Return to Monkey Island

Note: I own this game on another platform. I will try to be spoiler-vague about this. I'm glad some fans are enjoying the game. Unfortunately, I found it to be disastrous. And no, it has nothing to do with the new art style. Ron Gilbert made this game about himself. It was a response to message board critics from the 90s that he had always wanted to make. And yet he didn't have an actual story or a real ending planned out after all these decades. But worst of all, he retconned basically the entire series to do this. You can't really get more disastrous writing than that. Retconning all 5 previous games only to give no answers at all.. In trying to address the ending of MI2, he completely ignored the ending of Tales of MI. In trying to answer what the actual "Secret" of Monkey Island is, he gave no real answer at all (or some might say he gave every answer, or whatever you want the answer to be...). So he retconned the entire series for.... nothing? What a disaster. I was going to give 2 stars because at least there are some puzzles and gameplay that some hardcore fans might enjoy, but after writing this out, I had to lower it to a 1. The puzzles aren't even interesting and there is very little humor in the game, as well. The premise of the story makes no sense whatsoever and is built upon a bunch of mindless coincidences that would never happen based on the previous games. Play any and all of the old games before playing this one. I played through the full series right before Return to MI came out, and what an upsetting shock that turned out to be.

I never thought I would ever give a bad review about a Monkey Island game. (SPOILER ALERT) While it was hinted at in other games greatly as a Pirate based theme park, those games played it off pretty well. (SPOILER ENDS) REVIEW: I felt as if Return to Monkey Island was just a retelling of the Secret of Monkey Island with a very disappointing (In your face!) ending. It's nice to see the original creator's vision (Ron Gilber) brought to life but, to be honest, I wish I never played it. I'm actually happier LucasArts took it in the direction they did as they were more enjoyable both in storytelling and gameplay. I feel even Telltale Games did a better job with continuing along the same lines.

I already bought it before, cause I just couldn´t wait to finally play it. Glad to see it on gog now. My opinion: best Monkey Island in years and also one of the best point & click adventures I played in a long time too. Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman have proven that they know their material. You can tell that it is very well written. Humour, dialog, story and characters are funny, intelligent and plausible and just wonderful to follow. Also some nice new faces are involved and it is neat that a lot of the old ones are spoken by the usual voice talents. I had my doubts about the new art style though. But I gotta say, most of the time it works pretty well. Only some areas where it looks too much like flash-animation I thought were maybe a little over the top. But that’s a question of taste, I guess. Music as always - just superb. I almost had to cry when after the prologue the iconic Monkey Screen first appeared. I mean, ok – nostalgia is involved and does it s thing - in a good way. Me personally: I didn’t like Telltales attempt too much, although there were good ideas and I couldn’t get warm with Monkey 4 so I waited desperately for this one. Only thing I missed: A proper interface, maybe a simple one like Monkey 3 with mouth, hands, eyes, cause here you more or less click your way through and the lines are gonna tell you what will happen if you do so. But nevertheless the riddles were fun and still challenging and again - well written in its weird but somehow logic and charming Guybrush way of thinking. Oh I missed it. I hope Ron, Dave and the team will keep up some work like this. I certainly loved it. Thank you guys!!! Imagine what maybe a sequel to Day of the Tentacle could look like. Or team up with Tim Schafer and Steve Purcell to get some lost Monkey, or GrimFandango sequels done. Anyways, do yourself a favour buy this one - easy recommendation. Cheers.

I admit, I fell down a little once I started the game up. I was hyping myself silly for this game, my expectations were lofty, to put it mildly. For me, it started to click two hours in, just as I boarded that ship and the puzzle chains started to be more sophisticated. With a framing story that seems right out of The Princess Bride (50th anniversary next year, woo-hoo!), Monkey Island attempts new ways to tell a story and even weaves Telltale style choice moments into the mix (I'm convinced Grossman is to blame). Lovers of the Monkey Island canon could be a little shocked. But it's definitely the same old Guybrush who would burn down a house to light a candle, a hero fallen out of the modern times, which is kind of what the game is about. The music is incredible. The new motifs especially. The blockade theme and some of the Brr Muda themes are my absolute favorite. But they're bringing back the old in style – transposing the Lookout theme into a minor key? Stroke of genius. iMuse is back to make my day, but I have to say that the SFX are often overpowering. I have them at 50% to fully enjoy the interactive music. But do keep the voices at 100%, because they're awesome. The controls are smooth, though of course a little simplified for this instalment. Fastest Guybrush ever! Modern comfort functions like hotspot markers make their first appearance in the franchise. Some Macish oddities (ESC does nothing, mouse wheel has no function) are in there. The inventory fills up in an extremely satisfying way with crisp and detailed items. Accessibility options are everywhere. For me, the art style has its jarring moments, but also its perks. It's certainly the most animated Monkey Island part yet, the muted color schemes are on point and the variety of facial expressions feels elaborate. The Guybrush shown will never be 'my' Guybrush, same goes for the Swordmaster. But with a bit of luck, these won't be the last representations of those characters that we will see.

Monkey Island begleitet mich seit ich ein PC habe. Damals mit Disketten! Deshalb habe ich natürlich eine Verdingung mit dem Spiel und mag generell die Spiele von Ron Gilbert. Kurz gesagt: Wer mit Ron´s Spiele nichts anfangen kann, wird damit auch keine Freude haben. Wer aber mit Thimbleweed Park, Monkey Island oder GrimF. was anfangen kann, der wird sein Spaß haben. Spoilern tue ich nicht! Ich kann nur sagen, dass die Story ich sehr gelungen fand. Auch wenn es mich nicht überrascht hat. Da wenige Menschen es nicht verstehen, warum die Grafik sich so geändert hat - Hier meine Interpretation. Diese ist wegen der Story so genutzt. Da Guybrush ein Kind die Geschichte erzählt, sieht es aus - Wie aus einem Kinderbuch. Schön Farbenfroh und dennoch Charmant. Somit ist die Grafik immersive mit der Story verknüpft und kann dies durchaus verstehen. Vielleicht trifft dies nicht jeden Geschmack, aber ich kam schnell rein (Auch wenn ich den 3ten Teil und sein Comic Look liebe). Aber die detaillierten Darstellungen erinnern mich an Ran und Stimpy oder Spongebob - hat einfach sein Charme. Des Weiteren ist die Steuerung gut und Guybrush kann bewegt sich sehr schnell, wenn er läuft. Des Weiteren Zeigt das Inventar indirekt, ob man Gegenstände kombinieren kann, was ich auch gut finde da zum 100 Mal "Ich kann den Skeletarm damit nicht benutzten" auch nicht mehr zeitgemäß wäre. Alles in Allem mag ich den Sound, die Dialoge und einfach das entspannte Point und Click, was sowohl mich und Guybrush zu einem mächtigen Piraten macht.