Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

The Good
This game came out directly after MI1, and had everything that could be expected from a sequel...plus more. This game focuses much more on humor than the first one does, or all the other for that matter...but hey, isn't that what's important?? To have fun in a game? Guybrush has a little bit more of an edge in this game, and is now a real pirate. But he's still as goofy as ever.

The Bad
The sounds really weren't anything, but the game didn't need good sounds, it had great music, using the iMUSE system.

Ok, we all know about the ending. And frankly, I don't see anything to complain about. It's still funny, isn't it? And the credits were halarious, weren't they? Nothing wrong with the end, at all.

So uh, in other words, nothing is bad about the game.

The Bottom Line
Monkey Island 2 is the more bizarre game out of the series. Although it's a little hard, I still suggest you play it. It's well worth it and can still possibly be the best of the series.

The Good
The fact that it's plain perfect. The humour is constant, and even though it's an old games, the animations are great. I played this a long time ago, when 256 colors still were kind of new. But hell if I don't play it at times. This game has great replayability value. The fact that there's a 'lite' version gives you the chance of playing the game and getting the overall idea. But then, to go on to the 'full' version. This adds 20-40 locations and a LOT of puzzles. The normal puzzles are harder as well.

The Bad
Not much. I love this game and keep it by my bedside.

The Bottom Line
This is a game you must have played if you like adventure games. They blow away almost every Sierra adventure game, except Gabriel Knight 1, which is a similar game. Play both. Play them until your thumbs bleed. You'll agree when you do.

The Good
Monkey Island 2, the sequel to the highly acclaimed Secret Of Monkey Island, is also a great, great, great game. It tells the story of Guybrush Threepwood, a would-be pirate in search of Big Whoop, a truly legendary treasure, which is so secretly hidden nobody even knows what it consists of. The ghost pirate LeChuck, the bad guy which Guybrush killed in the first episode, is also back and seeks revenge. It is a fantastic tale whose elements could have populated the mind of some of the greatest writers in History, but, instead of writing a book, somebody decided to write a game script. And, somehow, it turned out to be a comedy graphic adventure with a great, although very strange, storyline.

The characters are really elaborated and have their own unique personality. The plot is amazing, really nice, and deserved a book or a movie (would have been a blockbuster). The whole tale is told in a humorous way and silly jokes and situations are frequent.

While most adventures games, even having a good plot, fail to get the attention of the player, Monkey Island is really involving and has a great ambience. Maybe because of the harmony between graphics, sound, controls and the idea. And also because the game doesn't take itself too seriously.

The interface is very nice, and makes the game very easy and comfortable to play. In other words, gameplay is fabulous! Thanks to Lucas Arts SCUMM system (which was, in those times, much better than Sierra OnLine system), the game is much nicer to play than many adventure games released after ten years.

The puzzles are not obvious as they are in many adventures. They are very well elaborated and some are very funny. Don't expect Monkey Island to be a logic game. The challenges may be silly, but they are very clever and sometimes require lots of thinking. The quality of the puzzles became a Monkey Island (and also a Lucas Arts) trademark.

The graphics were very good for a 1991 game. Of course there are no videos or 3D panoramas, but the 256-color VGA graphics (320x200 resolution) are still not only OK, but also involving. The hand-drawn backgrounds brought new standards to adventure games and the sprites (=moving objects) were as detailed as the low resolution could allow.

Music is fantastic. Well, at least for a game. In fact, the Monkey Island tune could have easily been the soundtrack to the Monkey Island movie. It really feels like something written by John Williams and, if not a true classic, at least a nice tune which fits the game and is easily recognizable. The sound quality is OK. Don't expect to hear Guybrush's voice and any elaborated sound effects. They are simple, but effective.

The Bad
There are indeed so many good things about this game the bad things get sort of offuscated or even forgiven.

The main problem: the years came and passed and Monkey Island 2 is dated. The graphics and sound are not impressive anymore and there are better interfaces. Technology evoluted and Monkey Island 2 deserved a re-make (Sierra is re-making the King's Quest series, why not a Monkey Island re-make?).

Well, yes, there are other problems. Problems which were born with the game. It is not short, but could have been longer. It is so nice to play people would beg for more (and the third episode only came six years later, so they had to wait a lot!).

And the end of the game seems to be the main point here. It is strange and does not seem to fit. It may be disappointing. I am not going to tell the end of the story here to spoil the fun. Some people even created theories to explain it. I'll just say that it makes sense thinking as the end of Monkey Island 2 as an isolated game and one could easily imagine what Big Whoop is. But it is strange to think of it in the context of the series. It doesn't reveal the secret of Monkey Island (and doesn't even mention it). Monkey Island 3 brought a different explanation for the game, but not very convincing.

The Bottom Line
TRUE CLASSIC. Monkey Island 2 is one of the best sequels ever and retains all the magic of the first game. And it is one of the reasons people say games were much better ten years ago.