Return to Monkey Island

This game wasn't going to please everyone. But it did please me. Sure, it was way easier than Thimbleweed Park. Sure, it has a 'meta' ending. Sure, it doesn't have pixel art. I won't critique it as a game (though it's an above average game). I'll critique it as a story. Because it's a unique story I am happy I got to experience. I don't care. It made me cry a little. Over the meta ending. Over how the relationship of Elaine and Guybrush is portrayed, after years of back and forth over what that relationship is (I feel acknowledging and answering that back-and-forth at the same time, in a deeply human and touching way.) Ron said in an interview that Tales was an adults' game. This is a game about adulthood. (No, not in the way some people interpreted it. In a way that has an amazing amount of heart, feeling and understanding behind it.) Thank you, Ron, for finally letting me hear your story.

I've played all the games in the series and I can say that it is a great experience in its latest entry of the series. The puzzles are fairly logical for the adventure genre, albeit some taking a few trials or minutes to think about. The music is great as expected and you will get used to the graphics style. The trivia feature is a nice addition, and for newcomers the game offers a good overview of all the previous titles. You can tell that specifically The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge received the most details and love regarding the summarized story and that Tales of Monkey Island had the least interesting story to provide (as it's been the lowest quality entry of the whole series). Ron Gilbert found a good connection between MI2:LR and RtMI, which was something I specifically looked forward to. So far, so positive. While it's a solid experience with some great scenes here and there, once I reached the end I felt some disappointment. That is, until I realized that the ending had something special to it. If you know the origins of the game, you may see it as well. It still felt too anticlimactic, which is why I take one star away from the score. I'm uncertain if the development was rushed at the end like Escape from Monkey Island, or if all the other ideas didn't work. What I feel very confident about, is that this is the last entry in the series. It won't get better. I still hope for new IPs / stories under Lucasfilm Games, that unleash a portion of the magic, that the original games had.

The one star reviewers here are just sad

great game

I love this game - the story, the art, music, dialogues and sense of humor. Had a lot of great fun. I have to admit, that this is the first game from the whole series I have played and completed. I have just unfortunately missed it in my gaming career, while choosing different titles. Well, there are two sides of this medal. I am sorry I haven't lived the journeys with Guybrush before, but there is still a lot to come :D