Touches of wry humour abound throughout the game although some of the funniest await you in the very first location. Your safe is in the form of a pig, complete with an amusing description of just what has been used as the keyhole. The game also has quite a few responses to various swear words programmed into it and I have to admit that I spent a while when first playing the game trying to see which ones it recognised and which ones it didn’t. Hell, I was a teenager when I first stumbled across the game and typing in “piss” and getting a funny response to it quite made my day.

The Big Sleaze covers a large amount of locations but unlike most text adventures of the time these aren’t just filler. Part of the reason for the game’s size is that it is split into three parts, thereby neatly sidestepping the 48KB memory restriction of the system it was originally written for (the ZX Spectrum). As such, The Big Sleaze is considerably larger than most adventures of the time and as the player is able to move back and forth between the various parts it gives the impression of being a larger game still. Compared to some of the monster games written these days it might not seem a particularly impressive size (perhaps the entire thing would equate to around 40-50 KB in version 4 of ADRIFT) but for the time it was large indeed. Unfortunately, even with the game being split into three parts it is still too large to fit within the memory requirements without some serious corners being cut. As such, several locations feature a variety of items which are unexaminable and the game, particularly in the later stages, has a feeling of being rushed. Perhaps a better idea would have been to expand on the available material and make it a four-parter but unfortunately that wasn’t to be.

Progress through the game is made via your car which is first seen parked outside your office. Jumpstarting it (quite why you don’t have a set of keys to it is never explained) and then typing “drive to [location]” allows the player access to several dozen more locations. At the start of the game, precious few of these are known but by searching the locations you *do* know about, clues leading you to the others soon come to light. Fortunately on replaying the game, you can just jump in your car at the first opportunity you get and drive to any of these locations without having to hunt up the clues again, a time-saving exercise which is worth its weight in gold.

Due to its size, and the fact that it is split into three parts, The Big Sleaze is not an easy game. Various parts of a photograph are scattered around the game and these must be assembled into a cohesive whole, the result giving you a clue as to where you need to travel in order to finish matters off. One complication which adds to the complexity of the game is that it plays out in real-time. Each action moves the clock on ever so slightly and a good number of the locations in the game – Joe’s Diner, the bank, an office block, and several others – can only be accessed at certain times of the day. Another location – the park – is fatal to enter during the hours of darkness (of course, you only discover this the hard way and once you discover it you're dead. The manner of your death, however, is very funny and worth it just to see an amusing way to die.) As such, on my first few plays through the game, I spent a considerable amount of time getting very frustrated at being unable to find a way into certain locations. I guessed I was either missing a key or simply unable to figure out just what needed doing to get inside. I only realised the time factor when upon returning to the locations at a later stage I found them easily accessible. In hindsight, there are clues which indicate the passage of time (a bell denoting various times of the day) but I missed them the first time I played the game and I doubt I'm the only one.

Only being able to access certain locations at certain times adds a level of complexity to the game which, in all honesty, is more frustrating than inspired. Okay, it *is* a good idea but with there being no way of knowing exactly what the time is (no clock or watch is provided for the unfortunate player to tell the time) it’s an idea that generally ends up being more annoying than anything else. Discovering a clue you think might lead to you progressing further and then being unable to go any further due to a certain location being closed off to you is a pain to say the least. As the game is also time-limited, it’s quite likely that you'll still be standing around outside a location waiting for it to open when things roll to a conclusion.

But after a few plays through, things start to fall nicely into place. You'll experience problems with the time system to begin with yet after a while you should be able to predict (roughly) what the time is and how long you have to get done what needs doing before you don’t have access to that office block or that bank. And as not every location is inaccessible after the hours of dark, you can soon figure out which ones can be reached at any time and which ones can only be reached in daylight and adjust your gameplaying accordingly.

Killing the player off without warning is never a good idea but in The Big Sleaze it’s handled in such an amusing manner you can just about let it off the hook. Trying to drive your car without first examining it and finding the present left for you by the neighbourhood kids as payback for breaking up their dinner money racket can have explosive results. And the less said about leaving your office without locking the door behind you, the better. Unless you're one of those people who stops and examines every little thing before proceeding, it’s likely you'll be caught out by one or more of these instant kill scenarios. But keep saving the game regularly and you should be fine.

In conclusion, The Big Sleaze is one of the most comical games I have ever played and long after the puzzles have been solved you should still be chuckling over the humour. If there's one niggling thing about it that somewhat spoiled things it would have to be the ending. Not to ruin it for anyone who has yet to play the game, but it left a lot to be desired and was certainly not the best ending such a great game could have come up with. Though often frustrating (the time factor still catches me out every now and then and usually at the most awkward time) The Big Sleaze nevertheless remains a good indicator of just how great text adventures back in the 80’s could be.

Rating: 9 out of 10