Leisure Suit Larry 5 was part of the free Leisure Suit Larry - Retro Bundle on Fanatical, and as a fan of point-and-click and retro games, I decided to give it a shot. This was my first time playing the series. The version included in the bundle is the VGA remake, not the original. Also, despite the name, this is the fourth game in the series, as Leisure Suit Larry 4 doesn’t actually exist.

The game opens with an overly long intro, filled with text and scenes switching between unknown characters, and it takes a while before you even get to control Larry. This kind of sets the tone for the whole game, as the pacing remains a problem throughout.

You alternate between playing as Larry and Patti, with each handling their own part of the game. While the game takes place after Leisure Suit Larry 3 in terms of time, the story doesn’t continue or directly connect. It feels like something important happened between the two games, but we never see it. Both Larry and Patti are in completely different locations, and they don’t interact until the very end. There are references to events from the “missing” Leisure Suit Larry 4, which feels a bit confusing.

The story, while okay, is presented in a dull and repetitive way. Both characters visit different locations, but everything repeats itself… constantly. Larry’s trips to the airport and the limousine sections for both characters follow nearly the exact same process. Larry even jokes about every airport looking the same.

One positive change is that the game introduces more music tracks, sound effects, and better graphics (256 colors), a step up from previous entries. The art style is cartoony, with exaggerated features on most characters, though the younger women are drawn more attractively. This new direction didn’t bother me, and it reminded me of the first game’s VGA version, though with better details. This is also the first game in the series where point-and-click mechanics replace text commands, which was a nice evolution in the gameplay.

The difficulty is the easiest of the first four games. I didn’t encounter any deaths, and it’s unclear if it’s even possible to die in this one. The game hints at a time limit in the beginning, but it never seemed to actually affect gameplay and was likely only part of the dialogue.

Since this is an old game with a smaller resolution, I opted to play in windowed mode. Navigating between screens was frustrating, as you need to click on the edge of the screen to move to another location, and this was so finicky and imprecise that I often clicked outside the window by accident. The UI also feels cluttered, making it less user-friendly.

One of the game’s low points was the long outro, especially Patti’s recap of everything she did, which felt tedious and unnecessary. Another odd moment was a supposedly "♥♥♥♥♥♥" gynecologist scene, which was clearly written from a male perspective and came off as uncomfortable and cringy. At times, it’s hard to tell what’s meant as a parody and what’s just there for a bit of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ or mature content.

Humor-wise, the game stays true to its roots with plenty of funny scenes, though it’s noticeably less explicit than earlier titles. There’s also no age verification system this time, though you’ll still need the poorly scanned manual to find symbol combinations for flight tickets.

A welcome change is the save prompt when arriving at certain locations for the first time. This is a big improvement over the constant save reminders in the previous game.

I think it's the weakest game in this series so far.