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REVIEW
Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

Developed by: Telltale Games

Gather ’round ye scallywags, and I’ll tell you the tale of legendary pirate named Guybrush Threepwood. It was a much simpler time, one before the invention of 3-D graphics, back when point-and-click adventure games ruled the seven seas. As the star of the 1990 game The Secret of Monkey Island, he arrived just as the genre was reaching the height of its popularity, and offered an irresistible mix of comedy, adventure and intrigue… served with a hearty cup of grog.

For a while, Threepwood was on top of the world, but despite his charisma it didn’t take long for him to become an obscure relic of the past, sailing upstream against a torrent of first person shooters and action-oriented titles. It’s easy to see why the adventure game faded away over time, what with all the obtuse pixel hunting quests and leisurely pace, but they still contain elements that a lot of today’s games are missing, including complex character and environment interactions, engaging dialogue, the feel of a living, breathing world, and most importantly, a sense of humour.

Fortunately, in this day and age, the rise of digital downloads and casual gaming have created a virtually limitless marketplace, allowing the newly-formed Telltale Games to prove that the point-and-click format still has plenty of life left in it. After these former Lucasarts employees successfully resurrected Sam & Max, they turned their attention to the beloved Monkey Island series. And really when you think about it, their timing couldn’t be better, considering the popularity of Pirates of the Caribbean movies (which is appropriate, since the game was supposedly inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland).

Tales of Monkey Island is a brand new Monkey Island game (technically the fifth), that is being released in five chapters for Windows and eventually for WiiWare. Series creator Ron Gilbert had some involvement while Tim Schafer did not (apparently due to time and legal constraints), but it is original co-designer Dave Grossman who mainly took the reins this time around. It continues the timeline from previous games, but story-wise, newcomers will not have any problem jumping right in (even though they won’t get some of the inside jokes, such as the cameo from Chuck the Plant).

The game opens with Guybrush Threepwood on the verge of rescuing his wife, Governor Elaine Marley, from the clutches of the evil undead pirate LeChuck. When he flubs a voodoo spell, he ends up transforming LeChuck into a human and the explosion hurls Threepwood into the ocean. He washes up on Flotsam Island, where he must charter a ship and find a way around the island’s powerful winds if he hopes to get back to Elaine and save her.

It has been many years since I sat down and played an adventure game for more than 10 or 15 minutes, and I was wondering how the experience would hold up beyond the obvious nostalgic appeal. To my surprise, the format is still just as compelling if you can allow yourself to see beyond the ADD games of today. You also have to be able to resist peeking at walkthroughs online every time you hit a small roadblock, because let’s face it, if you spoil all the puzzle solving in an adventure game, you’re spoiling most of the fun.

They have simplified the controls a bit; the standard list of verbs at the bottom of the screen have long since been abandoned in favour of a one-click interface. It does feel like you have a few less options, but at the same time, it makes the process of navigating through the world much less cumbersome. Combining and examining items are mostly done on the inventory screen, and are fairly straightforward. The mouse does feel a little sluggish at times, particularly if you opt for the new method of movement (holding and dragging the mouse to walk in a direction), but the keyboard shortcuts are much preferable for the experienced gamer.

As far as voice acting goes, it is amazing across the board and the humour is spot-on. It’s so refreshing to play a game that doesn’t take itself seriously, and it ensures that, unlike most games, talking to characters is never a chore. It’s not easy to come up with dialogue that is consistently and genuinely funny, but they manage to do it here. There are plenty of wacky characters on the island including a nerdy pirate who collects action figures and the psychotic Marquis De Singe, former Court Physician to King Louis, but it is Guybrush Threepwood’s meek personality and deadpan humour that truly carry the game. Even some of the little off-hand comments that Threepwood makes as he breaks the fourth wall are priceless.

The puzzles feel like classic Lucasarts: clever and quirky, but never overly complicated. There is still a lot of item collection and you can sometimes get by with random mixing and matching, but you have to remember things you’ve seen and heard as well. I was only really stuck once during the entire game and it was related to the maze in the jungle where I was following the right sequence, but skipped a step that wasn’t very intuitive. There is a hint system that is pretty good at dropping clues without spelling things out for you. You will still feel rewarded, but you can use a slider to adjust how much it is used or turn it off completely.

There are really only a couple of criticisms I have for the game, but both are quite forgiveable under the circumstances. One is that the graphics are far from cutting edge. Some fans wanted a 2-D look, but I think 3-D works just fine (Escape From Monkey Island haters may disagree). The issue is mainly that the visuals are rather bland and uninspired, but I suppose part of this is a result of the need to keep download sizes down.

The other issue stems from the episodic nature of the game. There are at least three or four hours of gameplay here, and in fact, I was impressed by how much there is for just one chapter. It’s good value for the money, however, since each chapter is self-contained, the progression is a lot more linear than previous games. As far as I can tell, there is only one solution to each problem, and there won’t be much crossover between characters and events in each chapter (although they could still prove me wrong on this one). I also don’t think I’m alone in saying that I hope they bring back insult sword fighting for one of the future installments.

Overall, I think old school Monkey Island fans will be ecstatic over the return of this classic franchise. It feels like almost no time has passed at all since the last installment, but it does update the gameplay enough to properly introduce the series to a whole new generation. It remains accessible to people of all ages and all skill levels, and while it may not be a revolutionary game, it sticks to a tried and true formula that was never broke, and most certainly didn’t need fixing. Like I said, Captain Jack Sparrow’s got nothing on Guybrush Threepwood.

Posted in PC, Reviews |