Dr. Lautrec is different, but not as fun as Layton. It's very charming at times, but the repetitive gameplay gets old.
Lautrec and his cohort are trying to discover a missing treasure hidden in Paris. You carry out the story using a three step process:
1. You receive a "map" that provides an encoded location within Paris that you need to find. You then run around the overworld map of Paris, see the sights of Paris and learn actually a lot of nice nuggets about Paris' history, and figure out your destination in the city. 2. You get to said location and then find the entrance to the underground labyrinth. Once in the labyrinth, you work some simple "avoid the view of the guards" puzzles, sliding crates, running between guards by timing it when they aren't looking, and opening treasure chests with gems that help you in phase 3.
3. You find the secret room(s) in the labyrinth, and solve simple Layton-like puzzle to get into the room -- those puzzles are NOT the caliber of Layton puzzles, and have very little variety in the style. Once in the room, you battle a "Treasure Animatus", which you can think of as sort of a Pokemon battle. You'll collect Treasure Animatus and some other attack gems as you adventure, and you strategically pit them against new Animatus through the game, defeating them to gain more and more powerful Animatus to tackle the increasingly harder enemies.
The first 4 or 5 iterations through this formula is fun. The next 20... yes, it gets old. The city exploration in Step 1 doesn't really require you, the player, to do anything: you walk to a specifically IDed spot on the map, the characters talk through the puzzle, and you walk somewhere else, they talk, you walk, they figure it out! That's it. Very linear, no puzzle solving by you. The good part here is that they do spout of some interesting trivia about Paris.
In Step 2, you'll traverse a couple dozen very simple labyrinths, dodging almost-robotic policemen, traversing some simple sliding block puzzles to advance, to find treasure rooms. Again, very predictable and gets old.
In Step 3, you solve one simple and repetitive puzzle, then do the battle. The battles are, again, pretty easy. If you're a completist, you might redo battles to ensure all of your animatus survive to grow your herd. But I found the strategy to be pretty simplistic.
So why play this at all? Well, the whole presentation of the game: graphics, music, voice-overs, etc. are all extremely well done. The game looks and sounds great. I just wish the gameplay, itself, was meatier...
The good: * Terrific hand-drawn and 3d visuals -- everything has lots of character and is very artfully done. The Paris buildings look great.
* Very good voice-over work, and a ton of it throughout the game.
* Some of the characters are very charming, if not cliche.
* Interesting tid-bits of information about Paris' history
* Great music
The not-so-good:
* Shallow, repetitive gameplay. However, a friend of mine has been playing, and he agrees, but he find the gameplay relaxing and fun. So to each their own.
* The main character is kind of... well... a jerk.
Overall, if you're not looking for a new Layton, or you're looking for something charming and not very taxing, heavy on atmosphere but not challenge, then you may like this game. Me? I found it to be charming, but just a bit too dull...