Reviews

• 

  Saena

  Jan 23, 2022

  Funny and cute albeit very short game which features well portrayed women. Just goes to show that we don't mind a man being stupid, as long as he's honest and kind and willing to do the heavy lifting.
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  Grulien

  Oct 7, 2016

  That was a fun experience ! A point & click adventure games with swashbuckling pirates and funny dialogues. Duke Grabowski is quite a lovable character despite his foolish and crude nature. The backgrounds are gorgeous and consistent, the world is appealing and believable. The story is quite simple and straightforward but it's quite enough to be enjoyable. To me, this game is also an improvement on Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island on several levels : the writing and narrative is done much better and isn't confusing this time, the gameplay is smoother, characters are more likable/memorable, better voice acting. On the other hand, the game is a bit too easy : the puzzles would have benefited from more complexity and layers to them, the inventory is not used enough because there isn't much to pick up and try combinations with. Considering this is a low budget game and the first episode in a serie, I'm happy with it and I'm quite confident the sequels will continue to improve on it. Anyway, Duke Grabowski is totally worth the fun and price. Looking forward to the subsequent episodes ! To sum up +swashbuckling pirates !! +funny dialogues and nice voice acting. +gorgeous scenery. +a step up from it's precusor Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island -puzzles are a too easy : not enough objects to pick up and play with in the inventory.
• 

  Big Cow Studios

  Oct 8, 2016

  A touching pirate adventure that made me chuckle on a good few occassions - a lot of love went into the dialogue ('Touch the grog kegs? Nah, they've been tapped already.'), and the art and animation is charming. The puzzles are logical, while still presenting some challenge - I was never frustrated, but I was rewarded. Only minor gripes are a couple of small UI bugs - nothing that got in the way of the experience - and the fact that Duke has to turn on the spot before walking to where you click, which makes him feel a little unresponsive. All in all, a very enjoyable adventure with a lot of nice moments. Worth your time and money if you enjoy adventure games and / or fun dialogue.
• 

  tripcyclone33

  Oct 14, 2016

  I really wanted to like this game. After all, I am a huge Lucas Arts games fan. I mean who doesn't love Maniac Mansion, Day of The Tentacle, and Monkey Island. Within the last few years, a few of the former Lucas Arts gang got together and worked on my new Favorite game - The Cave (which is full of brilliant dark humor and even had Chuck the Plant). So maybe my expectations were too high with this one? Clearly the game has adult themes ( wooing women and "burying the family jewels in a wenches treaure chest" and so forth), but if that was the case then why the simplistic game? It really wasn't that challenging and the game was super short. The locations were minimal and the puzzles were so easy a child could do them. So I am confused as to what demographic they were trying to target. The sadest part of all is that the Lucas Arts gang was known for its brilliant dark humor, but that fell completely flat here. I realize this isn't the exact same team, nor is it Lucas Arts, but knowing some of the team's background, this is disappointing. I guess for $6.99 it isn't bad, but I sadly cannot recommend it.
• 

  NegaByte

  Oct 16, 2016

  Across my nearly three-decade adventure gaming life I have come to find two factors to be of incredible importance: 1. The Puzzles 2. The Humour Duke Grabowski disappointingly falters on both. Point and click adventures have long been plagued by nonsensical puzzles. Much to its detriment Duke Gabrowski has gone in the complete opposite direction, making its puzzles simple enough to be trivial. The aim of the game is to woo three ladies in the game's locale, Bodacious Bay, turning it into more of a pirate-themed dating simulator. This of course reduces variety in the puzzles, unlike The Secret of Monkey Island's Three Trials. The biggest problem posed by this, however is that the puzzles are entirely independent of one another ie. no elements from one puzzle are to be used in any other. Compare this to the four map pieces of LeChuck's Revenge, which were all beautifully intertwined. The game is also too short to call back to any puzzles, as was done with the voodoo doll and hangover cure in LeChuck's Revenge and The Curse of Monkey Island respectively. I do realise that this is an episodic game (despite not being stated anywhere on its store page) but I have found that episodic games tend to rarely utilise call-back puzzles anyway. The jokes jump between puns and political incorrectness, almost as though it was written by my dad. The dialog "options" are extremely limited. I always like being able to chose how I personally would react in a situation (often flitting between overly pleasant and unbearably sarcastic, as anyone who know me would testify is true to real life). The dialog options here though only seem to cater to Sloth out of The Goonies. In such a short game there are too many attempts to reference classic LucasArts adventures (I counted 4) which came across as disingenuous and trying to play on nostalgia. To reference South Park's Member Berries "ooh, 'member Monkey Island?". The music is absolutely fantastic and evoked memories of The Curse of Monkey Island, which drew me in immediately. Unfortunately the rest of the game didn not manage to live up to this. I highly doubt that I will be purchasing any further games in the series.
• 

  SHODANFreeman

  Nov 5, 2016

  If you're a big fan of Monkey Island or Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, this is a fun little diversion. I wouldn't pay full price for it since it feels like act 1 of a much larger game, and abruptly ends, but it's decent while it lasts, despite some questionable voice acting by kickstarter backers and constant plastering of backer names throughout the game. The character animations are also a little janky. Hopefully if they continue this series, they can tighten up the graphics on level 3.
• 

  LJS67

  Nov 26, 2016

  I had fun with this game and was happy to see an Bill Tiller game offering once again. I really do hope this game does well enough to see a sequel with Duke off on his first adventure as Captain. This game has excellent voice over talent and nice artwork that is fitting for the style of story. Gameplay is old school with lots of dialogue. This was a kickstarter and so I am guessing that this is as much game as funding would allow. I hope that this does well enough for any sequels to have more puzzle-like situations to figure out as well as the character interaction. But on the whole, I liked this very much. It was nice to toss my feet up and wander around this piratey town talking to the locals and scaring monkeys.
• 

  Wil Ireson

  Nov 27, 2016

  If you are looking for few laughs I strongly suggest this game. It is a fairly simple puzzle game with clever character names and funny dialogue. The puzzles and game mechanics aren't spelled out to you, which is nice because they are easy to figure out on your own. A couple of tweaks to the text shadowing would be good, but despite that it looks great. It's definitely worth the $7-8 for a few hours of a feel good story and who knows you may just learn a thing or two about wooing the ladies.
• 

  brunobrcard

  Jan 6, 2017

  This is a point and click adventure that is truly funny and heir to the Monkey Island fun games. Its graphics are in stylized 3d and the voice over is well done, however the best is the excellent writing which is funny from beggining until the end. Even though this is a very short game (around 2- 3 hours), it will give you a very fun evening. I recommend it to all point and click lovers.
• 

  uka7777

  May 1, 2017

  Very funny and short classical point-and-click adventure game from the people who have brought us 'The Curse of Monkey Island'. Now, that was a masterpiece even if it was created without Ron Gilbert, but... most of the later works by Bill Tiller and Larry Ahern turned out to be, well, not so good. 'A Vampyre Story' and 'Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island', in spite of their similar humor and visual style, were not successful and, to tell the truth, rather boring. Luckily, 'Duke Grabowsky' falls almost in the same league as 'Monkey Island'! Something just like earlier Telltale projects, before they fired Dave Grossman and switched to gameplayless visual novels. [u]Pros[/u]. * Pretty graphics. Yes, it is 3D, but very bright, colorful and appealing! Even some piratey atmosphere is there. * Music is great as well, although some bits of it are borrowed from 'Ghost Pirates'. * Humor. Now, that is a welcome and longed-for addition! [u]Cons[/u]. * Length and scope - it is strange, but the game that was in development since 2014 (and missed its planned release date by one year) is very short - 2-3 hours at most. The story is strange (albeit still fun) and definitely incomplete, while no actual news of a sequel have been heard yet... * General simplicity - why, or why there are almost no inventory puzzles? In a classical point-and-click adventure game?? Made by masters of the genre??? We do get to pick some items, but only a few of them, no combination allowed, and most of those items are just 'ideas', not actual objects... Anyway, the game is definitely recommended - especially at a serious discount that will last for a couple of days more! Go and grab it! So they would finally make us a sequel. Or better, a dozen of sequels.
• 

  Ayuri

  May 2, 2017

  Ahoy, Mates ! Ready for a Swashbuckler adventure ? Duke Grabowski: Mighty Swashbuckler is a funny Point and Click adventure taking place in a world of Pirates. The Game stars a dumb pirate who wants to replace his recently deceased Captain ; in order to do so, his crew gives him a challenge : “sea-deuce” three ladies and prove he's not just a pile of muscles without a brain. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=916694391 The game is simple, there are sadly few puzzles but the dialogues and the voice acting are refreshing. To be honnest the graphics and the animations aren't that great, but it's colorful and the music is quite good and in line with the theme. The game itself is quite short (around 3 hours of gameplay), but worth its price, entertaining and funny, so I hope there will be more episodes coming out. The games offers itself for a sequel, so let's make it happen ! I gladly recommend Duke Grabowski: Mighty Swashbuckler to classical Point and Click adventures lovers.
• 

  frarobertooo

  Jun 24, 2017

  This game is pretty odd: from one side you can see that the team behind it is experienced in crafting point and click adventure, while the game itself is not that unforgettable. PROS: + Great colorful graphics, with a 3D-like enviroment that still feels warm + Witty and funny dialogues, with some good laughs + Good voice acting CONS: - It is a bit too obsequious to the good old Monkey Island: few decades passed and I would have expected something newer and refreshing. The only main difference is the protagoinist, see below. - The main character is very different from the usual protagonist. Usually the player controls a person who is intelligent, witty and he/she usually overcome the obstacles through brain power. Duke is the complete opposite, and I had hard time to relate to a dumb gorilla. - It's pretty short and looks like the chapter one of a longer story. Nice, but not great.
• 

  monkeymadness

  Jul 9, 2017

  Sorry Bill, this was a failed attempt. When I saw this game and the big names behind it I had to give it a shot. Bill Tiller and Dave Grossman were extensively involved and Ron Gilbert collaborated. The biggest problem that I have is that the game is basically a dumbed down version of Monkey Island 1 Chapter 1 (The three trials). You not only get a really short game (2 hours max) that may or may not have future installments, but the story is not original. In this game you have to woo three ladies. That is the most boring thing I think that could be thought up. There are no mind bending puzzles, limited inventory, and the game is linear as no task crosses into another. The character of Duke is forgettable and the humor is not funny. The art is good, but does not make up for the many aspects that cause this game to fail. I usually give kickstarters more of a break given their circumstance, but from everything that I have mentioned I don’t think I can for this game.
• 

  optimusprime

  Sep 5, 2017

  I do not recommend this game to anyone, even for point and click adventure game fans. The only good thing about it is the art. - The dialogue is boring and the VO puts you to sleep. - They even have some people from the kickstarter voice some minor characters, and the lack of professional voice work for these characters is very noticeable. I understand the need to reward kickstarter supporters, but it can be done more subtly than that. - The puzzles are child play. - The game(if you can even call it that) takes about an hour to an hour and a half to finish. It feels like an opening to a game (like a first chapter) rather than a full experience. And the fact that we do not have a continuation confirmed, means you are going to play a non finished product.
• 

  Krazedlion

  Sep 7, 2018

  Duke Grabowski, Mighty Swashbuckler is an extremely entertaining point and click adventure game. It has beautiful, cartoony 3D graphics that are bright and colorful, good animations, good voice acting, nice music and sounds. The story is good, the dialogue is clever, the humor is actually funny and the NPCs have personalities. Good Game!
• 

  tuxdelux

  Nov 4, 2018

  Very funny point and click adventure game. The 3D rendered environment might be a bit overkill (making initial loading times way, way too long), but the artwork and animation is excellent. The writing is excellent, as the giant Duke goes bumbling through his adventures. Despite the game's stated goal, the entire game is a tribute to the virtues of women. This is a very short game, although it does tell a complete narrative. The puzzles are simple and straight forward, yet they are also thought provoking. Enjoyed this on an Ubuntu 18.10 system, with radeon mesa graphic drivers. The game uses the Unity game engine. I played without subtitles to enjoy the jokes' full-effect. Mouse-driven, although the ESC key is required for accessing the game menu. I had a screen resolution issue, which made the side-boarders invisible with the default setting. In the end, even with the loading-time issue, I thought the story was well worth the full two dollar cost. This game was consistently funny, and all the puzzles were interesting.
• 

  Gao Li

  Dec 10, 2018

  [h1]7/10 A LucasArts Reunion[/h1] [h1][b][u]Note:[/u][/b] This is a shortened review to accommodate Steam’s 4000 character limit. The full review can be read over at [url=https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2018/12/10/duke-grabowski/]Gao Li Occasionally Reviews[/url][/h1] Deep in the Caribbean, the beach of Bodacious Bay on the island of San Pendejo; a pirate crew loses their captain, Amerigo, to mermaids just as they barely manage to escape the clutches of Barcelan warships. As the crew organizes the repairs for their battered maritime vessel, they try to elect a new commander-in-chief, but didn’t expect their shipmate, Duke Grabowski, a man with more brawn than brain & the face of a plott hound, to campaign for that position. Afraid of his muscles, they decide to send him off on what they consider to be an impossible quest for him while they make Slew Face their new leader instead & try to leave him behind. Duke’s task? Win the hearts of three women. [b][u]All you need to know[/u][/b] “Duke Grabowski, Mighty Swashbuckler! is a classically styled, crowdfunded, point & click adventure thought up by three of the core team members behind “A Vampyre Story” (2008), Bill Tiller (background artist for “The Curse of Monkey Island” [1997]), Gene Mocsy, & Jeremiah Grant. In fact, I learned about the title from Gene Mocsy when I interviewed him about “A Vampyre Story” & he suggested I’d try out “Duke”, a copy of which I then bought & interviewed him about for this review (not shown due to character limits). Shortly after the title’s successful crowdfunding campaign, Alliance Digital Media announced it would turn the project into a five part series, but lackluster sales figures meant that only this first entry was ever made. Sadly, although the title sees Duke finishing his crew’s silly challenge, it ends before he fully realizes not to do something simply because his supposed friends tell him to. That said, one of the ladies in the game does stand up to the pirates for him & he helps others on their unique missions. In this sense, the game is less like “Larry” & more akin to “The Secret of Monkey Island’s" (1990) first chapter, where the protagonist, Guybrush, is told to prevail in three, arbitrary trials to be a real pirate & unreflectedly does them. Furthermore, the game is a bit too easy for veterans, but perfect for beginners, as the play area is comparatively small, the puzzles are highly streamlined & Duke never has more than 4 items in his inventory. [b][u]Bugs[/u][/b] Cutscenes won’t play for those with a GeForce 9500 GT graphics card & I was unable to load into my save game ⅔ into the story due to some unknown bug. Thankfully, because the title autosaves every once in a while, I only lost about five minutes of progress. [b][u]Conclusion[/u][/b] “Duke Grabowski, Mighty Swashbuckler!” is a charming, albeit slightly flawed budget point & click that’s certainly aimed at more casual audiences. The puzzles are easy, the story straight forward, & has two hours of gameplay, provided players interact with all objects & exhausts all dialog options. Despite its brevity, however, some fans of old LucasArts titles might still want to check it out, as many of that house’s veteran staffers contributed to the project. Bill Tiller’s artwork provides gives the whole experience the same feel as “Curse of Monkey Island”. Its minor flaw, however is that while Duke resolves his main conflict by the end, the B-plotlines are left unfinished. [b][u]Hey there.[/u][/b] If you like my writing or my occasional interviews with developers, why not follow my Steam curation over at [url= https://store.steampowered.com/curator/8839524/]Gao’s Corner[/url] to keep up to date?
• 

  cbones - LINUX

  Dec 29, 2018

  [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33530905/]Follow the [b]Linux Users[/b] curator for more reviews of games you should (or should not) play![/url][/quote] A fairly short and straight-forward point and click. The art and animations are a little awkward, and there are only about 10 locations. The price is more than fair for what this game has to offer. In all, I really enjoyed it because it is fun to play and Duke is a great character. I hope they can manage to make some more. [h1]System Info & Performance Report[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]Operating System[/td] [td]Ubuntu Linux 18.04 x64[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]CPU[/td] [td]Ryzen 5 1500x[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]GPU[/td] [td]GTX 1050, nvidia-410.78[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Game Saves[/td] [td]Automatically, several manual slots[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Notes[/td] [td]Expect 2-3 hours of playtime[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Technical Notes[/td] [td]No problems[/td] [/tr] [/table]
• 

  Liquidsnakehpks-joa

  Mar 23, 2019

  Apart from the long name of the game which tends to put people off from checking it out , This is a small nice little ode to the classic monkey island series . Tons of good puzzles , good voice acting , nice characters and of course the retro pixels graphics. HAR HAR jump in Pros : Price :- For the length of the game it is prized extremely well , easily worth a purchase at this prize given what the game offers Story :- The game starts off well , a typical senseless pirate quest and it really holds well till the end , hoping for more content or a extended cut where you can do more in this game . Design : The game is a excellent throwback as i mentioned to the classic pirate adventure games mostly monkey island , it has really well made puzzles that are a joy to solve, good voice acted characters , nice atmosphere and pixels. Nice cameos in the game as well. Easy achievements : For the achievement hunters, this is a very easy game to get all the achievements in one playthrough Cons:- Game length : Even with me exploring stuff and talking and looking at everything around the game only lasted 2 hours... I think some more content could be added in future ? as in commentary ? more content to lead up to a sequel? Future: The same question that is asked a lot in the forums , what happens after the game ends ? I have seen response saying that this is a stand alone story with something planned but given this was kickstarter supported , i really hope there is a bigger sequel or more episodes adding to the game, it started off well , would be a shame to leave it like this. Overall i was pleased with what the game offered a small joyful throwback to the classic lucasarts adventure games, hoping for more in the future, easily a 7/10 for me. A must buy at any price.
• 

  CrazyPyro69

  Aug 27, 2019

  BottomLine at the Top: This game is to Monkey Island what Orville is to Star Trek. A fantastic P&C adventure whose only flaw is that it ends so, so quickly. ------------------------------------- Pros ------------------------------------- -Top level P&C production values. Art, voice acting, music, and dialogue are all excellent. -Runs well at high resolution on systems that are more moderately powered (i.e. mine.) -Detailed environments with lots of stuff to click on and hear Duke's bizarre descriptions. -Double click exit to next screen/room. -Autosaves. -The use of other characters skills as inventory "items" as well as leaving items in inventory as idea bubbles before you have an idea for what to do with them is a unique mechanic for a P&C game. -Large voice cast. -Easy to get 100% completion. ------------------------------------- Meh. ------------------------------------- -Not a lot of inventory usage. I chalk part of this up to the game obviously being cut short from its originally intended length. Had the game been longer I expect this to have been less of an issue. ------------------------------------- Cons ------------------------------------- -Again, the biggest drawback to this game is its abrupt ending. It ends just as the story feels like it’s starting to really pick up and it leaves the whole thing just feeling unfinished. -Character animations do not lip sync well to voice recordings. Also (as other reviewers have mentioned) the characters often stare out into the distance when talking to each other. I am not sure if these things were a stylistic choice or a design compromise but either way it does take away from what would otherwise be one of the highest production quality P&C games that I have seen in a while. I was not able to figure out the backstory as to why the development of this game was cut short. My main theory is that they simply ran out of money. Producing a P&C game of this quality with an original character for an independent game developer is extremely ambitious. I think they should at the very least be commended for following through on the game play that they were able to create for their crowdfunders. Many P&C's that start as crowdfunded projects ultimately just fall through the cracks with zero to show for their backers’ investments. $2 regular asking price for approximately 2 hours of game play is not a bad deal for a game whose only drawback is that there is not more of it to play. All in all, it has the feel of a great Monkey Island game, which should make it a must buy for any P&C adventure fan. As long as you go into it knowing that it’s going to end sooner than you want it to, I'd say give it a try! [hr][/hr] [b][u][i]For more point & click goodness, check out our P&C fan Steam group, The Coalition of Point & Clickers!:[/i][/u][/b] [list][*] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/CPANDC] Coalition of Point & Clickers Main Page [/url][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34690626/] Coalition of Point & Clickers Curator [/url][/list] 👑 [b][u][i]Powered by HoI 4 Deu Curators group in German / English[/i][/u][/b] 👑⠀⠀⠀[list][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30388691/] Follow Main group [/url][*][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40282064/] Follow Second group [/url][/list]