Review: Escape from Monkey Island

Reviewed By: Kirk Hiner

Review Date: May 23, 2001

Genre: Adventure

Format: 2 CDs

Developer: LucasArts

Macintosh Port: Westlake Interactive

Publisher: Aspyr

Minimum Requirements: 233MHz G3, hardware 3D acceleration (ATI Rage Pro 128; Voodoo 3 or better), 32 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM, 250MB free hard disk space, 6MB VRAM, Open GL 1.2.1 (included with CD)

Network Feature: No

3D Support: OpenGL

Mac OS X Support: No

Retail Price: $44.95

Availability: Out now

Rating: T for Teen

I'm going to completely revamp the method I use to rank games. I used to base my reviews upon gameplay, story, payola...the usual. No more. From this point forward, all my reviews will be based upon how angry my fiancee becomes when I finish the game without her.

I've tried to explain deadlines and timeliness, and that I couldn't play it on just the weekends when we see each other and still get through it, but Tieraney can't see it that way. To her, I'm just the jerk who went ahead and completed Escape from Monkey Island without her.

Escape from Monkey Island is the fourth installment in the Monkey Island line, an adventure series that somehow completely passed me by despite my love for adventure games. As far as I can tell, 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 getting the shaft (read, death) while Threepwood got the girl (read, Governor Elaine Marley).

Of course, as with all good sequels, the villain has returned to once again wreck havoc upon our beloved characters. This time around, LeChuck has manifested himself as that most evil of demons--the politician--with intent to oust Elaine as governor of Melee Island and commercialize the Tri-Island area. With Elaine hitting the campaign trail, Guybrush must round up a pirate crew and sail to...well...nearby shores to set things to right.

The plot never really develops much past that; the story is instead carried by the puzzles and the characters who present them. Most are returning from previous Monkey Island games, and I did grow tired of hearing, "It's you [insert name here]. How did you escape from Monkey Island?" It was like I was attending someone else's reunion. But, although I missed all the inside jokes, there were others to compensate.

Escape from Monkey Island is, after all, a comedy. This is difficult to do in computer adventure games, because timing is difficult to pull off when you're at the mercy of CD-ROM and processor speeds. For all the Leisure Suit Larry and Starship Titanics that got it right, there are the Phantasmagorias that didn't. Phantasmagoria was supposed to be a comedy, right? Curiously enough, some of the funniest moments in Escape from Monkey Island do come from timing. Timing, facial expressions and delivery. This aspect of the game amazed me, quite honestly. Most of the characters have better delivery than the entire cast of Hype. This is a good thing, too, as it pulls the game up from the doldrums of puns and self-mockery. But for every predictable LucasArts in-joke (branded coffee mugs hidden in restaurants, for instance), there's a talking skull claiming, "Evil needs no arms." So, if the comedy works for you, attribute it to the programmers and actors who gave the characters life. It's a refreshing change from the wooden portrayals we normally get in computer games.

And speaking of change, whoever thought we'd be playing adventure games with a game pad? True enough; Escape from Monkey Island does offer input sprocket support for those who prefer to sit back from the keyboard. After all, there are no words to type and no hot spots 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 chooses to look at, take, or use the object of interest. The game pad option is great for playing in groups...no more huddling around the computer. However, when playing by myself, I found the traditional keyboard to be more intuitive. That, and if I wanted a PlayStation, I would've bought a PlayStation.

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. Playing Escape from Monkey Island was like reading a Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strip; not only was it amusing, but it was also a joy to look at. Of course, I'm also the guy who prefers the look of 1970s Toho Godzilla movies to the 1998 Tri-Star incarnation. They didn't appear nearly as realistic, but they were much, much, much more fun to look at.

And finally, we come to the bread and butter of all adventure games, the puzzles. Escape from Monkey Island is full of them. It actually has more puzzles than monkeys, which I guess I can actually say about every adventure game I've played. In my preview, I suggested that the plot outweighed the puzzles, but I'm going to flip-flop here. As the game progresses, the tasks before Guybrush mount up and the story takes a back seat. In fact, many of the characters who are supposed to be helping him disappear for great periods of time while he attempts to collect the pieces of the Ultimate Insult, for example. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. The story has already been established at that point, and the more freaky characters we get, the more opportunities for comedy. After all, Stan the Real Estate salesman serves no purpose other than to poke fun at the garish, slimy businessmen we all know and hate, and that's purpose enough.

Complaints? Well, sure. The problem with cramming so many jokes and puzzles into a game is that some of them just aren't going to be worth it. A good number of the jokes died well before the punchine was given, and some of the puzzles seem completely random--as if the developers just wanted to give Guybrush something to do between real tasks. Most puzzles can be solved by exploring heavily and playing close attention to everything that's being said, but that's a lot of exploring and a lot of listening. Luckily, if you don't get a puzzle solved the first time around, you're always presented with another chance. Also, I did experience come crashes and freezes at first, but the udpate to v1.1.1 eliminated these

I enjoyed Escape from Monkey Island for much the same reason that I enjoy those Mummy movies; they're all just great Saturday afternoon fun. And I must admit it feels good to review an adventure game and not feel compelled to compare it to Myst. Escape from Monkey Island, after all, has an ending. If anything, the game is more of a cross between the Leisure Suit Larry series and Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren, and that's quite an entertaining combination. Now, my only hope is that Aspyr manages to bring us a repackaged set of the first three (or anything else from LucasArts, for that matter) so I can discover what I missed.

Those, of course, I'll play all the way through with Tieraney.

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