I never thought I would ever give a bad review about a Monkey Island game. (SPOILER ALERT) While it was hinted at in other games greatly as a Pirate based theme park, those games played it off pretty well. (SPOILER ENDS) REVIEW: I felt as if Return to Monkey Island was just a retelling of the Secret of Monkey Island with a very disappointing (In your face!) ending. It's nice to see the original creator's vision (Ron Gilber) brought to life but, to be honest, I wish I never played it. I'm actually happier LucasArts took it in the direction they did as they were more enjoyable both in storytelling and gameplay. I feel even Telltale Games did a better job with continuing along the same lines.
The Graphics are very appealing. The Controls are very good and simplistic. The Lore that is given to titles, subjects, and the world are superb and, makes for a very subversive experience. The Detective work doesn't hold your hand, you really need to be able to read the characters and determine which response/statements will be the most effective in progressing your investigation (but there is more than one way to skin a cat as they say). Over all this is a great Cyberpunk Detective game.
I actually have this game on Steam (core game only) and bought it from GOG. Why? I had been looking for a complete set with all the DLCs at one affordable price and found it on GOG, even on sale. This is how much I enjoy this game, that I am willing to purchase it twice. The constant that brings me back to this game is: 1. It's time era. I love the 40s and 50s. 2. The story. 3. The game mechanics and controls. Pros and Cons: The Core game has strong voice acting, good animation and overall the best ejoyable gameplay. While it is open world the main story (Vito Scaletta) seems to bite a little hard with keeping you constantly in a mission, but this doens't hinder you from just crusing around and having fun. Joe Barbaro DLC: Starts out a bit weak as I found that some of the voice acting didn't have emotion behind it to make it believable. The opening starts with Joe finding out Vito got nabbed by the cops and then looking for the stooly, which afterwards Joe gets a bounty on his head and is ordered to leave town. This part of the beginning got me asking so many question because he returns in 5 years as if nothing even happened and he was on vacation the whole time (Perhaps this is explained in Jimmy's Vendetta IDK.). So after returning you start picking up odd jobs for a little while until the main plot starts to get going. You get to find out what Joe was doing before Vito's release from prison and when not teamed up with Vito. I enjoy branching off storylines. Jimmy's Vendetta DLC: I haven't played Yet so I can't give a review. If you've played the core game or just like this time era and find it interesting for a video game you shouldn't be dissapointed if you are picking it up for the first time. Just don't expect it to be like GTA since this is a game all it's own with slightly different controls (full controller support). Just remember it was a simpler time. The one and only truly bad thing I can't stand about this game is the Music. While I enjoy the music very much (since I love the oldies) it's the same 5-8 songs constantly playing on the radio.
This is a very well done game with beautiful music, plenty of vistas and mild puzzle elements mixed in. It's a game that one can easily get lost in for hours as you explore every nook of each section's landscape to find hidden treasures. Don't expect this game to be like Zelda as there is no weaponry or enemy encounters that need attacked through conventional means. Solve obstacles and enemy encounters by using objects and elements within the land itself.
This game was great the first and only time I played it. While this game is very 80s/90s reference heavy and has an intriguing atmosphere and story to keep you going, this is the only thing driving the game. I thought it was going to be some sort of survival horror because the description is very misleading ("You arrive home after a year abroad. You expect your family to greet you, but the house is empty. Something's not right. Where is everyone? And what's happened here? Unravel the mystery for yourself "), and while it gives off that ambiance there is nothing in this game that can hurt you. It's all psychological to get yourself thinking there is going to be something scary around the next corner but, there isn't. I quickly found out that there is nothing to this game other than to just find secret panels, notes and keys and wonder around the home looking for more clues to a love story (which I am completely fine with and found to be the best part of the game) that, once finished, you won't ever play again. This game, once completed, has no replay value. Once you're done you can literally go back and completed it in about 1 minute. The graphics (even on high) aren't that great. The interaction with objects is boring. Pick up object>Look at object>Drop object. With the exception of the Audio Cassettes that changes the music. The ending is so anti-climactic; by the time you get to it you already knew how it was going to end from reading all the letter and the house being empty. This game would have been better if it had been based around the prior creepy owners and the mysterious objects that can be found in the safe. This game is not worth $15. It's not even worth $5.
I played this game a few years back and I have to say it's one of the best (Classic) Point-and-Click adventure games. Right up there with Monkey Island. This game is filled with that classic adventure-game humor and the voice and sprite animations are some of the best of that time era. The puzzles, like many of these games, can be a little far-fetched at times but never so difficult that you will be racking your brain for hours and feeling like you are getting no where. The game takes a bit of story from The Island of Dr Moreau and adds it's on plot and interesting twists when and wherever it can, and that is quite often. If you liked the first two Monkey Island games and some of the Indiana PnC games then you won't be disappointing with this classic gem. I can't say anything bad about it because I enjoyed it so much. It genuinely all around a good game
I can't really say much about this game other than it's broken. 1. The English Dialog is bad with some of the voice acting being choppy and pieced together from different recordings. Keep in I did everything the Support sections suggested to fix this game. 2. Sometimes the English subtitles and Clickable options will show in another language. 3. Repeating of voice dialog in some sections and none in others. 4. Numerous times I ran into glitches that either restarted a scene or was unable to proceed. Some of these glitches also include deleted (important) dialog that would not be known by the player without a walkthrough. 4. This game is either horribly patched or programmed, I can't tell which. 5. I didn't like how some puzzles gave a big red button which allowed you to completely skip the puzzle, with no indication as to this being its purpose. I would have preferred this to be in the settings as a feature which can be turned on or off. 6. The settings for the game are very minimalist with the speech-text being broken. I.E. Turning speech-text off before starting the a game keeps speech-text on until a game is started and then returning to settings (even though it says it's off) clicking it on and off again fixes the issue. I really gave this game a chance (because of the interesting story and art style) and pressed on through the game regardless of all its problems but gave up (from frustration from the glitches) when Bent got stuck behind the table at the bar in the jungle. I've read that if you contact Deadalic they will send you a save which bypasses this section of the game, so they are aware of the problem and just don't want to fix it. I will finish this game by watching a play-through on youtube. My recommendation: Wait for this title to go on sale (for really cheap) because it sure isn't worth $10 in this state.
