Randal's Monday Review

Comedy has always been a challenge for videogame developers. Gaming, at this point in time, just doesn’t seem to have a hook on the ability to make people laugh. There are definitely some good examples out there: from the blatant silliness and wit of Monkey Island to the subtle charm of the Uncharted series all the way through to the outrageous parody of GTA. Yet it’s easy to say that there aren’t enough games designed specifically to make people laugh. A comedy videogame is a rare breed, so it’s good to see some newcomers to the firing line. Randal’s Monday is a comedy game, through and through.

The point-and-click mechanics often feel like nothing more than filler for the game’s central plot and associated gags and pop culture references. Those gags and references, however, have a tendency to dominate the gameplay experience; too much time appears to have been spent concocting witty lines than on the puzzles and general gameplay segments. It’s OK for a game to focus on being funny, but if the interactive elements don’t support this sense of humour, then those interactive sections will only be jarring and unsatisfying. This is exactly the issue with Randal’s Monday, although at points it’s also a lot more simple than that. 

The game, published by point-and-click aficionados Daedalic, follows the tale of Randal, a narcissistic sociopath, as he lives out his own version of Groundhog Day. After stealing his best friend’s engagement ring, Randal discovers that he’s living the same Monday over and over again with each day seemingly getting weirder and weirder. It’s a familiar plot line, although the amusing differences presented each day stop it becoming a repetitive affair. By chatting with the locals and interacting with the world around him, Randal has to work out how to get his life back to normal and fix all the mistakes that he’s made.

The writing can be pretty funny at times, although if I’m being honest I only laughed audibly on a couple of occasions throughout the entire game. The lines could make you chuckle, but they’re unlikely to make you laugh out loud. It’s tricky to identify the source of this issue (and it is an issue considering the direction of the game) to one single element, but the writing isn’t really supported well by the deadpan animation nor by the blasé voice-acting. One thing that I can identify, however, is that Randal is an absolute prick. He’s idiotic, annoying and frustratingly nonchalant. He’s basically just painfully arrogant, making every one of his lines an aggravating experience. Considering he delivers a large number of the game’s jokes, that’s an issue throughout. 

What saves the writing and general presentation is the developer’s willingness to rip off just about every pop culture icon of the past 40 years. Randal’s Monday contains an abundance of nerd culture references ranging from obvious stuff like Star Wars and Marvel comics to more obscure stuff like Limbo and Clerks. That cult classic ‘90s flick in particular gets a lot of attention purely by grace of the fact that a couple of the in-game voice actors are from the associated films. The references range from direct quotes from a very movie-savvy hobo to subtle, but cool, little items littered around the levels. Spotting props like the companion cube or the Hand of the King pin badge from Game of Thrones is part of the fun of the game - arguably the funnest part of the game, in fact.

The writing itself is serviceable, if a little obvious at times, but what really prevents the dialogue from being consistently entertaining is the pure unadulterated amount of it! Some conversations can last upwards of 10 minutes if you go through every path and listen to every little detail. For a game in which the players largely just stand opposite each other and talk, that’s a very, very long time. I’m strongly against skipping cutscenes or dialogue, but I couldn’t help but click through certain parts of Randal’s Monday. Some sections seem placed specifically to list off more references or build up for a lame gag, so it’s all too tempting to just power through them - although even skipping the text can take a frustrating amount of time. 

So it’s safe to say that there are a few issues with the crucial elements of Randal’s Monday; the mediocre writing and forced humour really dampen the experience, which is an issue from the off. The actual interactive element of the game fails to help the situation. Randal’s Monday is a typical point-and-click adventure game: scour the levels for items and prompts, assemble them in the right order and follow the correct dialogue paths to progress through the game. The game does little to mix up the formula, but what it does instead is make the formula incredibly hard. Mind-numbingly hard.

I’ve never played a game that asks the player to string together so many illogical paths. Certain puzzles require the player to find objects from all over the game’s various locations, assemble them in certain places then interact those objects with one really small icon within one location. At many points it asks you to do this with very little in the way of assistance; you’re essentially left to click on everything until you can work it out. Working your way through puzzles is a natural part of a point-and-click adventure, but the solutions in Randal’s Monday are often so obscure it seems impossible to be able to work them out without the game’s hint system. Which is a failure in and of itself, too. 

While most hint systems provide clues for the player, the mechanic in Randal’s Monday just blatantly tells you what to do. Go to this location, pick up this item, give it to this character, combine what he gives you with this little piece of scenery from the first stage - and so on. This direct hint system is most likely a side effect of the brutally difficult puzzles; the developers probably discovered that people were having troubles getting through their game, so decided to make a hint system that would allow them to quickly see all of the references and hear all of the sub-standard jokes. They are, as mentioned, the obvious focus of the game.

There are some redeeming features: the aforementioned references are a worthy draw and used to great effect, the game looks great - like a comic book in action - and the plot is entertaining on the whole with some amusing characters and genuinely funny situational comedy. The good moments, however, are overshadowed by the overall lack of quality in both the narrative and the gameplay. The horrible, sporadic puzzles are a real game-breaker, to a point where I ended up playing half of the game using the boring hint system to guide my path. The dialogue is also far too hit-and-miss, with lengthy segments occurring far too often and a frustrating main character. Randal’s Monday is a novel attempt at comedy videogaming, but in messing up the crucial element of a game - that being the interactive experience - it will leave most players frustrated and gagging to play something sensible.