General Advice
When using inventory items on other objects, sometimes you can click on the object in the world first to make George start walking towards it and then select the item from the inventory afterwards. It seems to differ from object to object whether this works or not.
Oftentimes you can buffer a click on an item in the inventory while you are still waiting for the inventory to show up. If you know where exactly the item will appear at the bottom of the screen, you can select items much earlier. The same is true for dialog options.
The order of items in the inventory can change after loading saved games. Really annoying during practice.
Only left-clicks work to select dialog options. If you're like me and mash both mouse buttons to skip text, it's important to anticipate when the next dialog option will come up and make sure to be clicking with the left button.
This game is all about blindly preparing the position of your mouse cursor. There are many things that can help with this, so make sure you figure out what's most comfortable with your setup. I like to switch between windows with alt+tab to make the cursor visible.
In some places where you have to walk a long distance it's faster to avoid the "beckon" 🫴 cursor. Taking the most direct path tends to be most important, even if it adds a few little interruptions to the walk.
If you lost a bunch of time on a split and are not sure where that time loss was, it was probably a random animation delaying you. Pretty much all the characters can do random motions that keep the dialog/cutscene from progressing.
Some 2023 Route Updates
Quaramonte at the Market
-
You don't need to use the map inside the police station during the first visit, you can just right-click it from afar.
-
Afterwards, you also don't have to talk to Duane to get Oubier to disappear. Just talking to the man himself and immediately exiting gives a significantly shorter dialog.
-
It's faster to NOT talk about the detonator with Duane during the first conversation with him. When you come back later you can start talking to him earlier, if you still have the "first detonator talk" available. It's like George doesn't want to walk in closer to hand over the item before the camera scrolled all the way over or something. (Oops, @VinFla already used this in 2018)
-
After you go to the mining company for the first time, you have to talk to Nico outside. It's faster to walk to a certain spot close to her before you click on her. (Oops, @VinFla already used this in 2018)
Ketch's Landing
Right after arrival we want to talk to Rio. You can get to him slightly faster by warping up the stairs and back down on the way.
British Museum
Looking at the cabinet with the Jaguar Stone on the right-hand side first gives you a faster dialog option when talking with the attendant.
London Subway
After pressing the button that "calls" the train, you can look at the button or cabinet to get Nico to stand up. Now you can walk over to the right a bit, which makes the cutscene-walk after the train arrives a little shorter. One time, I managed to softlock the game during this though and I don't understand how, yet. Caution!
Movie Shooting
Even though it is possible to click on the bush first and then on the bun(s), it's faster to drag the bun onto the bush. Otherwise George will do some unnecessary extra walking.
Jungle Village
All you need to do with Nico to move on is left-click the hot stone and right-click the barrel before talking to Titipoco.
Mayan Machine
ScummVM lets you use the keyboard or a controller to control the mouse cursor. I'm finding it somewhat useful to aim at the pixel that skips the Mayan machine with the controller. YMMV.