Posted on: June 19, 2018
Dracomut1990
Games: 472 Reviews: 20
Worst Monkey Island, but still awesome
Escape from Monkey Island is very much the King's Quest 7 of Monkey Island: people were very negative towards it at launch but defenders arouse quickly later on. Today the fan base is pretty evenly divided between people who like it and people who hate it. I am very much in the former camp. Escape from Monkey Island has a bit of everything that made the games before it great: the puzzle design is good and tough without being too unreasonable (most of the time), the story is as silly as usual and has some good twists along the way, and the humor is still excellent. I daresay this is the game where Guybrush is at his funniest, with a great mixture of his childishness and snakiness. The clunky 3D graphics are also oddly charming, much like Grim Fandango. However, it seems like all the flaws of the previous Monkey Island games have come along for the ride as well! When a puzzle isn't fun it is nastily obtuse, the game often isn't good at telling you what you have to do next, some of the humor relies too much on references, and the Minigame-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named is a farcry from the Insult Swordfighting from the previous game. Some of the voice acting also surprisingly subpar and even some cutscenes fall flat due to the limited animation. All that said though, In the end I think the game's numerous fun moments outweighs the various bad moments. Also this game may very well have the best soundtrack in all the series. Also of note is that the game got a PS2 release that is actually very solid! If you ever see it at a trading store at reasonable price, I would recommend picking it up. The game actually seems to control better with a Playstation controller then what you are given with the PC release. Is Escape From Monkey Island the worst Monkey Island game? Yes. However, saying it is the worst Monkey Island game is like saying one amazing meal made by a master chef isn't as good as his other delicious meals: it is the worst of the bunch, but it's still well-made and delicious
Is this helpful to you?
