Return to Monkey Island

At no point does this ever feel like a Monkey Island game. Whether it's the horrible art (sure, which can be forgiven as a stylistic choice), the attempt to be humourous that always falls flat, or the game laying hints on you so thick it must think you're a bagel waiting for cream cheese... It simply never takes the place that a Monkey Island game should. It's just a disappointment.

I grew up playing adventure games in the early 90's and for decades I hoped we'd one day get Ron's conclusion to Monkey Island. Now, I have mixed feelings about the game. I wish Ron and Dave would've chosen to disregard everything after MI2, which I know they considered initially. I wish Ron would've chosen to go with pixel-art like he did a few years ago. I'm on the 90's pixels camp and even favour no voice acting. I never played the Special Editions. I was not a fan of the cartoony look they used on Curse either. I think the main argument in favour of the classic style is that it leaves a lot of room for the imagination. It also makes everything feel more intimate. The game's a bit short. Puzzles are rather easy and there's even a hint book in our inventory. But wasn't frustration part of the experience, back when the internet wasn't even there yet? Perhaps we who played the two original games as kids wanted to play the game we would've played in '92 or '93, but maybe Monkey Island was bigger than that and was supposed to be sort of a reflection of our lives: in some ways we're the same we were back then, but in many ways we aren't anymore. I know Ron and Dave feel this way after reading their scrapbook letter. I liked the ending. The originally intended ending, the secret, is there. The story goes in the direction many of us had suspected; the hints were all there. The reveal adds another dimension to it, making it about imagination and about ourselves. The "new" ending(s) expand on that and leave room for different interpretations as a reflection on the nature of the secret itself and people's expectations. In any case, Monkey Island "3a" could only be the game Ron decided to make. Anything different, anything else would've been... well, something else. As I said, I have mixed feelings about Return to Monkey Island – but perhaps this is the way it was supposed to be. "Into the same rivers we step and do not step, we are and are not." – Heraclitus

REVIEW: PART 1 - I came away from this game thinking "Be careful what you wish for". For 3 decades, Ron Gilbert had talked about how he had a vision for a third game in the series and how there was a Secret to be discovered, that nobody had ever guessed the answer to. Turns out that Gilbert had absolutely no vision, as the entire game is disjointed and slapdash. As for the "Secret"; it's literally the same secret that was revealed at the end of Monkey Island 2. As for the game itself... POSITIVES: * The voice acting is generally very good throughout (although the new voice actor for LeChuck is very poor and sounds more like Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants, than he does a fearsome pirate). * The soundtrack is... fine. It's not up to snuff with the previous games' soundtracks, but it's fine. Only 1, maybe 2, memorable tracks throughout the entire game though. ------------------------------------------------------- NEGATIVES: * A hideous, cheap looking art style which resembles a naff flash game for iOS (right down to skeletal rigged animation). * Terrible puzzle design, which is insultingly easy, even on "hard" mode. Also, the puzzles are creatively bankrupt and tediously repetitive. I mean, how many puzzles were solved by using your dagger on an object or looking up a safe's code?! * Dreadful story which goes absolutely nowhere. You'll have forgotten most of it within a day or two of finishing the game (and because the game is so easy, that'll be the day you purchased it, most likely). * Eye rolling 'member berries throughout the game. There's even an entire museum devoted to Guybrush's past adventures. If you're one of those people who thinks that Ready Player One is a great movie because you recognised things in it, then maybe you'll get a kick out of this game. I certainly didn't though.

Das Spiel ist fantastisch. Als Liebhaber der alten Spiele (Teil 1-3) fühlt man sich direkt heimisch. Der Soundtrack ist super, die gleichen Lieder auf Melee Island aber mit modernerer Untermalung. Grafikstil ist zwar Geschmacksache, aber ich finde er passt super zum Spiel. Die deutsche Synchro ist sehr gelungen mit den original Sprecher als Teil 3. Das Spiel läuft sogar auf meiner Gurke: Phenom 2 CPU mit 570X Radeon Karte und 16 GB RAM Win10, also keine SSE4.1-Geißelung. Beim Test auf meinem Linux Notebook i7 CPU mit Intel Integrated HD GPU dann leider die Ernüchterung - Nur Ton und kein Bild, deswegen den einen Stern Abzug. Ich kann es jedem Spieler empfehlen, der die alte Serie kennt, aber auch für Neulinge ist das Spiel geeignet, da die gesamte Story der vergangenen Teile im Hauptmenü unter Sammelbücher erklärt wird. engl. Summary: great game for all fans of the old series (part 1-3), runs on old computers, but no integrated intel hd GPU support - you hear only music, but no video. I can highly recommend this game to everyone.

Return to Monkey Island macht alles richtig und oft sogar besser als die ersten beiden Teile der Saga. Sehr schnell nach der Einführung in das Spiel (und die Anknüpfung an das Ende von LeChuck's Revenge) ist man wieder im Thema drin. Die Geschichte, die Rätsel, der Humor - es ist wie in alten Zeiten. Und das, ohne eine billige Kopie der Vorgänger zu sein. Es wird auf die Längen des Schwertkampf-Erlernens verzichtet - dennoch gibt es entsprechende Andeutungen. Verschiedenste Rätsel gestalten das Spiel abwechlungsreich und die Hin-und-herlauferei hält sich in Grenzen. Vor allem weil der Spieler Abkürzungen nehmen und/oder laufen statt gehen kann. Die Grafik finde ich fantastisch: Animationen, Orte, Charaktere - das alles ist stimmig und macht Spaß. Besonders LeChuck und die Geister-/Zombie-Piraten wurden toll getroffen. Nur Guybrush sieht ein bisschen zu döflich aus, das ist etwas schade. Aber - hey - ich muss doch auch etwas zu bemängeln haben ;) Zu guter Letzt erhöhen die Achievements und die Trivia-Fragen die Wiederspielbarkeit. Auch Freunden der englischen und deutschen Sprache bietet sich die Möglichkeit, das Spiel einmal auf deutsch und einmal auf englisch zu spielen. RtMI finde ich damit sogar insgesamt besser als The Secret of MI und LeChuck's Revenge. Natürlich gehören diese beiden Teile immer zu meinen Favoriten und sie waren die ersten der Saga, doch RtMI schafft es, das Niveau noch etwas anzuheben und vor allem so manche Länge zu vermeiden. Ron, haste juut jemacht! Und alle anderen Beteiligten auch ;)