Story
You are Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate. Well actually, aspiring pirate. Guybrush is on a quest to become the most fearsome and renowned pirate there ever was. Set in the (fictional) Carrabin Tri-Island Area, The Secret of Monkey Island puts you right in the middle of the Golden Age of Pirates. On his quest to become a pirate, Guybrush encounters three pirate leaders who task him with learning to swordfight, plunder, and find buried treasure. His adventure takes him way beyond this, when the beautiful governor of Melee Island is kidnapped by the evil ghost pirate LeChuck.
All of this story is very well told, and well written. The world is seen from the eyes of Guybrush, and he breaks the fourth wall from time to time to make comments directly to the player. The game is hilarious, and it would be hard to find a rival for one liners in any other game.
The characters are all very interesting, and although they lack depth and development, they are all very quirky and unique. This makes them all very memorable, and really adds a lot to the enjoyment. Guybrush himself is a very relatable Joe Everyman, despite is lust for piracy.
The Secret of Monkey Island focuses mostly on the story, as most adventure games tend to do. Luckily, this game has solid writing, memorable characters, and tells an enjoyable and humorous tale from start to finish.
Story: 9/10
Gameplay
As most adventure games, The Secret of Monkey Island relies on a point and click interface. On X-Box 360, this can be a bit awkward with the controller and not a mouse. Luckily, they added function on the D-pad to allow a quick swap of your click action. You can push, pull, talk to, use, open, close, pick up, and give all with the quick push of a direction. This streamlines things (once you get a hang of which direction does what) and really makes the point and click interface much more bearable with a console controller.As mentioned, there are tons of options on how to interact with things in the Tri-Island Area. This provides a lot of challenge to the puzzles in the game, as you have to try and interact with the same object in different ways. You can also interact with everything in your inventory in these ways, combing items and interacting with them. The game gets really creative with its puzzles, and can boarder on the hard side. Luckily when you do figure it out, the results are humorous and there is logic behind every action.
Gamers new to adventure gaming will have a hard time with this one, but after some trial and error, all the puzzles can be figured out. It’s a lot of fun when you realize what you have to do, and carry it out to humorous results.
Gameplay: 8/10
Presentation
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition adds a whole new look to the 20 year old classic. Beautiful new, modernized HD graphics display the game. It keeps with the feel of the newer games in the series, the cartoonish painting look. It really feels like a whole new game, but everything is so familiar. They don’t look too new and flashy though, which is good because it reminds you that you are playing a classic game.Also added are sound effects and full voice acting, as well as an updated musical score. The sound effects are humorous, cartoony, and fit the game well. They add a lot of atmosphere and enjoyment to the setting. The music is great, using the original music and doing away with the old 8-bit styling and orchestrating it perfectly. Finally, there is the voice acting. Every line is delivered perfectly. There is humor and emotion behind every character. The voice actors from the later games in the series (the third and fourth) reprise their roles in this special edition.
If by some weird reason you don’t like the new graphics and sound, press the back button on your X-Box controller and seamlessly (without loading or anything) the game fades to the classic game. Classic graphics, classic music, no sound effects, all of it. Press the back button again and you are right back in the special edition. It’s actually a lot of fun to play with, because you can say “I wonder what that looked like 20 years ago.” The special edition upgrades in this classic adventure game are very welcome changes.
Presentation: 10/10
Summary
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is an upgrade upon the classic LucasArts adventure. The new graphics and sound really help to tell the fantastic and humorous story. The adventure gameplay, while hard at times, is solid. You’ll eventually figure out every puzzle, but some might take you longer than others. This updated classic will have you laughing and smiling, and scratching your head. If you remember playing this game years ago, or you’ve never played it, you will enjoy the re-release.Final Score: 9/10
(Average of Story, Gameplay, and Presentation)
Spot on. I finished this up just a few weeks ago. I also really appreciated the Hint System they had built in. You could usually get a really broad hint that didn't spoil the solution for you, all the way down to an arrow that points where to go. Helps ease in newer (or in my case, lapsed) adventure gamers.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mention the hint system cause I never used it. I should have though. Im glad to hear it was good and helpful. Seems that would really help those who are new to adventure games.
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