You are, once again, Larry Laffer, looking to get laid. This time, Larry takes
a cruise on the lust boat. There is a competition of various events during the
cruise, and the winner gets to spend a week with the luscious Captain Thygh.
You must find a way to win all the events. Along the way, you will also want
to charm the knickers off (and on!) various other guests.
The Leisure Suit Larry series is for adults only. The games consist mostly of
a collection of sexual puns, inuendo, and escapades. It also uses many
offensive stereotypes. There, you were warned. But don’t take that too seriously.
I’m only 13, and I’ve beaten it already twice. It’s hard. Trust me.
The competition provides a good framework for the story. The various characters
are fun to meet, especially Larry's would-be conquests, who are all given an
amusing background. Things tend to cool off with the dialogue, however,
which mostly consists of tired, obvious puns. I especially disliked the
narrator's voice: it is very irritating (probably intentionally), sucking
whatever humour out of the lines.
The competition also provides a good framework for the challenges. Your goals
are always clear, even if the means aren't. There are several clever puzzles,
but most are fairly straightforward. They flow nicely from one to another,
and they are all understandable (in hindsight, at least). On the down side,
you are required to talk to everybody about everything, and then repeat the
process all over again as each iteration reveals new topics to discuss. This
might not be so tedious if the dialogue was sharper.
Larry 7 tries to add some of the flexibility of the old text interface into
the modern mouse clicking interface: when you go to use an object, you are
presented with a menu of actions, one of which is "other" which you can fill
in with a verb of your choice. Similarly, you can specify your own topic when
talking to characters. Although only sparingly used in the default setup, it
helps to open up gameplay. I hope the technique catches on.
The music is perfectly suitable to Larry -- you can almost feel the polyester.
The artwork and animations are also well done. There are many little sight-gags
floating about the backgrounds, so keep your eyes open. Aside from the
narrator, I found the voices suitable and well done.
While Love for Sail! is well designed and competently produced, it somehow
seems flat. The fossilised puns and tedious re-conversing slow the game down
too much. The challenges are not notable enough on their own to overcome
this. If the game matches your funny bone (e.g., you thought the other Larry
games were hilarious), then you'll certainly find this an excellent game.
