Posted on: July 6, 2025
Hanglyman
Verified ownerGames: 444 Reviews: 143
Worthy Entry In The Series
It was pleasantly refreshing to see a return to 2D point-and-click and the new art style worked fine. The puzzles had a nice range, from pretty easy to tricky enough that you might get stuck on a couple for a while- though I never had to consult the built-in hint book, just slept on it and came back with a rested mind, after which the solutions presented themselves. The trivia cards are a nice little side activity to stretch out the game a bit, and there's plenty of nostalgia, nods to continuity, and revisiting old familiar locations and characters without that being the entirety of the game. There's some good funny bits on par with the classic games of the series. It's a fun ride, and feels pretty much like what you'd expect from a Monkey Island title. I'm knocking off a star for two reasons. One, the achievements are completely buggy and during my whole playthrough I only got five or six of them, seemingly at random- this is a problem I haven't had with any other GOG games that feature achievements, and there doesn't seem to be any solution or attention paid to this issue. I probably would have gotten the Steam version if I'd known this would be a thing, as I'm a completionist and it's really annoying. I'd rather have no achievements in the GOG version than broken ones. Second, the ending. I won't post any spoilers, but it's certainly controversial, sending some people into a frothing rage and getting a shrug from others. I didn't absolutely hate it but it definitely wasn't satisfying. I could sort of see what they were going for, and the entire game has some deeper messages it seems to want to convey, hinting at the experience of growing old, the questionable morals of being a quest-obsessed adventure game protagonist, and whether the Secret is really worth the effort and risk, but in the end it's all a bit muddled and seems like it could have been handled better. It doesn't feel like a proper conclusion to the series, but it's still an enjoyable game over all.
Is this helpful to you?
