Hook Download (1992 Adventure Game)

Peter Banning is an ordinary suburban dad with two kids - or so everyone thinks. What not even his family know is his past as Peter Pan, scourge of Captain Hook in JM Barrie's children's fiction. Captain Hook gains revenge on Banning by stealing his two children, so Peter must return to Neverland, return to eternal childhood, and get them back.

It's a point and click adventure, and the pirate setting ensures that it recalls the Monkey Island games. The top 2/3 of the screen features a visual depiction of the area Peter is in, which a row of icons along the bottom can be selected to alter the function of a mouse click. These include looking at an object, picking it up, talking to people, using objects to solve problems (often in combination with others), and giving objects to others.

Peter Pan is certainly among the best known children stories (it was very popular long before Disney made their version of it). As with many such famous stories, this also inspired moves that were based upon in. One of such movies was a not to successful film with Robin Williams playing a grown up Peter Pan. I'm referring to the movie Hook. This game vaguely follows the movie story line, so the comparison is obvious.

As in the movie your children have been kidnapped by Captain James Hook, who wishes to have his revenge on you. Tinker Bell will take you to the Neverneverland where you'll need to acquire your old skills back in order to rescue your children. At this point however the connection between the movie and the game ends.

You find yourself in a square of a coastal town and you somehow feel out of place with your cell phone and cheque book. Your first task therefore is to get a real pirate outfit. In fact you need to be a pirate. If this sound familiar it's no surprise, because the game includes some parts that were obviously taken out of The Secret of Monkey Island (including the insulting sword fights).

Unfortunately this adventure game doesn't come close to the Monkey Island. The music is listenable, but nothing special. There are almost no sound effects (mostly just a clicking sound). The graphics seem weird to say the least. The colors are too orange and dark, although the cartoonish characters are quite nicely done (and animation does run smoothly). Most of all it bothered me that I always had the feeling of being in a small confined room, not actually running around a town.

The interface is user-friendly enough. I must warn you about talking to people though. If you want to use a different line from the one you see, you need to right click. By left clicking you select the line that is shown. And every time you'll leave for another location, you'll see a name of the location available.

The puzzles aren't really demanding and an average adventure player should be able to finish the game in a single afternoon (it took me only three hours) and there's nothing that would really make you replay the game.

So overall this is a nice little adventure game that you'll probably try, giggle about a scene or two, finish and never play again. That's why I'm giving it a 3.

Movie tie-ins for the most part suck. They are little more than rushed, buggy attempts to cash in on a successful franchise. Hook is a movie tie-in, and while I wouldn't go as far to say that the game is terrible, it is certainly not a true classic. If you've never seen the movie then you are going to be at a loss as to what is going on. You play Peter Banning who doesn't know that he is (or was) Peter Pan. Your children have been kidnapped by the evil Captain Hook and it is up to you to journey to Nevernever land to rescue them.

My biggest problem with Hook is that it could have been a damn good game, but it tries to follow the movie too closely. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but Hook fails badly at it. I can't help but feel if the game had either done more to follow the movie (there were some pretty emotional bits in it... not that I cried or anything.. nu uh!) or had gone in a completely different direction with the story it could have been a decent adventure.

OK, I've panned the game enough, is there anything good i can say about it? Well, some of the earlier puzzles are quite fun to solve (especialy one involving an anchor and some rope), the game looks very nice and at least Robin Williams doesn't have body hair to rival a cro-magnon primate (if you haven't seen the movie then accept that what I just said was funny and move on. who cares if it make no sense to you).

Hook is an average game based on the movie of the same name, which is a modernized version of the classic tale. Peter Pan, who is now living a normal adult life, is compelled to relive his roguish past when his old nemesis Captain Hook kidnaps his children. Vibrant graphics, charming Tinkerbell as your sidekick, and decent puzzles can't hide the below-average writing, awkward interface, and the fact that the adventure is over all too soon.

Game based on the movie Hook. You play Peter Pan who has to rescue his kids from captain Hook. With the help of Tinkerbell you do a great job! Back to Neverland!!!

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Hook have also downloaded:
Discworld, Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Fable, Innocent until Caught, Jack Orlando: A Cinematic Adventure, Heart of China, Guilty (a.k.a. Innocent Until Caught 2)