Leisure Suit Larry III

Title           Leisure Suit Larry III
Game Type	Adventure
Players		1
Compatibility	All Amigas
HD Installable  Yes, but maybe more reliable to install manually
Company		Sierra (designed by Al Lowe)
Submission      Seppo Typpö (groucho@pp.inet.fi) Profiled Reviewer

Review
There is a saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" which describes
perfectly the situation Sierra got into when they tried to change the
winning formula with the sequel to the original Leisure Suit Larry. While
being a perfectly good adventure game Leisure Suit Larry II sorely missed
some of the best selling points the original had - like the general
naughtiness and tasteless jokes. While the first Larry was aimed mainly
for male adults, the second adventure was sold to a much wider audience,
including women and children. Larry became a mainstream figure, losing
some of his originality in the process.

The third installment of the legendary series saw Larry go back to his
roots - the original swinging bachelor came back - bolder and naughtier
than ever. The idea of the game was familiar to Larry fans, too - after
being kicked off from his marriage and work Larry decides to do what he
knows best - try to seduce every woman he can. But as usual for Larry,
things don't work exactly as he plans.

Gameplay
--------
While other adventure game companies like LucasArts had started the
revolution of icon driven adventure game user interface, Sierra was
reluctant to join them. Larry III is still controlled by the standard text
input interface with an improved command parser (which, in the best "Larry
tradition", also understood lots of unprintable four-letter words).

The game is divided into two parts. The first sees Larry trying to get
into bed with every woman he meets while in the second part, the player
controls a girl named Passionate Patti. The "Larry episode" is full of
naughty situations and (this time uncensored) sex scenes. Where the
original Larry was naughty but harmless, this version streches the limits
of decency even further and shows everything, albeit in a very humorous
way. Progress in this episode revolves around chasing women and finally,
seducing Patti.

In the "Patti episode" the atmosphere of the adventure changes suddenly as
the player is put into the "receiving end". As Patti is only trying to
find the man of her dreams the player suddenly needs to rethink his
attitude and strategies as Patti tries to evade all the 'Larry laffers' of
the world while at the same time trying to solve the mystery of her
missing loverboy Larry. The puzzles in this episode are far more
conventional adventure game stuff but the naughty humour remains,
reminding the player that this is still a Leisure Suit Larry game after
all.

Getting critical
-----------------
While the parser is just about the best Sierra ever introduced in its
adventure games it still is somewhat clumsy to use for players who have
been spoiled by the standard LucasArts mouse controlled icon interface.

The irritating "come a little closer" feature is still present too.
Getting some action safely done usually demands pixel-perfect positioning
of the game character. This can get quite frustrating when progress in
the game is sometimes possible only by doing unnecessary keyboard juggling.

The signs of a classic
------------------------
Leisure Suit Larry III is certainly not a game for the fainthearted. It is
full of tasteless humour and wacky jokes as Larry uses all available means
to reach his somewhat "dubious" goals. The game's "live action sequences"
also sometimes approach almost pornographic proportions - if the game
would have been done with live actors instead of drawn characters it
probably would have been banned in most of countries!

The game's parser deserves a special mention. When chatting up the women,
the use of naughty expressions is usually rewarded by cracking one-liners
and hilariously funny conversations between Larry and the girls. In fact,
some of the best jokes in this game are hidden within the parser and are
unravelled only to those who dare to experiment with different pick-up
lines and naughty propositions.

Beneath the raunchy surface LSL III is a brilliant adventure game. The
puzzles are well balanced, containing some obvious ones as well as some
real brain-teasers. The change of character in the middle of the adventure
is a brilliant move from the designers as it adds a whole new dimension to
the generally manly world of Larry games.

What IMHO lifts Larry III into classic status is the shameless attitude
and the well written storyline. The game designer (Al Lowe) took the best
parts of the original Larry and expanded them into a bigger and better
adventure. The dialogue is genuinely funny, while the classic scenes (like
Larry bodybuilding in the gym) contain some sharp satire towards the modern
lifestyle.

Conclusion
----------------
Leisure Suit Larry III is one of those games you either love or hate.
While being an excellent adventure game its "adult movie" atmosphere is
bound to chase away those who have no interest in pixellated nudity or
naughty action sequences. But to those people who like sometimes tasteless
and sometimes very adult humour and want to play one of the most
entertaining and original adventure games on the Amiga, Leisure Suit Larry
III comes highly recommended.

Rating
-------
Graphics : Clear 16-colour graphics with adequate animation
Sound    : funky tunes, nice rendition of the classic Larry tune
Gameplay : Challenging adventure game with decent puzzles and entertaining
           storyline.

Tested on  A500 no hard disk
           A1200(BlizzardPPC/68040) with hard disk

Alphabetical list.