completed, a missing cat poster calls for my attention. The cat is Mr. Fumbleclaw, and if the title of the game is anything to go by, I'll probably be looking for him for a loooong time...

Now that's one fine looking feline...

It's a cool point-and-click adventure game with 3D characters moving around in what at first glance look like pretty simple environments, but there's something curvy, optical illusiony about them. They're a bit like the realistic backgrounds of the Pendulo Studio games in a King of the Hill style, but combined with some of the geometry of Day of the Tentacle.

That's some crazy architecture...

The puzzles are pretty basic inventory puzzles, at least so far. What I noticed, and luckily very early in the game, is that you can examine hotspots multiple times, and instead of the typically repeated generic responses, Scott will have something different to say two, sometimes three times.

Hello Scott, I'll be controlling your life from now on...

If you're a friend of felines, this game is for you! If you're a canine companion, however, you better brace yourself for some dissing on dogs (not really, I just liked the alliteration :D) Scott once owned a dog he loved very much, but he's mainly concentrating on cats now, so it's all in good nature. Me, I'm a dog lover, but I don't have anything against cats, so it's definitely a fun game to play.

Yowza!

I've visited the Longbottom mansion, former home of Mr. Fumbleclaw. The lord and lady of the house are quite the characters, not to mention their daughter Susie. I finally got a lead on where the cat was last seen, so now I'm going to explore the rest of the city. Let's go on a cat quest!

You can find Scott Whiskers here!