Escape from Monkey Island

The Good
Escape can still be funny. The humor in the dialogues does get stale very soon, but there are some situations that, while not necessarily reflecting the unique Monkey Island tone, can be amusing. The Scumm Bar turning into a sushi bar is a typical example of the new humor, its symbolic representation: the time of the pirates has passed, modern consumer culture takes over. No, I didn't like this direction either, but at least the game is consequent enough to base a large part of its story on it.

There is nothing wrong with 3D graphics. They have a certain cartoony edge, and some of the character models are appropriately disproportional. Sure, the game loses an even larger chunk of the mysterious Caribbean atmosphere than its predecessor with the perpetual brightness, but it does fit the new colorful locations and themes.

The puzzles of Escape are truly a coin with two sides. There are some really good ones. I enjoyed the bizarre clock puzzle in the swamps of Lucre Island. The diving competition was tricky and fun. One of my favorite ones is the puzzle with the two parrots on Jambalaya Island. It's a pity those interesting activities co-exist with obscure tasks that often make little sense.

In general, the parts that had nothing to do with previous Monkey Island games were the best. Clearing your name on Lucre Island, diving against Marco, figuring out how to get the bronze head on Jambalaya Island. Those parts were fun and refreshing. But Escape wanted to outdo its predecessors in everything, and that was a big mistake.

The Bad
How do I say this... Something's missing here... let's call this something a soul. Everything seems to be in place, but nothing feels fresh, and the series' unique charm is gone. Escape tries to be holier than the Pope himself - to be more Monkey Island than Monkey Island. The result is remarkable: the game becomes a parody of itself. There is so much recycling here that any new and creative idea can't be perceived anymore. Or, better to say, it is forgotten once the mechanical routine of Monkey Island-ness takes over again. The good parts of the game are drowned in the monotonous mumbling of endless Monkey Island mantras: "You fight like a cow... I'm Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate... Yes, darling... Swashbuckling sea scum..." and so on. There is too much of it. Too much to bear and too much to digest. Those phrases have been recycled so many times that they became meaningless. They are not funny any more, because repetition is the worst enemy of humor. Strangely enough, Escape suffers precisely from what it laughs at - consumer mentality.

This kind of thinking leads me to believe that the game was conceived as some sort of a fan tribute, where elements are used and re-used with the happy, blind stubbornness of a neophyte. Phrases from earlier games are quoted verbatim and characters make totally unnecessary cameo appearances. The game thus becomes an empty container for all possible Monkey Island stuff. Characters who were funny become pale shadows of themselves: they finally managed to ruin Stan, and the hilarious skull Murray is degraded to the level of a harmless curiosity.

This is connected to another aspect that suffered in Escape: the atmosphere. In the previous games the exotic Caribbean setting was treated halfway seriously, the occasional well-placed anachronisms only emphasizing the romantic flair of sea adventures and treasure hunting. This game doesn't feel like that at all. Of course, its whole idea was to show the influence of capitalism and globalization on "authentic" pirate stuff, but the result was an almost complete loss of true Monkey Island spirit. This series was never strictly a comedy, it always had place for real feelings and real pirates. In Escape, everything is a caricature. Pop culture references have lost their former subtlety and are now on full rampage. Voodoo and ghosts are treated with toothless negligence. Pirates have turned into friendly gimmicks for tourists.

The puzzles are a mixed bag. Some of them are way too obscure, while others are surprisingly easy and not rewarding enough. The "pinball" puzzle on Monkey Island is a pain to solve, as there are no clues provided. On the contrary, the manatee puzzle on Jambalaya Island is disappointingly simple, although it was supposed to be one of the central issues in that part of the game. Monkey Kombat is a nice idea, but the moves are too hard to remember unless you write them down, and the whole thing becomes boring even before you realize that the entire finale of the game is based on it. The elegance and smoothness of gameplay, shared by the three earlier games, cannot be felt anymore.

The Bottom Line
I had a tough time with this review. I finished the game two times and there were moments I enjoyed quite a bit. But truth has to be told: the magic is gone. Escape is deceptively familiar, luring fans into a sponsored orgy of recycling that casts a shadow over the series. There's too much Monkey Island in it, and not enough true creativity.

The Good
I love the hilarity of this game - as with all other MI games, the jokes are common and well executed, meaning that the player always has a smile on his/her face.

The storyline is pretty good, although perhaps not as strong as the previous games, and it lets the player truly become a part of the experience.

The Bad
Unfortunately, there was a lot more to dislike in this addition to the series.

Firstly, the graphics are horrible. When 3D was advertised for it, we all thought "great, it'll look awesome" - but how wrong we were; since it runs in extremely low resolution, it can look pretty jagged on the big monitors. The facial expressions are not clear enough due to the image distortion, and this takes a huge chunk out of the game, as a lot of the game is based around reaction and timing (which TV comedies also rely upon).

Secondly, I don't like the new control method - I prefer the classic point and click interface, rather than having to use the keyboard to control Guybrush. Often, while running, I will end up going to the wrong place because of the difficulty I have in controlling the character: Point and click was far more efficient. Also, various parts of the game were extremely difficult to master, like Monkey Kombat - this is an adventure game and should not have something that is so hard to beat present in an action game form. With the insult sword fighting of Monkey Island 1 and 3, and the insult arm wrestling of this game, at least it wasn't too difficult and was incredibly amusing - but Monkey Kombat simply doesn't have the enjoyment, and is more of a 'chore' than anything else - this is something I really disliked.

The Bottom Line
Probably worth buying, but ONLY if you have played the other games in the series first; otherwise, avoid it as it will make little sense to you and you will probably find the poor graphics and control difficult to master and not worth the hassle.

The Good
The fact that it's Monkey Island!, the seires of games which has been on the PC since 1990 and now for the first time, it is now in 3-D!. The game is so funny and is full of pop culture references and parodies. Some old favorite characters make a return appearence (including Murray from MI3, Carla, Otis and Meathook from MI1, Stan and the voodoo lady from all the Monkey Island games)

The Bad
The controls are a bit iffy at first, and some might not like the change from 2-D to 3-D. To some people the Monkey Island seires was better off in 2-D and also you'd need to play the first three Monkey Island games in order to get some of the jokes in this game.

The Bottom Line
Lucasarts have done it again!, another adventure that will become a classic