How can you not all agree that a mystery murder is not supposed to end with you being forced to frame an innocent man and prevented from further investigation!

Other people have inner worlds and experiences that differ from yours. You're quite welcome here! This is a forum, though. By definition you're going to run into views that aren't yours.

On top of that, you've expressed your views with a level of indignation that seems hard to match. If you're looking for agreement, that may not be the best way to go about it.

Let's be honest, it was just a game with a plot that wasn't exactly what you wanted. It didn't promote anything vile, it didn't target you in any way. You're free to dunk on it, but you're doing it in a shared space.

So here's my proposition. I sincerly hope you feel welcome here. Please share your thoughts and feelings about any game you like or dislike. Have some awareness of other people and their sensibilities. If you're uncertain: feel free to ask. Sometimes it helps to imagine a neutral arbiter in your mind. In this case, pick a game that you like. imagine someone you don't know suddenly appearing and being not just critical but kind of hateful about it and then getting angry when you don't agree. That's not a good time.

I hope it helps. If not, hey, it's just my two cents, I'll manage. I'm kinda poor but not that poor.

How can you not all agree that a mystery murder is not supposed to end with you being forced to frame an innocent man and prevented from further investigation!

I can see why you thought this was a mystery game, but it never was. That setting was only there to facilitate an oddball world where all playable characters had some kind of agenda, and then let those characters wreak havoc in an old-school adventure game where those agendas oppose each other, utilizing the tropes and pop-culture references of the time for comedy. Again, I don't think this worked very well, but I appreciate it for what it is.

A traditional whodunit, as you seemingly want it to be, would suit my taste better as well. But that is simply not what this game tries to achieve.

I had no idea that when I started playing this game that it wasn't going to conclude solving a murder mystery. I really enjoyed it apart from the very silly 'a-reno stuff' up until the concluding part of the game. The concluding part was interesting from a gameplay perspective but from a story perspective the actual conclusion felt like a huge two fingers up to anyone who would have liked to seen a proper conclusion to a story rather than this pretentious ********!

Lets try to be accepting of others opinions. There really isn't a right or wrong answers as to genre specifications any longer. The only right answer is that TP was great....until the absolute end.

One thing’s for certain: I’m even more interested in finishing the game now! 

I was really disappointed with the murder plot being just... forgotten at one-point too, actually. But it's mostly the meta humor that fizzle out my interest for the game the more I played it. Didn't like the end at all !
But I kinda respect this kind of cleaving ending. You love it, or you hate it, and it sparks discussions, but it never get forgotten for sure. Didn't regret playing this game

Well, now that this thread feels less hostile, I'll also post my two cents about the game:

I thought the game was great!

Yes, sure, there's quite a "shift" near the end of the game that most people will either love or hate, and I think people's reaction to that will also be affected by whether or not they've experienced that sort of "shift" in other games(or other forms of media) before. Personally, I'm of split opinions about that part of the game, both liking it and feeling it was unique, yet simultaneously feeling like I've seen it a thousand times before.

The entire murder mystery is really more of a red herring than anything else. Like the official tagline for the game goes:
"In Thimbleweed Park, a dead body is the least of your problems."

I do think it's a great game overall, but its players will be split about it, and I honestly think that's good. I quite often find games that everyone think are great to be boring. But games that make people have wildly different reactions are often works of art, in my opinion, on top of being "just" entertainment. And the fact that people get so agitated, one way or the other, about such games is because these games actually says something. Sometimes that something is ineffable. And this something will elicit emotions.

That said, when the official tagline for the game, the game's description everywhere it's sold, and a bunch of things in the game alludes to there being more important mysteries than who did the murder ... Maybe this is just me, but I think then, if anyone playing the game thinks that's the big mystery they're not really paying enough attention to the story unfolding.

(Oh, and the murderer can be figured out, you just need a bit of deductive reasoning. The game just won't outright tell you whether or not you're correct.)

I was really disappointed with the murder plot being just... forgotten at one-point too, actually. But it's mostly the meta humor that fizzle out my interest for the game the more I played it. Didn't like the end at all !
But I kinda respect this kind of cleaving ending. You love it, or you hate it, and it sparks discussions, but it never get forgotten for sure. Didn't regret playing this game

Yeah. It's kind of like the Matrix 2. They knew that everyone loved the first one for being a really cool action movie, but doubled down on the weird philosophy aspect, which nobody expected nor wanted. I respect the creators for not giving two shits about public opinion, but also find myself left with something I don't really enjoy that much.

I only got around to purchasing Thimbleweed Park just last year, and I have been gradually playing through it. For better and for worse, it's giving exactly what numerous LucasArts fans have been requesting for years from Ron Gilbert. Basically a love letter to every adventure game motif from the late 80s and the early 90s, delivered courtesy of nostalgia postal express services.

I originally had every intention of purchasing the game on launch day in 2017, because in the lead-up I had been closely reading the majority of the development journal on Ron's blog. it was a fascinating insight, even focusing on things like matching the walk cycle speed to be similar to Maniac Mansion.

Despite being excited about this game for months in advance, the launch trailers dropped on GOG with a resounding thud. Two things irked me enough to seriously reconsider playing Thimbleweed Park. The constant swearing of Ransome the Clown was front and centre to convince people to buy the game. That style of humour is lowest common denominator. Swearing should be included in games to place stronger emphasis on dialogue, not to be there solely for the sake of swearing itself.

Copious amounts of repeat-a-reno jokes were definitely not my cup of tea, so the idea of playing a retro-inspired game with two different monotonous gags was quite simply not appealing at the time. Good news, many years later I'm slowly making progress in the game and found the gameplay and plot to be better than I expected. Not amazing but still good. Delores is my favourite character, her substory of aspiring to become a game developer is an enjoyable experience to witness. The inclusion of fan submitted short story books and phone messages is a nice touch.

Let me preface this next section by stating this is just a personal opinion of mine. I've been a fan of Ron Gilbert for a longtime, having played every single adventure game by Humongous Entertainment. Ron Gilbert's swansong is The Cave from 2013. It has a unique premise of the cave being a living entity. I played some of it on the Wii U when it was a new release title. Ron Gilbert peaked in quality with Humongous Entertainment after initially honing his skills at LucasArts.

Thimbleweed Park sacrifices innovation for nostalgia. However, I knew this was going to be the case when getting into it.

Loved everything about it. At the end I was on the edge of my seat thinking "Classic Ron, you did it again".

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Loved everything about it. At the end I was on the edge of my seat thinking "Classic Ron, you did it again".