The fair has come to town in Muzzled, and Wallace has invented a new ice-cream van which can analyse any flavour and create ice-cream from it. He plans to take it to the fair to contribute to the big fund-raiser, to provide a new dog-shelter and replace the recently-destroyed one. Monty Muzzle is the man behind this charitable cause, although with beady eyes and a moustache the size of Lancashire, it's safe to assume his motivations are substantially more nefarious. Gromit befriends three stray dogs, including the perpetually frightened and very cute Twitch, which go missing on the day of the fair. With some obscure clues scattered about the fairground, Gromit gets a whiff of something foul going on, and it's not just the rhubarb pie in the pie-eating contest. So, he sets to work on finding the threesome and stopping Muzzle's hideously evil plan.
No need to worry, Wallace. I'm sure he's perfectly not evil.
Rejoice, fellow followers of the series, because we're finally treated to several new locations in Muzzled! It's nice to have a change of scenery after playing in and around Wallace and Gromit's house in the first two episodes, and the town fair is a breath of fresh air, with plenty of new toys to play with. The structure of the game also feels substantially tighter this time around. As good as Telltale's track record has been with their episodes, you can usually feel the 'three act' system in place, where you begin with a smaller-puzzle, move on to a bigger puzzle (sometimes two) that also has three or four sub-puzzles, and then finish with a climactic end-puzzle. However, Muzzled just flows a lot better, so that you feel you're being presented with a variety of tasks and not just moving from one part of a template to another.
The new setting also allows for some more inventive puzzles. Throughout the episode you'll find yourself creating oddly-flavoured ice-cream, tricking kleptomaniac dogs, guessing the number of gumballs in a jar, entering pie competitions and crushing the spirits of pie-eating contestants. Best of all, is that while a lot of these tasks do involve interacting with the already-introduced members of the town (whom we criticised last episode for being a bit one-note), they're back to having smaller roles, allowing Wallace and Gromit to once again take centre stage, especially during the fantastic last half hour or so of the game. Monty Muzzle is a also surprisingly enjoyable addition to the cast. Sure, he's a one-note villain (and we doubt this is a spoiler for anyone, look at his moustache), but he plays this up to such a degree that he's usually very fun to watch. We could do with fewer stories about his childhood, though.
What an air-head.
After the dreary second-episode, Muzzled brings some colour back into the series, with the town fair in particular looking vibrant. Just the idea of a fund-raiser centered around its creator's enormous bloated air-filled head is funny enough before actually seeing it, with a plane-ride attached to it to boot. It's rare we comment on things like depth of field, but its use in this game is very noticeable, and luckily for the right reasons, in a way that doesn't call attention to itself but highlights certain scenes and moments. The voice acting is strong once again from all cast members, and the music, while sometimes feeling a little recycled from past episodes, is well-orchestrated and can be very dynamic at times.
Muzzled makes you really feel as if you're a part of the Wallace & Gromit universe, in a way that previous episodes haven't quite managed. Sure, part of it is nailing the look of the films and the voice acting, but the other part is coming up with ridiculous villains and over-the-top situations which only the hair-brained inventor and his clever dog can overcome. With some clever puzzles, a great deal of non-recycled content, and a challenge worthy of the dynamic duo, Muzzled is the best of the series so far. We're looking forward to their last adventure, The Bogey Man, scheduled to be released in July, so join us in a month as we see off this interesting invention from Telltale.
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