In the recent years, point and click games have taken a backseat, as they are slower, and less energetic than other games. Using solely the mouse for control makes the player feel like they’re doing less. The Next Big Thing hopes to revitalize the point and click adventure genre, and does so with flying colors.
TNBT takes a lot of inspiration from the old Monkey Island games both in its visual style and humor. At times the player has to get a robot drunk to allow safe passage, or find new and creative ways to hurt a poet who is at a loss for words. No matter what the task, it always has a valid reason, though one must push through to find out why.
At times the game is frustrating, as all point-n-clickers are. Sometimes the solution is obvious to the various puzzles, other times it seemed like a long shot. With the game’s helpful “Hotspot” tool, the player can see what items in the environment are interactive. It also features a help button, used in case you’re completely lost. However, the more adamant player can select “hard” difficulty and turn both of these features off, for the true old-school adventure experience.
Being that the game was primarily developed in Madrid by developer Pendulo studios, there are some mis-translations and odd dialog, but these are few and far between. The voice acting also occasionally sounds a bit off, but for the most part, they did a fantastic job. Better than most non-English native games.
