Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Saga bundle, along with Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Dry Twice.)

Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is an “adults only” Graphic Adventure first released on PC in 2018, then ported to mobile devices, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in 2019, followed by a port to Xbox One in 2020. The release of this game marks the first time in a half decade that this long-running series has seen a release, with the last game being 2013’s Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded, a remake of the first game in the series. Wet Dreams Don’t Dry follows the latest adventure of the series’ original protagonist, Larry Laffer, as he finds himself waking up in the modern era after three decades asleep in an underground lab, and immediately goes right back to trying to find success with the ladies, all while trying to understand the modern world he now finds himself in.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Leisure Suit Larry series, this is a long-running series of Graphic Adventure games that wears its “adults only” status proudly. While I suppose there isn’t technically much in the way of nudity to be found here (I don’t doubt there’s some in there, just not as much as you might think), you’ll find plenty of suggestively-shaped objects throughout the game’s world, characters are constantly talking about sex in one way or another, particularly Larry himself, and one of the early locations even has the moaning of a woman in the next room recording a webcam session. As a tongue-in-cheek nod to the original games, Wet Dreams Don’t Dry even opens with a “quiz” of references to things that happened prior to the year 2000 to test to see if the player is older than 18.

In Wet Dreams Don’t Dry, these references and jokes about sex are intermixed with jokes about Larry’s “man out of time” nature, along with all sorts of pop culture references satirizing modern-day things like smartphones, social media celebrities, Uber, and so on. Larry was already out-of-touch in his own era, and he is now even more so in an age of the internet and computers.

All of this is intended to be humorous, I’m sure, but it’s not particularly funny. The bad puns this game is filled with and Larry’s desperate attempts to get women to sleep with him are already groan-worthy enough, but a lot of the cultural satire being attempted here is pretty tired by this point. Wow, people sure do like their smartphones, isn’t that funny? And social media celebrities are so obsessed with getting likes and always taking pictures on their phones, isn’t that hilarious? Hey, and you know what’s a laugh riot? Making fun of the nerds in an Apple store! And vegan jokes are totally not played out, right? Ugh… look, I don’t know if these sorts of jokes were funny when this game was first released in 2018, but by the time I’m reviewing this game, I kept being confronted with the same reaction over and over again: “they’re seriously making that joke?”

That’s not the worst part, either. These caricatures are not exactly kind, and as a result, everyone in this game comes off as either a jerk, an idiot, or both. Larry’s over-inflated opinion of himself and the massive “creepy” vibes he gives off as he keeps pushing for sex from women who have made it clear they’re not interested are one thing – you could brush that off as Larry remaining in character with prior games, and also being a nod to changing attitudes towards dating over the course of the last three decades. Everyone else being similarly rude and self-absorbed, on the other hand, makes it hard to care about any of these characters.

In terms of presentation, Wet Dreams Don’t Dry makes use of a cartoony art style that’s decent but nothing particularly interesting, save for the game’s fixation on making virtually everything seem dirty and disgusting. The characters here are all fully-voiced, albeit at times in a somewhat cartoonish sorta’ way that won’t appeal to everyone (again, Larry himself is the main offender here). Meanwhile, the background music here feels suitable for the game’s settings (such as a seedy bar, a sex shop, and a gym), but isn’t particularly noteworthy.

Then we get to the gameplay. Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is faithful to the “point and click” style of play that was in the classic games, and this is both a good thing and a bad thing. Let’s start with the controls, which are kinda’ a mess. Players move Larry with the left stick and move a cursor with the right stick (by default, this cursor is far too slow, though you can thankfully adjust this in settings), and can either look at objects or interact with them. The problem comes with the game’s extremely unintuitive menu system, which you need to use frequently throughout the game to use and combine items and change locations, Among other things.

I should note that those who play this game in handheld mode may also opt to use the touchscreen, which is better in some ways, worse in others – you can more freely interact with objects on-screen, but navigating menus is worse, and using the touchscreen to navigate conversations works horribly.

It’s not just the controls that are problematic, either. Much like the classic games Wet Dreams Don’t Dry imitates, the solutions to puzzles in this game are odd and at times inexplicable. However, even worse than this is that the game frequently wants you to change locations, but gives you no indication of this. Whenever you get stuck in the game, there’s a good chance that something has changed somewhere else and you’re supposed to just magically know to check a different location to progress things. Or, more realistically, you’re expected to constantly return to every room in every location to see if you can do something new. Or, more realistically than that, you should just consult a wiki. Or, more realistically than that, you can just not buy this game.

I’ll be honest, Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry isn’t completely devoid of charm, but you have to look very hard to find it. Beyond the outdated jokes, the unlikable characters, the horrible controls, and the frustrating gameplay. There are moments of genuine cleverness here, but you have to put up with so much unpleasantness to get to them. Unless this particular brand of “adults only” Graphic Adventure appeals to you, I’d say this is a game you’ll want to skip.

tl;dr – Leisure Suit Larry – Wet Dreams Don’t Dry is an “adults only” Graphic Adventure about the titular dating-obsessed anachronistic 80s sleazeball who is now a man out of time in the modern era. Both Larry and this game have trouble coming to grips with the modern day, with horribly dated jokes and even more dated gameplay, along with terrible controls. There’s just not much to like here, and only series fans are likely to enjoy this game.

Grade: C-

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