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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Game Scripting
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[ 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)

Somewhat fun, but too uncertain of itself.

The Good
I wasn't going to buy this game; I hated Monkey 3, and the fact that this was 3D made me surer in shying away. After all, I thought, Grim Fandango only worked because they elegantly sidestepped the problem: Everyone looking stylized and acting sort of stiff and lifeless was an integral part of the setting. But when I saw a used copy, I knew I couldn't resist seeing just how close it came to the mark.

The 3D characters actually work out better than I had expected - they're full-body caricatures in varying degrees of exaggeration, which mostly works allright. The best example of this is one of the first characters you meet, a man whose spine is absurdly curved from carrying heavy rocks. As usual with 3D characters, the sticking point is the way they move; it's either too stiff, or too fluid and liquid-like, but the suspension of disbelief required is not too great. Monkey 4 follows Grim Fandango in using practically the same quality of rendering for cutscenes as for in-game action, which means the transition goes almost unnoticed.

The pre-rendered backdrops go some way towards avoiding that cliché look, but don't quite get there; there's a suspicious absence of dirt and grime, and wherever there's a large flat space, the texture tiling becomes obvious. Combined with an overt fondness for round corners and happy pastel colors, the game often looks too much like an amusement park made entirely out of candy.

Also like Grim Fandango, Monkey 4 uses an Alone in the Dark-style control system, which can be annoying when you've come to know an area and just want to get around quickly. The controls are exceptionally awkward on the map scenes, where you're aching to just point to where you want to go, but instead have to direct Guybrush with the arrow keys, carefully navigating the turns and twists of the paths.

The inventory is a bit more abstract this time around. Pressing "I" brings up a carousel of the items currently stuffed down your pants, pressing "U" while looking at an item will make it drop out of the carousel; you can then select another item to combine it with. (Thank Shub. Wouldn't be Monkey Island if you couldn't try to make a longbow with a plunger and a fishing pole.)

It appears that the team have spent quite a bit of manpower on the conversation, which is one of the better things about this game; at several points in play I found myself unable to choose between conversation lines because I couldn't make up my mind which one would make the funnier joke, and there are many trains of conversation which are pure whimsy.

The references to previous games are actually not that imposing this time around, the recycling of known characters being kept to a reasonable level. The problem, though, is still the same; most of the new characters aren't very memorable. Now repeat after me, kids: "Milk & Cheese" is funny. "I. Cheese" is not. I'd commend the reference to the Monkey 2 puzzle that comes around twice, except that it's one of the worst puzzles in this game.

A nice touch is the variety of roaming characters: In a couple of towns there are random wandering people, you get to see Elaine campaigning around MĂȘlĂ©e Town, and characters can follow you. This goes some way towards helping the emptiness often felt in 3D games.

The Bad
It doesn't begin with "deep in the Caribbean..."

But seriously, the things that really spoil this game are the anachronisms and out-of-place refs to US consumer/pop culture. In the first two Monkey Islands, there were plenty of anachronisms, but they were scattered and adapted to not spoil the pirate-era feeling too much; in Monkey 4, practically half the game is a blatant anachronism - especially jarring are the references to Starbucks and microbreweries. It doesn't become it, it feels like the designers really wanted to make a modern-era game.

The excuse for pulling these anachronisms is that the villain of the day plans to turn the Caribbean into a harmless, family-friendly tourist trap. It's ironic that the game seeks to lampoon this, while at the same time turning out to be the most harmless and uncontroversial of the series. Think about it: in Monkey 1 we have burglary, a decapitated talking head and a lunatic castaway cracking jokes over the corpse of his shipmate, in Monkey 2 voodoo dolls, necromancy and crossdressing, in Monkey 3 piracy and skin grafting without a license... Monkey 4 is an unceasing barrage of pastel shades and Guybrush being fickle and well-meaning, at most resorting to petty theft, serving alcohol to animals and reviving the occasional childhood trauma. I mean, they don't even dare use the word "hell." What the heck is that?

All this could be forgiven if the jokes were hilarious enough. And although there are laughs, they seem to have turned the 'wacky' screw one turn too far in. Now, the first Monkey Island refs Monty Python, whose comedy secret was not only absurdity, but deadpan; people performing absurd tasks with utterly solemn faces. And Monkey 1 & 2 were partially the result of understanding this. Monkey 4, however, goes for camp rather than subtlety, dangling things like steam-driven brass monkeys in front of you and shouting "Look, monkeys! Monkey funny! Laugh, damn you!"

True, they got it right that Guybrush bumbles about and gets insulted a lot, and Elaine seems more in character than in #3, but it's still not quite there.

The puzzles are a bipolar blend of well-hinted, fine-crafted, funny problems and awkward, out of place, poorly hinted ones. I'd say only about one-third of the puzzles are of the good kind: In particular, I disliked most of the puzzles on Lucre Island - even though the ideas behind them are very original, the execution fails badly. Not to mention the whole 'free prosthetic' puzzle, which made no sense at all. But, when the puzzles work, they work beautifully; finding the bronze hat, illuminating the seabed and stopping the demolition man are all memorable moments.

There are a few arcade-flavor sequences, which can get annoying, though they're mostly exercises in taking notes rather than split second timing. And there's one annoying time limit: At one point, the time you have in a location is barely enough to discover all the objects within it.

The music is okay, though it seems to aim to please a bit too much; I only found it noticeable when it recalled themes from the first two Monkey Islands. The modern incarnation of the iMuse sound system doesn't seem to make much of itself; nowhere did I notice any of the smooth transitions that were so brilliant in Monkey 2. On the other hand, the voices are pretty good; even though Guybrush's voice annoyed me in Monkey 3, I thought it worked nicely here. It's a shame though, they seem to be using some voice compression tech that mangles the high tones.

And finally, the last two chapters form a steep downhill slope, ending somewhat over-the-top, strained and hurried (though it's not nearly as pathetic as Monkey 3).

The Bottom Line
The end result is a mixed pleasure, fun in parts, but... I just wish the effort could have been spent on something where they didn't have to lean on past greatness, microwaving a dead monkey and jiggling it to make it look alive: Monkey Island without Ron Gilbert just isn't right.

Bonus point for allowing latin-1 characters in savegames.

Windows · by Ola Sverre Bauge (237) · 2004

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

Aye, ‘tis a black day for adventures: the last great series is dying.

The Good
When talking of recent Hollywood comedies like American Pie or Road Trip, you would most likely describe them as really funny movies, though no necessarily good ones. That description fits perfectly well on Escape from Monkey Island.

The fourth instalment of the famous series of adventure games is still guaranteed to make you laugh. Nice dialogues and the occasional slapstick animation make for a relaxed and humorous ambience that encourages you to press on -- eager to hear the next punch line.
However, the feat of being a funny game is lessened if you take into account that all the good gags are either allusions to past episodes (“Oh yeah? You fight like a cow!”) or even the recycling of humorous mechanisms introduced with Monkey Island 1 (take a closer look at the course of many dialogues). As EFMI contents itself with cycling through all the well-known characters and locations, it neglects the need for originality.

The Bad
A good adventure needs to be thrilling like a film, yet interactive like a computer game. That is to say that its two most important features are the presentation (scenario, characters, plot) and the puzzles. Unfortunately, Escape from Monkey Island is weak in exactly these two categories.

Suppose a friend invited you to her home, and for one reason or the other she didn’t give you her house number. You’d be forced to ring at every door in the entire street, probably going through some embarrassing situations. This is a lot like the puzzles in Escape from Monkey Island: you know the task at hand, but there’s often not the slightest hint on the next step for fulfilling that mission. You’re thus inclined to go from door to door, sorry, location to location, trying anything, sensible or not, to see if you’re lucky.
An example: to enrage one old businessman, Guybrush has to spray cologne at a stuffed animal in the guy’s mansion. This is a strange puzzle all right, but what is more, you are never told that the animal might be of any use, nor that the man might react to the perfume. Consequently, you can only find the solution by guessing. This is a grave mistake in design -- to solve a puzzle, you need to know that it’s there. The majority of puzzles in EFMI are unnecessarily complicated due to a lack of hints and guidance. Don’t get me wrong -- I don’t want to suggest that the solution should be apparent. But the parts of the problem should be. As a mathematician would put it: you cannot solve an equation if there are too many unknowns. It is ample evidence of incapacity if a game forces its players to resort to wild guessing and trial-and-error item usage rather than logical thinking.

Ryan Prendiville has stated in his review that “A few of the puzzles in the game were near impossible, but they were rare.” Although this is true, it is not the point. The point is that not a single puzzle in the game is really cool.

You should think that the pirate scenario is idiot-proof, and to a certain extent this is true. Even though Escape from Monkey Islands stains the pirate flair with a half-hearted attempt at consume criticism, there is still magic in the idea of a Caribbean adventure. However, every scenario is only as good as the characters that make it come alive. The persons populating EFMI are uninspired stereotypes. LucasArts has done a remarkable job at turning Guybrush’s and Elaine’s relationship into the strong-woman-weak-man clichĂ© that even daily soaps are ashamed to use any more. Guybrush is stripped of everything but his childlike naivetĂ© and left to be humiliated at every occasion, pirates are toothless Disney-type cuddly toys, and arch-enemy LeChuck is reduced to a rather clueless brawler with few scenes. Does it even matter that the vindictive, bloodthirsty ghost pirate first appears at Guybrush’s mansion for a brief chat, then walks the streets of the town without anyone seeming to care too much? The plot is weak, full of holes and altogether hardly a reward for the player’s efforts.

Let me give one last comment on the presentation and control of the game. Mark Isaakson said in his review that “The more free flowing gameplay (less use of the mouse) is an interesting move, but in the end, it's a good one.” I do not see where the abolishment of the mouse contributed to a more free flowing gameplay. On the contrary, I am now forced to control the protagonist by hand, aim at objects, avoid bumping into obstacles, scroll endlessly through the inventory and use 11 (!) keys to perform actions, all of which I could do with one single click of the mouse.
Personally, I think the rendered backgrounds with their plastic look to be cold and empty, but that is a matter of taste.

The Bottom Line
Escape from Monkey Island is not a bad game, but it is definitely a disappointment. Lacking the sparkling brilliancy of its predecessors and suffering from some severe mistakes in game design, the weakest episode of the series is also a step backwards for the whole adventure genre.

Windows · by -Chris (7762) · 2023

[ 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.