Telltale’s Wallace and Gromit: The Last Resort is a hilarious adventure game. In this installment, Wallace and Gromit plan a holiday at the seaside only to be derailed by some bad weather. Not only is the holiday off, but Wallace and Gromit’s basement is flooded by plumbing problems. In true Wallace fashion, the underappreciated inventor schemes to open a beach resort in the flooded basement. But it won’t be Wallace and Gromit without things going horribly awry. For Wallace and Gromit fans, it’s sure to please.

If you are a fan of the Telltale series, you will be happy to know that the gameplay is the same as the previous installment, Fright of the Bumblebees. Like other adventure games, the gameplay of The Last Resort involves interacting with elements of the environment to collect items and clues to solve puzzles. The player is once again transported to West Wallaby St. to gather clues by interacting with familiar residents (and some new ones) to solve the abovementioned puzzles. This definitely showcases the great job the animators did on the characters. The puzzles themselves aren’t that difficult and you won’t find yourself horribly perplexed or at a loss. With generous hints provided by the characters, many of the puzzles can be straight forward (this can be changed with the “hint-o-meter”).

Like the previous installment, The Last Resort is broken into chapters with a particular goal (i.e.-collecting items to set up a beach resort) and the player takes turns playing as Gromit or Wallace to complete each chapter. Once the “resort” is established, the action moves to keeping the “patrons” happy with their beachside holiday. The chapter, Hounds of Horror, was also a nice departure into the realm of mystery and added a new dimension to an otherwise run of the mill point and click adventure game.

My only criticism on gameplay is that at times the dialogue/story dominated over actual gameplay, that’s the only area where The Last Resort fell short for me. I found myself playing more to see where the story took me versus the mental challenge. For a casual game audience this works and I didn’t think it took away from the experience. Also, I wish I could have seen more of the Rube Goldberg type machine puzzles as in Bumblebees. Challenge aside, the colorful dialogue and humorous story will keep you engaged in the game. Telltale made this episode standalone, so don’t worry if you haven’t played episode 1.

With The Last Resort, Telltale has continued the precedent set by Fright of the Bumblebees with their top of the line animation style. I’m still impressed by the way the animators have captured the claymation feel and even the facial expressions of Gromit. In this regard, the animators did a great job on the characters. The outside environment could use a little more work. Some of the environments seemed a little drabber this time around, but I think that’s the point – with a beach resort in a cellar and all.

Telltale continues to impress with the music and sound effects. Hats off to the top-notch voice acting, I felt like I was instantly transported to West Wallaby St., which is to say, subtitles were helpful at times. This is an essential component in Telltale’s objective of making a playable Wallace and Gromit episode. I only experienced some minor interruptions in the dialogue, but it didn’t ruin the game for me. Since much of the puzzle solving revolves around the characters interactions, it’s important to get these little things right. And Telltale got this one right – Spot on!

The Last Resort is a good additional to the Telltale Wallace and Gromit adventures; however, both games lack a certain replay value. Fans of Wallace and Gromit are sure to be happy with the latest installment, but it’s hard to see the fun in solving the same puzzles over and over. Additionally, the action is limited to a few environments which also cuts down on some replay value. On the positive, the player tends to feel injected into an episode of Wallace and Gromit and it’s great to experience the franchise from an interactive perspective. So far, Telltale has done a great job bringing the Grand Adventures home.