Summary
Nice for Monkey Island fans
The Good
I'll be brief and let me just keep it more to the point...
- I have mixed feeling about the new cartoon style graphics. For one thing, the graphics are not pixelated anymore, they are stylish and sharp. The animations feel smooth and are of great quality.
- The usual point and click gameplay style is solid. The new inventory system was an improvement.
- The character voices are well acted, cartoon voice style. The sounds and music are indeed of film quality, maybe even better.
- The story. Despite
Ron Gilbert not being involved in this sequel, I think the people who created it did a very good job in connecting the story with the events of the second and first game. This sequel is not only a proper continuation, it explains successfully what happened in the bizarre ending of the previous game (which many people hated). Quite frankly I was somewhat impressed.
- The tone and sense of humour of the game world is just about right for a Monkey Island adventure I suppose. Some jokes are spot on; the cultural references are there; the characters are colorful.
- I found some puzzles very challenging and original. The game gives the player possibilities of puzzle solving order and exploration. The length of the adventure is more than adequate.
The Bad
- First of all, bear in mind that I find the whole Monkey Island thing a bit overrated. I'm a grumpy gamer, I admit. These adventure games with juvenile stories in the middle between the totally absurd and the comedic are not my favorite genre. They just don't hook me. Maybe I'm getting too old for this but I found it way too infantile and sometimes lame; I felt some irreverent humour was missing (I like Simon better than Guybrush).
- I personally didn't like that cartoonish style too much. It kind of makes more sense to the tone of the game, but I just didn't like it (see above).
- The puzzles here do advance the story and the goals are clear, but I was disappointed with some nonsensical solutions. The game also features unconnected solutions you get to find before the problem arrives. Those are called backward puzzles.
The Bottom Line
I would still recommend playing it if you enjoyed the previous games. I preferred MI
1 and
2. They are funnier and let you use more your imagination. But nevertheless we do see a leap forward in graphics and sound after the intermission.
