This is a great little game to play when you just want to waste 30 minutes, that is if you can get it to work properly. My version seems to have a mind of its own. Sometimes it works as a charm, other times it'll simply crash after the first game session. On the rare occasion it won't even start up. I really do love this game; it's simple, it's charming and it's a great little time waster, but when it crashes between almost every game it can easily become a hassle. Of course people seem to have different experiences with this game, so I guess it depends on your PC. However the crashes aren't too hard to avoid; I have to change the PC user whenever it stops and it's quick to start up again after that. Like I said this won't always happen, but it probably will at some point. I would still recommend this game very much, just be prepared for some minor hassle in between your game sessions. So savour each game you play.
There has been a lot of flack against this game, or rather Act 1 of the game, because many deemed it to be to simple and casual an adventure game to be worth the 3.3 mill. dollars that the fans raised in 2012. Many even hailed the game as a fiasco before they had even played the whole thing. Splitting the game in two obviously did enrage some fans who had waited long for another Tim Schafer adventure game, but the fact is that without splitting the game in two we would have had a lesser game (see the Double Fine Adventure documentary for reference). And credit has to go to Double Fine for funding the second half the game with it's own revenue from the first half. Now that's dedication. However now that the game has been released in it's entirety it is time for the fans to lay down the hatchet. The second act is everything you could want in a point-and-click adventure game. The puzzles are as hard-core as many old-school adventure games were, in some cases even harder. Act 2 would even stand up to several contemporary German advanture game titles like The Book of Unwritten Tales (1 & 2). And the rest of the game is as you'd expect from Tim Schafer; funny, creative and oozing with atmosphere. The childfriendly story and atmosphere is sure to create a new adventure game fans among younger people, while the Act 2 puzzles (and even Act 1 to some degree) should attract most of the already existing adult adventure game fans. No game can for obvious reasons please everybody, but this game is anything BUT a scam or a cop-out as it's been accused of being. The complete game is everything we were promised in the 2012 kickstarter campaign.
Ron Gilbert's classical The Secret of Monkey Island is point-and-click gaming at it's best. It has a great story oozing with atmosphere and a plethora of funny characters. Thanks to Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango) and Dave Grossman, MI1 is also one of the funniest games ever made. It also takes the term "adventure game" quite literal. There are few other point-and-click games that I can think of that make you feel like you're on an epic adventure (apart from maybe Monkey island 2). I think it's fantastic that Lucasarts decided to remake this game as it helped resurrect a timeless classic, as well as introduce adventure games to a new generation, but it is not without it's problems. I have two major complaints about this version: 1. It lacks so much of the charm of the original game. When remaking the game Lucasarts decided to keep the cartoon style used in Monkey Island 3 - 5. It worked well for them, but feels very out of place in this one. + there are some visual glitches and some odd visual changes (all minor issues fixable with mods). 2. The new control scheme is supposed to be more streamlined than the original verb box, but it's surprisingly clunky. There's plenty of flaws to the Special Edition but none of these are enough to ruin it as a whole. Pluss credit where credit is due, the new music and voice acting is nothing short of brilliant. These features really saved this game for me. Would I still recommend this game? Do pirates drink grog? Definitely! Despite it's flaws it's still Monkey Island, and no cartoonish graphics can ruin the great story, humor and gameplay that it offers. And if you're like me and the new graphics put you off, simply press F10 and you'll have the original game in all it's 8-bit glory. I personally recommend playing it this way. There's just something magical about the original that creates an instant sense of nostalgia even if you didn't play it back in the 90's, and this is how you should experience it for the first time.
