STORY

Earl Mansin has been on Death Row for 27 years - 27 long, painful years.  Earl is a serial killer, and he has been sentenced to 700 years in total.  Naturally, he would like to escape sometime before then.  So Earl has a plan!  He has managed to smuggle a hacksaw into his cell, and he plans to use that hacksaw to break out of prison.  However, there is a problem.  Earl's hacksaw is in a hiding spot, and Earl can't get to it.  He must use his cunning skills if he wants to see that hacksaw again.  Of course, it's not quite as straight-forward as that.  Earl's problems escalate when he is called to the Governor’s office before he manages to escape.  What could the Governor want?  Poor Earl is convinced that this is the end for him.  He could sure use a friend about now.  Maybe you could help him escape from the prison, and onto freedom once again.

GAMEPLAY

Earl Mansin uses a point & click interface, which is very easy to use.  Right-click your mouse to cycle through the various cursors (look, talk, take, walk), and then left-click to use that cursor.  All your inventory items are stored at the bottom right, in a box titled 'Loot'.  I thought that was a nice touch, considering the whole game takes place in a prison.  You can Save, Load, or Quit at any time, by moving your mouse up to the top left corner of the screen, and clicking on the appropriate icon. 

TECHINCAL NOTE

The game requires MS Mpeg4 v2 codec in order to play cut scenes correctly.  A few older machines may not have this codec.  If you have any problems, you can download a codex pack from here - http://www.cccp-project.net/ .  This seems to have solved the problem for most people. 

GRAPHICS

I was very impressed with the graphics in this game.  Colours are crisp and clear, and Earl's oversized head gives the game a 'cartoony' feel.  The cursors are brilliantly animated, with the grasping hand, biting mouth etc.  The Hangman's Noose icon when you want to quit was a nice touch.  I especially liked the picture of Bernard hidden behind the Governor. 

MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS

Earl Mansin has full speech throughout, and I was very impressed with it all.  I love Earl's voice - it has just the right amount of sleaziness to it.  The guard grumbling that he had to stay at his post and not join the riots really made me laugh.  There are also some brilliant sound effects such as Earl's footsteps, doors opening, and the 'swiping' noise as you pick things up.  My favourite has to be the hacksaw sawing at things.  The music added a lot of enjoyment, and really seemed to fit the game.

SUMMARY

This is a wonderful game that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish.  I love the story of Earl trying to escape from death row.  The voice acting is just superb, and dialogue is very witty.  The whole game is controlled by mouse, which makes it easy to use.  I loved the bright, colourful graphics, as well as all the wonderful sound effects.  I really couldn't find much wrong with this game.  Some people may have trouble with cut scenes, but that is easily fixed by downloading the codec.  Why not give it a try?