Dominique Pamplemousse & Dominique Pamplemousse in "Combinatorial Explosion"
released on Apr 01, 2017
Dominique Pamplemousse & Dominique Pamplemousse in "Combinatorial Explosion"
released on Apr 01, 2017
In this sequel to 2013's breakout musical hit, Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!", our favourite genderqueer private detective discovers that, through the power of multiple endings from the previous game, they have been cloned! Join the two Dominiques as they traverse surreal locations and interrogate increasingly bizarre characters in order to answer a very important question: which one of them is canon? There is also plenty of singing. And feelings. And, of course, singing about feelings.
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Less of a spectacle than the first game, but much more personal and raw, with a nice dash of formal experimentalism and intertextuality thrown in.
A major disappointment, especially after the first game. The ending made up for some of it, though.
Delightfully silly. Got a lot of laughs out of me.
Wildly dependent on it's predecessor (seriously, you will have needed to have played the original Dominique Pamplemousse game recently before playing this one) this game is deeply meta and a lot of fun. It's probably the only claymation musical noir detective point and click game I can think of?
Purchased as a part of the itch.io bundle for Racial Justice.
Purchased as a part of the itch.io bundle for Racial Justice.
This game is a lot harder to say nice things about than its predecessor. The initial premise of there being two Dominiques after the multiple endings of the previous game is pretty funny, but from there, it quickly drops off into being a frustrating “meta” game that’s a chore to get through.
The gameplay is very stripped back. Instead of a point n click adventure, you just click text boxes to advance the dialogue forward. I really didn’t like this approach; it results in this hands off feeling, as if I might as well not be playing to begin with.
Presentation-wise, it’s mixed. The music is actually a big improvement on the first game, the singing still has that offkey quality to it but it’s a little easier on the ears and it’s pretty charming. Dominique singing in harmony with themself is actually a pretty cute and lovely detail. On the other hand, the visuals feel like a huge step back. Pretty much the only clay animation here (apart from a few Literal Soap Bars) is reused from the first game, and everything else is pretty much slapped together from what I’m guessing is clip art.
I could look past all of these issues if the game had good writing, but that’s probably its weakest aspect. The characters feel less like characters than vehicles for saying things, and it makes it hard to care about any of them. It’s a meta commentary that, in an attempt to break the walls between character, creator, and audience, only fortifies them by making the game’s world itself feel like little more than a tool.
I can’t even respect it as much as its predecessor for being so unabashed in how it presents itself because of its frustrating satire of other game genres. The shallow parody of big budget FPS games is one thing, but the jabs at Twine games feel needlessly rude and dismissive of others’ artistic expression. It honestly feels hypocritical in a game where one of the main themes is being oneself despite the rudeness and criticism of others you might face.
This game’s a bit of a chore to sit through and I wouldn’t recommend it.
The gameplay is very stripped back. Instead of a point n click adventure, you just click text boxes to advance the dialogue forward. I really didn’t like this approach; it results in this hands off feeling, as if I might as well not be playing to begin with.
Presentation-wise, it’s mixed. The music is actually a big improvement on the first game, the singing still has that offkey quality to it but it’s a little easier on the ears and it’s pretty charming. Dominique singing in harmony with themself is actually a pretty cute and lovely detail. On the other hand, the visuals feel like a huge step back. Pretty much the only clay animation here (apart from a few Literal Soap Bars) is reused from the first game, and everything else is pretty much slapped together from what I’m guessing is clip art.
I could look past all of these issues if the game had good writing, but that’s probably its weakest aspect. The characters feel less like characters than vehicles for saying things, and it makes it hard to care about any of them. It’s a meta commentary that, in an attempt to break the walls between character, creator, and audience, only fortifies them by making the game’s world itself feel like little more than a tool.
I can’t even respect it as much as its predecessor for being so unabashed in how it presents itself because of its frustrating satire of other game genres. The shallow parody of big budget FPS games is one thing, but the jabs at Twine games feel needlessly rude and dismissive of others’ artistic expression. It honestly feels hypocritical in a game where one of the main themes is being oneself despite the rudeness and criticism of others you might face.
This game’s a bit of a chore to sit through and I wouldn’t recommend it.