Grade: A-
Noir comedy adventure with an unlikely protagonist
Clam Man is a comedy Point and Click adventure. You are a clam man who is also serendipitously named “Clam Man” by your parents. This naming raises eyebrows, of course, as who’s parents would name their child like a Reddit throwaway alt account, but this is a relatively accepting world in Snacky Bay.
The story is a noir mystery.
The story in Clam Man starts as a mild office drama about how your colleague Lindsay was fired. Shortly after that, you are catapulted into the plot via a dastardly layoff of yourself by “Mr. Bosman.” Bosman fires you through a long metaphorical soliloquy involving the various layers of fruit pie.
This firing leads Clam Man into a sad sack existential crisis, and he is motivated to uncover the reasons behind his firing. The mystery noir plot unfolds from there.
Comedy offered some laugh-out-loud moments.
While maintaining its noir/private eye vibe, Clam Man often breaks the fourth wall and never takes itself too seriously. Breaking moments of tension with ridiculousness is where the most laughs come throughout the game.
The characters made the rest of the comedy, along with the fourth wall breaking. There was a vigorous competition for the “my favorite Clam Man world character” award. I’d be hard-pressed to choose, but I think it’d have to go to the sensitive Mob Boys.
The gameplay was simple but offered enough to keep you engaged.
There’s not much in the way of gameplay here in Clam Man, and most of what you do is rolling through dialogue trees and clicking on items. That’s ok, though, because the dialogue was well written and had a lot of memorable moments with ridiculous puns, schticks, and upended expectations. But, overall, it was one of those games with lots of little enjoyable details and meta-references to catch.
There are a few backtracking/unclear moments where you have to redo dialogue or were lost about what to do next. It’s not always clear what you should do and in what order. That’s been my experience in every point-and-click game I’ve ever played, so Clam Man was par for the course there.
Clam Man takes about 3 hours to play through. If you play the game, I’d recommend playing it in a window instead of full screen. The resolution at full screen on my monitor size cut off a little portion of the screen, which is not a good state of affairs in a point-and-click adventure.
And remember, folks, the Duck is Nigh! (Play the game for more Duck of Truth backstory and lore).
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