Escape from Monkey Island

aka: EFMI, Flucht von Monkey Island, Fuga da Ilha dos Macacos, Fuga da Monkey Island, Houdao Da Taowang, La Fuga de Monkey Island, MI4, Monkey Island 4
Moby ID: 2606
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Guybrush Threepwood has finally defeated the zombie pirate LeChuck, and married his sweetheart Elaine Marley. The happy couple is returning home from an exciting honeymoon. But as they arrive on Melee Island, they notice some very strange changes. A mysterious stranger who calls himself Charles L. Charles is organizing a campaign to become the next governor. The Australian businessman Ozzie Mandrill is turning the Caribbean into an attraction for tourists. And on top of that, Elaine's mansion is being demolished! Naturally, it's up to our hero to revert the things back to normal, even if that means traveling to exotic islands and solving puzzles on the way.

Escape From Monkey Island is a direct sequel to The Curse of Monkey island, and is the fourth game in the Monkey Island series. The gameplay relies mainly on inventory-based puzzles and branching dialogues, just like in the previous installments. The interface is similar to that of Grim Fandango: mouse is not used, and the interaction is done via context-sensitive commands that appear on the screen whenever you navigate Guybrush close to an object. The game utilizes pre-rendered backgrounds and 3D character models.

Spellings

  • 献ćČ›ć€§é€ƒäșĄ - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • çŒŽćł¶ć°è‹±é›„4ïŒšé€ƒé›ąçŒŽćł¶ - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

389 People (311 developers, 78 thanks) · View all

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Systems Programming/Additional Design
Game Scripting/Additional Design/Dialog
Game Scripting
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Lead Artist
3D Backgrounds
3D Backgrounds/Cinematic Lighting
Cinematic Lighting/Art Tools Specialist
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3D Animation
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 68 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 192 ratings with 15 reviews)

Christ! Not another Monkey Island 4 review...

The Good
Escape from Monkey Island is the fourth instalment in the Monkey Island series from LucasArts, and it is a bit different to the previous three games. In The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush went to great lengths to find the real engagement ring to put on Elaine's finger, and break the pirate curse that caused her to turn into a gold statue. He then buried the ghost pirate LeChuck under a block of ice, and proposed to Elaine, a proposal in which she had accepted.

They started their new life on MĂȘlĂȘe Island’, an island that is part of the Tri-Islands area, the same island that you explored in The Secret of Monkey Island. But the both of them have a little trouble. You see, Elaine has been declared dead and her famous mansion is to be due for demolition. Furthermore, an election is to be hold that could kick Elaine out of office, replacing her with a new governor - none other than LeChuck. Since they are married, you often hear Elaine calling Mr. Brush such names like "snookums", "honeybun", and "love of my life" all throughout the game. Very typical for a married couple.

EFMI has you starting on MĂȘlĂȘe Island’. You will notice some differences of the structure between this and the first game. When I explored MĂȘlĂȘe for the second time, I was surprised at how small it is. The jail, the antique shop, and the church is no longer here. Instead, these were replaced with a huge block of land that leads up to the Governor's mansion. Something tells me that it all has to do with the Australian land developer that you will have to deal with later in the game. And where are the Governor's dogs? She must have sold them to somebody else, or they were put down after Mr. Brush drugged them.

Unlike the previous MI games, EFMI is in 3D. Because it was all the rage post-millennium, that is how today's games are done, and it is no use complaining about it; technology has to move forward sometime in the future. I'd say by the year 2015, 4D will be introduced, which will be heaps better than 3D, but I might be wrong. As they say, who knows what the future holds.

You control Mr. Brush by using the keyboard to move him around, use items, speak to people, and access his inventory. When you access the inventory, it comes up on the screen nicely, and I admire the way that it cycles between different objects in the form of a circle. The inventory is closed the same way that it is opened. Pressing [F1] on the keyboard allows you to save and load a game, erase saved games, change different options, view certain cut-scenes, and return to or exit the game. You can store up to 20 pages of saved games, and some will require you to insert the game's second CD if you saved much later in the game. I still don't understand why Lucas decided to remove mouse support from the game, if the mouse is widely used in other games.

I always look forward to playing 3D games, and EFMI is no exception. As a result of the 3D engine that LucasArts used, the graphics look great. Each scene is done nicely. Mostly all the characters are modeled perfectly, and some of them look amazing and reminds me of my childhood days. Elaine, for example, has never been cute before, especially in 3D.

The sound is very good. At the very start of the game, when you are on board the ship, you will hear a tune that sounds like one of those pirate songs, without the lyrics. The music that can be heard on the overhead maps are the best, in my opinion. Some of the music is actually a combination of reggae and jungle music, and suits the scenario very well.

And what about the humor? Well, EFMI carries a lot of humor, and plenty of it lies within the tasks that you have to accomplish throughout the game, as well as the conversations that you have with the different characters that you meet in the game. On Jambalaya Island’, for example, you have to navigate through the swamp, and you have to do business with your future self by saying the things that he just said, and if you mess up, a hole will appear, which will suck you back to the start of the swamp. Like the first game, you have to tour Monkey Island’ again and do business with Herman Toothrot, also in the first game. You have to keep hitting him with certain objects so that he can regain his memory. And I did not forget the in-one-door-and-out-the-other trick back on MĂȘlĂȘe.

The familiar characters, like Stan, the voodoo pristess, and Mr. Brush himself, are voiced by the same actors. And some of them sound like the ones that I heard from various cartoon shows. The talking figurehead, for example, sounds like Bobby from King of the Hill, and one of the pirates on Jambalaya sounds like Agnes from The Simpsons

The Bad
Although each character gets voiced by the same person as in CMI, not everybody gets the same treatment. In CMI, Elaine had a British accent, yet in this game, she carries an American one. As for Murray, the talking skull, he was so much funnier in CMI, but in this game, I found him quite annoying just to hear him trying to lure people to Planet Threepwood (a parity of Planet Hollywood). This give me the impression that both of these characters were voiced by different actors.

I hate fighting games, but when I had to play Monkey Kombat with a bunch of monkeys in order to continue the game, I felt a little bit annoyed. The game is slightly different to Mortal Kombat. You see, you have to defeat your opponent using the right calls and stances, and you have no time limit. Not only did I have to play it once, but thrice. Sometimes it was a bit boring to watch my opponent beat me, as I did not have a clue what calls that I need to use to beat him. Even if I did not use the right calls, I managed to reduce my opponent's meter, but every time that I did so, I was forced to perform a save-if-you-win-and-restore-if-you-lose routine, just in case I made a mistake. At the end of MK, I realized that it is important to write down all the calls and stances, as well as what stances beat others. And that's what I did.

I saw a map of the Tri-Islands area, and I was disappointed that the game did not allow me to travel to all the islands on that map. There are only about three islands that you can travel to, but not including those islands.

The Bottom Line
If you like 3D adventure games like I do, give EFMI a try. it's much longer than the previous three.

If you have played the past Monkey Island games, you will be happy to know that most of the characters from the original keep returning in later sequels and have developed over the years. I just heard from Lucas that there is not going to be a Monkey Island 5. I personally like to thank Mr. Brush for the great adventures that he joined me on.

Rating: ****

Windows · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚č (43092) · 2005

A wonderful game, and yet a terrible disappointment

The Good
There's no such thing as "Monkey Island" without the excellent music. This time, the original MIDI theme got escorted by a full orchestra- including trumpets and drums. It's a pleasure just to hear the game... The character's voices are wonderful, with each character having a unique accent which adds a new layer of personality.

And, of course, there are the jokes- there's nothing I can say about them... They're there, they're nice (not very original, but nice) and that's about it.

The Bad
It's a lethel dose of Monkey Islandlessness... There are many qoutes and ideas that got ressurected from the original Secret of Monkey Island, and I simply don't feel it's a new game. I meet the same characters who has the same jokes (Carla and Otis?! C'mon...) I've the same opponents and the same challanges.
Another problem is the new point of view. The game has an odd, isometric 3rd person perspective, and the controls are odd and uncomfortable, resembling Alone in the Dark. Personally, I prefer using the mouse to point and click like a normal person, rather than running around with bowls of pretzels.

The Bottom Line
Or like I said to my friends- Monkey Island 5 will be...
Holocaust on Monkey Island - The First Person Shooter

Windows · by El-ad Amir (116) · 2001

Not up to the standards set by the first three.

The Good
Dominic Armato is perfect as Guybrush. The story was original, and some new characters (Ignatius Cheese and Ozzie Mandrill in particular) were welcome additions. The music was... well, Monkey Island music.

The Bad
Firstly, the graphics. When I first heard they were going to be 3-D, I was skeptical, but still kept my hopes up because LucasArts hadn't disappointed me yet. But not only is the new look awkward and blocky, it's very hard to move around and get the hang of. Now, the voices are always good, as are the characters, but it's unbelieveable that with the LucasArts' discovery of Murray (the demonic skull) in The Curse of Monkey Island, and the immense popularity of the character, he was only in one scene.

The Bottom Line
This is not a great adventure game. It's good, but if you haven't played an adventure game, or especially if you haven't played a Monkey Island game, don't play this just yet. Wait until you've played The Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Day of the Tentacle (and maybe even a few more) before you try this, because this is not what a great adventure game should be. And a note to LucasArts if they happen to read this: please go back to the cartoon-style of The Curse of Monkey Island. I understand that 3-D is the way of the future, but just as movies like Shrek haven't gotten rid of the animation style movies like of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, there is always room for 2-D animation, if it's better than 3-D, which you've proven in Escape from Monkey Island.

Windows · by lechuck13 (296) · 2004

[ View all 15 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
*Alarm bells ringing, sirens wailing...* DJP Mom (11333) Jun 21, 2007

Trivia

Controls

Escape from Monkey Island emulates the controls of Alone in the Dark right down to double-tapping the up arrow to run; according to its manual and readme, this was in Grim Fandango as well, but was removed at the last minute.

Extras

The PC version came with a "quick-path" walkthrough that explained how to beat the entire game. However, not much detail was put into it, and no secrets were revealed (both to try and persuade the player to buy the full strategy guide). The walkthrough that came with the PC version was written entirely in bright blue ink, screenshots and all. This was probably to deter "helpomaniacs", people who look up what to do next, and then regret they did.

Names

  • The "bad guy" of the game is an Australian named Ozzie Mandrill. A mandrill is a kind of a monkey.
  • There is a character named Marco Pollo in the game. Beside being a parody on the famous traveler Marco Polo, the name also has another meaning: "pollo" is Spanish for "chicken".
  • On Melee Island (TM), if you ask I. Cheese about his family, he'll eventually tell you about his aunt who was so ugly people turned to stone when looking at her. He also tells her name: Gorgon Zola Cheese. "Gorgonzola" is a kind of cheese, while "Gorgon" is a name of a monster in Greek mythology: whoever looks at it turns into stone.

References

  • The SCUMM Bar and LUA Bars appearing in the game are named after two programming languages. SCUMM is the language developed by LucasArts for creating Maniac Mansion (and then many other games), and LUA is a language developed in a Brazilian university.
  • In the Place of Prostheses, with the machine if you enter the right code then you can get one which has the name as 'Manuel J. Calaverus'. This is obviously referring to Manny Calavera in Grim Fandango.
  • Escape from Monkey Island features a mini-game (obligatory to finish the game) called "Monkey Combat". No need to say it is a parody on the Mortal Kombat series.
  • When you are in Lucre Island jail, if you look at the iron maiden, Guybrush would say, "Iron Maiden! Excellent!" This is refering to the movie Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, where they get arrested in ancient England, and the king says to send them to the iron maiden. Thinking they mean the rock band, Bill and Ted reply "Iron Maiden. Excellent!" then play the air guitar.
  • On Lucre Island (TM), the parfume stand is entitled "Scents and Sensibilities". This is a reference to Jane Austin's book Sense and Sensibility.
  • On Lucre Island, inside the swamp, you can see a crashed X-Wing there.

Awards

  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 04/2009 - One of the "10 Most Terrible Sequels" ( It changed the handling to annoying keyboard controls and many puzzles defy every logic and have to be solved through trial and error. The atmosphere suffers from sterile backgrounds and modern consumption criticism. Because of its humour and the lack of competition it is still the best adventure released in 2000.)
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2001 - Best Adventure in 2000

Information also contributed by James Isaac, Jiguryo, J. Michael Bottorff, Ol Sverre Bauge, Unicorn Lynx and Xoleras

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Ryan Prendiville.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. PlayStation 2 added by Grant McLellan.

Additional contributors: Terok Nor, Swordmaster, Itay Brenner, Adam Baratz, Kirschsaft, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, chirinea, Sciere, Ghost Pirate, Solid Flamingo, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 10, 2000. Last modified March 20, 2024.