Welcome back as Telltale Games revisits 62 West Wallaby Street. We now find Wallace and Gromit set and ready to take a much needed vacation… that is until the rain changes their plans and gives Wallace an idea. Wallace decides to cash in on the misfortune of the rain by bringing the beach to his basement and inviting the town to join in on the fun. This seems like a good idea at first.  A few oversights and set of dogs that have a knack for puttiong on a show for their owner complicate things.  Wallace then finds himself frantically trying to please his guests so they don’t leave the resort and force him to refund the money he’s already spent. Once the woes of each guest are sorted out, one of them is attacked.   No one is going anywhere until the perps are brought to justice.  It’s obvious who did it. Although, it’s not obvious just how you are going to prove it.

The game then turns into a mystery and only Wallace’s invention, the Deduct-O-Matic, can solve it. As you may have guessed Gromit steps in covers for Wallace and his comical shortcomings yet again.

The puzzles in the four chapters of this episode didn’t baffle me as much as the first episode seemed to. Just as I did in Fright of the Bumblebees, I found myself knowing what to do, just not exactly sure how. This time however, I seemed to have less trouble. In the opening sequence you are tasked with helping Wallace clean up the basement. I was able finish this almost as if I’d played it before. Towards the middle of the game though I was reminded that I needed to really brush up on my critical thinking. I replayed some of the First episode and came to the conclusion that I was just becoming familiar with how the puzzles work. I think if I had played this one first that Fright of the Bumblebees would have seemed less daunting. The moral of that story is, don’t become frustrated if you find them hard, it gets easier as you start to become more familiar with the gameplay.

I thought the story flowed nicely and it does take some dramatic turns, but it kept me interested. I’d say the game will three to five hours to play through depending on your patience and deductive reasoning skills. The gameplay is slow paced and involves lots of searching and collecting. Usually you’ll find yourself holding all the clues to something and then you’ll come through with a breakthrough discovery that will make everything fall into place. For me I think this is what kept me going. It didn’t seem endless, often I’d find myself solving the puzzles but not sure of just one or two things. I’d find it and zip ahead in the game which helped keep my attention. I have gaming A.D.D. so slower paced games usually aren’t my thing but this game keeps the carrot just out of reach so I like it.

I can’t say which one I like better but so far I’m enjoying the series. These games are unlike anything most people have ever played and it’s a nice change of pace from my normal interests. Comparing them to each other is the best way explain the differences.  The second installment of the series holds true to “TV show that you play” and it introduces some new characters and furthers the development of the ones you may already know.  If you are looking for a single player thinking game where button memorization and reflexes can be checked at the door then check out this series.