Bye Sweet Carole Review

Timeless. A word that applies to many things. It applies to works of literary genius that remain popular and profound for generations after they are penned. It applies to gorgeous, fashionable items, as we have been wearing formal attire, such as suits, for centuries. And, it likely applies to your favorite Disney movie, unless you’re more of a Pixar type.

I may have grown up in the transition era of Disney, where the animation wasn’t quite as old school as it was, but also wasn’t as flashy as it is now. Treasure Planet is my favorite Disney film and firmly fits in that transitional era. However, I have a real soft spot for old-school Disney: your Dumbos, your Pinocchios, and your Alice in Wonderlands.

Bye Sweet Carole is a game that aims to capture this retro yet timeless charm in video game form, telling a story that is perhaps a touch more mature than its Disney inspirations, but ultimately scratches the same itch, allowing you to be an active part of this far-fetched fairy tale.

To say I was skeptical that a game could ever offer this animated approach without crumbling under the weight of its own ambition would be selling it short. But regardless, I burrowed down the rabbit hole anyway, in search of Carole and a gaming experience like no other.

A Love Letter To Walt

There’s only one place to start when a game sets its stall out as a glorified 1950s cartoon, and that’s with the presentation. Bye Sweet Carole is bold enough to have the entire game play out as if you’re in control of the central protagonist of a retro cartoon, which sounds like it would be rather jarring, but in reality, it’s a real treat for the eyes.

As you work your way through each 2D environment, you’ll find yourself enamored with the subtle details that make each moment feel like you’ve jumped into a Disney classic in real time. With choppy but intentional animation, and that signature grainy filter that came part and parcel with VHS tapes.

However, this is also supplemented with pristine cut scenes that allow you to sit back and enjoy the story unfolding, just as you would in a movie, after an action sequence or a cerebrally taxing puzzle.

The slow and intentional pacing helps to make each chapter an engaging piece of the puzzle that makes you hungry for the next, and the voice acting and score all add to the overall quality of the experience.

The team behind this one has clearly went all in to make this one a love letter to the movies we all grew up with, and while I have plenty of criticism for the action that unfolds when you are in control of Lara Benton, I have to say, I have no notes on how this game looks, sounds, and feels, as it’s a nostalgia overload in the best way possible.

Let Your Voice Be Heard

While the presentation is very much on point in this cartoon caper, it would all be for nothing if the game couldn’t weave a tale that hit the same notes as a classic Disney flick. But, thankfully, Bye Sweet Carole manages to do that and then come, starting slow as you get to know the setting of Bunny Hall, and how Lara fits into the equation.

But before long, the game builds on this strong foundation with a hearty dose of fantasy, a smattering of child-friendly horror, and all the trappings of an origin story for a Disney Princess. However, to contradict myself slightly, the narrative has a more mature undercurrent that feels more in line with something like Anastasia, a personal favorite of mine.

At the center of this narrative is the theme of women’s emancipation, and throughout, you get to see the backwards ideals of the time, the oppressive nature of a woman’s role in society, and how the suffragettes would change everything.

It’s very much something that plays out in the background, serving as second fiddle to the Kingdom of Corolla and the surreal nature of each chapter. But it’s a neat addition, and one that perhaps serves as a contrast to the rather unpalatable messages of older Disney classics.

The game weaves a mature tale of mystery, fantasy, and horror, while always keeping things dialled down enough to never stray into the realms of a YA experience and remain in line with the childhood favorites of old. I will concede that there are some dull moments, just as there are in those older Disney movies, but it’s a fair trade-off to keep things feeling authentic, and it’s a triumph.

A Work of LucasArts

Bye, Sweet Carole is a real Jekyll and Hyde sort of experience from a gameplay perspective, but I’ll focus on the more palatable side of the action to begin with. To give credit where it’s due, this game is a rather nifty little puzzler, which has a lot of the same DNA you would find in old point-and-click puzzlers like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, or Maniac Mansion.

Granted, this is also a platformer and a stealth action game, for better or worse. However, if we set that aside for a moment and focus purely on the puzzles and progression of each chapter, it’s a rather involved, cerebral, and enjoyable experience.

Through exploring and engaging with the environment around you, you can use, combine, and interact with items to solve puzzles that walk that line between challenging and frustrating with aplomb. You get that lovely eureka moment, and feel like you’ve worked hard enough to earn it, which is exactly what you want from a game such as this.

However, I must caveat this praise with the fact that many of these puzzles were the source of some frustration, not because of the solutions themselves, but rather because the puzzles didn’t always behave as they should.

This may be a product of the ambitious animation style, or perhaps just the product of a few half-baked sections, but I had several instances where the game softlocked, forcing me to quit the game so that I could action the solution to the puzzle that I knew was right all along. Which naturally led to many minutes spent before this questioning my sanity and my puzzle-solving acumen.

That said, there was always a way to jury-rig the game and get it playing ball again. So it’s not a massive black mark against it in the slightest. The puzzles were largely a joy to engage with. It’s everything else that I found downright insufferable.

Lights, Camera, No Action

It’s a bit of a paradox, really. You have to ask if anyone would have cared about this game if it didn’t market itself as an ambitious stealth/action platformer. But equally, I wonder if anyone will be able to forgive the game for making that decision based on what I have played.

I mentioned that this game has a lot of point-and-click DNA, and I wonder if it would have been better to stick to that lane, as just about everything the game tries to do in the fields of action or stealth falls entirely flat.

In terms of platforming, the game’s sequences are largely punctuated by slow, cumbersome moments, awkward and stiff platforming, no matter which character you are in control of, and a bunch of QTEs for good measure that make the game feel like an interactive game you would find in the DVD extras of a Disney classic rather than a modern release.

But the stealth is perhaps even more of a disaster, as the characters in pursuit of you often get caught on environments, catch you in situations where you couldn’t have possibly gotten away if you tried, appear from nowhere despite you knowing their last location, and I even had a glitch where the game duplicated the enemy.

In terms of cinema, these sequences add tension and intensity to the action on screen, but actually being placed in control of these sequences is a real chore, as you’ll often die through no fault of your own, get caught because there’s no way to tell where the enemies line of sight is, and really, this only dilutes the puzzles your solving as by the time you complete your task, you’ll have fallen victim to that game’s shoddy action mechanics more than enough to leave you glum.

I would love to say that the out-and-out action segments in control of Baesie were better, but they were just as stiff and unenjoyable, as I spent the entire time mashing the attack button, merely waiting for it all to be over, and boy, did each section overstay its welcome.

Then, to serve as the bitter cherry on top of the stodgy cake, you also have filler sequences, such as a laughably easy rhythm section that feels unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.

In short, the decision to make this game an action/stealth horror game and a puzzler only serves to detract from the aspects of the game that actually work well. It’s good, if a little unremarkable as a puzzle game, but as an action platformer, it’s one of the least satisfying games I’ve played in recent memory.

Closing Comments:

“Bye Sweet Carole is an ambitious game that shoots for the moon and ends up among the stars. The Disney-style presentation is damn near flawless and evokes a sense of childish nostalgia that hardly any game has managed to do before. Not to mention, it’s a pretty competent puzzler that feels cut from the same cloth as LucasArts classics in many ways. However, due to a slew of technical issues and some of the most cumbersome and unsatisfying platforming, stealth, and action sequences I can recall enduring, the game undoes a lot of its fine work to ultimately end up being a unique, but rather average experience.”