Posted on: April 15, 2023

nferno

Games: 184 Reviews: 17

Aye cap'n, a mighty fine adventure!

I genuinely had a great time with Return to Monkey Island, tried 'n true! It rightfully deserves its place next to my favourites: MI 1,2 and 3 .. in no particular order. I also appreciate that Ron Gilbert acknowledges the entire series at the beginning, including MI 3, 4 and Tales. It doesn't appear to make a huge difference on this game's story, except for the return of everyone's favourite demonic talking skull, Murray! :D If you're new to the series, this one's a good place to start. If you're a point & click veteran: the game starts out very-very hand-holdy (even in hard mode). Thankfully you can roam free after the initial 15~30 minutes, and it feels like a true Monkey Island again. In terms of puzzle difficulty (I played on hard), I think it's just right. The game won't throw any monkey wrenches at you: it's all based on exploration and sensible logic. Certainly easier than MI 1 and MI 2 .. but the first time I played those, I felt bad for having to check a walkthrough in some places. About the story - I can't say I had many "Oh wow, what a twist!"-moments. It just felt like a fun adventure with Ron's sense of humour and lots of likeable characters along the way .. and that's honestly exactly what I want from a Monkey Island game. It does bank a little heavy on nostalgia though. No big deal in the end, but you do spend a lot of time in familiar MI 1 places. The art style .. despite all the fuss, it's honestly fine. It mainly doesn't work well in close-ups, but those are rare .. and the back of Guybrush's head just looks .. blegh. (Just walk diagonally instead of up/down and you won't see it much :p) The style does work really well for all the skulls and zombie pirates; there's plenty of those! Nothing but praise for the music & voice acting; exactly what I'd hope it to be! Definitely open to more of Guybrush's adventures .. but if this was the last one, it nicely wraps things up. Regardless, looking forward to whatever Terrible Toybox works on next!

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Posted on: December 1, 2022

ddaventure

Games: Reviews: 1

Bon Voyage Guybrush

Summary: Return to Monkey Island is a well made point-and-click adventure game that reflects the lives of its designers, and perhaps its players, as they've aged with the series. Although accurate in its portrayal of aging, it is the outdated perspective to the existential questions that prevent it from being a truly great game. Who is this game for? People who grew up with the Monkey Island series (Age 30+ as of 2022) or designers that want to use it as a case study. I would not recommend this game for those that have not followed the series or accumulated enough life experience to have context. Instead, I suggest playing the previous games in the series. Ratings Breakdown: Mechanics: 5/5 - Puzzles are interesting and have the right amount difficulty. - Travelling around the map is quick and easy. Soundtrack: 5/5 - Familar themes keep you immersed in the environment the whole time. Voice Acting: 4.9/5 - LeChuck's new voice takes a little getting used to. Art: 4/5 ( - Backgrounds are high quality. - Animations are smooth and lively. - Some elements of the character design can be distracting, like Guybrush's nose and goatee/cleft chin. - The pointer is confusing. By default, there is an X to the top left of the item when hovering over a non-interactive, which may cause you to try to point with the X. Instead you have to remember to point with the center of the item. Story: 3/5 - Clear, engaging and well paced. - Follows the "TV Sitcom Dad" arc, which is fine when contained within some larger family dynamics, but when the focus is solely on the dad, the story turns fatalistic and depressing. Total: 4.38/5

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Posted on: May 22, 2023

vonkrieger

Games: 655 Reviews: 12

This game is a bad joke.

Looks ridiculous, no respect for the original games style or humour.

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Posted on: November 30, 2024

jsmckinstry

Verified owner

Games: 56 Reviews: 1

Loved it!!

As much fun as the original which we played 20+ years ago.

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Posted on: November 29, 2022

Killedbyhetfield

Games: 243 Reviews: 9

A wonderful finale to a great series!

The Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck's Revenge are both legendary adventure games, so you may be thinking, "Oh no... I hope they don't screw this up!"... Well, worry no longer! Let's just get this out of the way first: the art style -- I'll be frank: it's not my favourite art style ever. But... It's very well-done technically, and honestly, it grows on you after a while, and you learn to appreciate how well it suits the overall tone of the game. But the graphics are just one piece of the puzzle, because you're in for a real treat with the music... Michael Land returns to lay down the same kind of amazing soundtrack that helped make the first 2 games so memorable, and the voice acting is outstanding. Dominic Armato reprises his role as our favourite wannabe pirate (As far as I'm concerned, he is the one-and-only true voice of Guybrush Threepwood, full stop). The story and writing is overflowing with charm, humour, and even a fair share of truly heart-touching or "aww"-inducing moments. And it does this without ever feeling long-winded or boring. And finally, the best for last -- the puzzles! Just... oh... wow... the puzzles... I don't know if I've ever played an adventure game with better puzzle design! Almost every adventure game has at-least one puzzle that veers into Moon Logic (I'm looking at you, "monkey wrench" puzzle from MI2), but not this one. The puzzles are challenging but never unfair, and not once did I ever have to resort to "click everything on everything" -- I was always able to figure it out. Of course, if you do get stuck, the game has a built-in hint system that gives you increasingly revealing hints. I can't recommend this game enough. If you loved the first 2 games, you'll love this. If you just love good adventure games in general, this is a great one. Enjoy -- I can't wait to play this through again :D

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Return to Monkey Island

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