I'm not so much enamored with George Lucas. I know many people consider him to be some kind of demi-god to the science fiction and fantasy universes. And sure, on one hand, he brought us Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. On the other hand, the hand we wish Darth Vader would have chopped off along with Luke's, he brought us Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. And on yet another hand, a hand that's pretty much always gloved and hidden inside the deepest of the George's pockets, he brought us Howard the Duck.
It's true. Look it up.
Now I don't blame all of this on George, of course. He's just a man with a company, and truth be known, I kind of liked Howard the Duck at the time...or at least the first hour, anyway. But what I liked more--a whole lot more--was Full Throttle.
Full Throttle was a LucasArts adventure game set around a biker named...Chewbacca. No, that's not right. I can't remember the lead character's name, but I can remember that Full Throttle was the most amazing adventure game I'd ever played. The graphics were attractive, the music was cool, the characters had depth, and the story not only flowed nicely, but it actually had an ending! Pick yourself up off the floor, it's true. It was an ending that actually resolved the conflicts, tied up the plot elements, closed up the characters, and without hinting towards a sequel, left us wanting more. To this day, it's still the adventure game by which I rate all others.
Imagine my joy, then, when Aspyr announced they'd be bringing LucasArts' Escape from Monkey Island to the Macintosh. Not only a LucasArts game, but a LucasArts adventure. You can keep your Star Wars sequels and prequels, I'm happy right here.
Escape from Monkey Island is actually the fourth installment in the Monkey Island series, the third to reach the Macintosh. As far as I can tell from the game's introduction and the various plot elements revealed thus far, they all pretty much follow protagonist Guybrush Threepwood and antagonist pirate LeChuck. I have no idea what went on in episodes one and two, but I've gleaned that three ended with LeChuck meeting an icy fate similar to Godzilla in Godzilla Raids Again while Threepwood married Governor Elaine Marley.
However, as with Godzilla, the ice didn't hold LeChuck long and he's back with intentions to oust Elaine as Governor of Melee Island. To stop this from happening, Guybrush must round up a pirate crew and sail the Tri-Island area on various adventures.
There's your story, or at least as much as I've gotten to thus far. It seems your typical adventure game fare, sure, but there are a few variations that help set Escape from Monkey Island apart from the others.
The first element I noticed was the control configuration screen. Upon starting up the game, a window asked not only if I wanted to run in 16- or 32-bit, but also if I wanted to configure a game pad.
Excuse me? Configure a game pad? I checked the disc again to make sure Aspyr hadn't accidentally sent me Escape from Lara Croft's Mansion, but no. It was Escape from Monkey Island, an adventure game that's actually easier to play with a game pad. This is because there are no words to type and no hotshots to click. Rather than by moving a cursor around the screen, gamers explore the environment by spinning Guybrush around. When he's facing something that can be used or examined, text appears at the bottom of the screen saying so. The gamer then choses to look at, take, or use the object of interest.
The graphics also buck the trend of adventure games these days. Rather than seek out realism through photo-rendered landscapes, Escape from Monkey Island takes a softer, much more stylized approach. Clouds are drawn with wildly exaggerated curves, buildings are never quite proportioned properly, and the characters themselves seem to have come from a Tim Burton cartoon.
What's more, most adventure games tend to comprise a bunch of puzzles loosely threaded together with a hollow plot. It's quite the opposite with Escape from Monkey Island. Here, the cut scenes seemingly outnumber the puzzles as there are always new (and old) characters and introduce and more subplots to explain Not to fear, though. The game claims over a hundred puzzles to solve, so you're not apt to finish it in a couple of days.
And get this...the voice actors and actresses in Escape from Monkey Island can act. Back when Full Throttle was released, it was one of the first games that hammered the story home with actors who understood inflection, mood and character. Now, over half a decade later, LucasArts is still one of only a few companies that understands this (although I'm not sure LucasFilms does), and it's a good thing they did. Escape from Monkey Island is a comedy, and that's never an easy thing to pull off with a computer game, so acting is extremely important. How successful are they with the comedy? I'll save that for the full review when I've gotten deeper into the game.
And besides, I wouldn't think you'd want my opinion on the subject. As I mentioned earlier, I did find the first hour of Howard the Duck to be pretty funny. Not nearly as funny as The Phantom Menace, however. That whole explanation of the Force...now that's comedy!
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Preview: Escape from Monkey Island
Full Throttle was a LucasArts adventure game set around a biker named...Chewbacca. No, that's not right. I can't remember the lead character's name, but I can remember that Full Throttle was the most amazing adventure game I'd ever played. The graphics were attractive, the music was cool, the characters had depth, and the story not only flowed nicely, but it actually had an ending! Pick yourself up off the floor, it's true. It was an ending that actually resolved the conflicts, tied up the plot elements, closed up the characters, and without hinting towards a sequel, left us wanting more. To this day, it's still the adventure game by which I rate all others.
However, as with Godzilla, the ice didn't hold LeChuck long and he's back with intentions to oust Elaine as Governor of Melee Island. To stop this from happening, Guybrush must round up a pirate crew and sail the Tri-Island area on various adventures.
What's more, most adventure games tend to comprise a bunch of puzzles loosely threaded together with a hollow plot. It's quite the opposite with Escape from Monkey Island. Here, the cut scenes seemingly outnumber the puzzles as there are always new (and old) characters and introduce and more subplots to explain Not to fear, though. The game claims over a hundred puzzles to solve, so you're not apt to finish it in a couple of days.