"Here There Be Monkeys"

Can I first start by saying, seeing the Lucasarts logo at the front of an adventure game again really gave me a warm fuzzy feeling? Because it did.

Now it is time to come clean. While I love Lucasarts’ classic adventure games, pirates, and comedies, I have never actually played a Monkey Island game. This gave me a unique perspective going in to the new “Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal”, the first in a new episodic series from Telltale games.

In a way I’m glad, as the game did not have to live up to some high bar it’s predecessors have set for many gamers. I have played several of the Telltale adventure games already, so there is the second bar, another high one, that I’m sure many will be judging this game by.

You will be happy to note that the game lives up to the hype you may have built up for yourself. In that I mean, it is a clever point and click adventure game that is laugh-out-loud funny.

The basic plot is that LeChuck is at it again, this time trying to use some crazy monkey based voodoo to bind the seven seas to his will. You, once again taking on the roll of Guybrush Threepwood, are attempting to stop LeChuck and save your wife Elaine when things go horribly wrong.

This kicks off the start of what is to be a larger story that spans all five episodes of this new series. After this initial encounter, Guybrush is stranded on the mysterious island of Flatsom. Here all the winds are blowing inward toward the island, making it impossible for ships to leave. His hand has also been cursed, so he’s got that going on too. The story is well presented, the characters are charming, and as mentioned above, it had me laughing hard for most of the game.

The play control is a little different than I was expecting. In most point and click adventure games, you click where you want your character to move and they do it. Here that mechanic only applies if you are clicking on something you want Guybrush to interact with. To walk, you have to use the good old “WASD” or you can hold the left click and drag him around. It is a little strange at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly.

Being an episodic game, it is fairly short. I was able to get through it in just a few hours. The difficulty curve was a little lower than I was expecting. This is either because they wanted to ease people into this new adventure or that after playing many of the other Telltale games, I have started getting into the mindset of how their puzzles work.

There is a built in hint system, like most of their games, where the character will say things to give you clues as to what to do next. You can adjust this higher if you find yourself getting stuck. The folks at Telltale seem to want you to enjoy the game and not get frustrated and quit like what would often happen in old-school adventure games. I think they have struck a pretty good balance with this one.

There isn’t a lot more I can say without spoiling the plot or the puzzles, so I’m going to cut this review a little short. I would definitely recommend this to fans of adventure games, comedies, or pirates. If you are new to the genre, this game will ease you in and make you smile while it’s at it. If you are veteran, there are some references thrown in just for you.

Personally, I can’t wait for the second episode.

This review is based on the PC version of Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal provided to us by Telltale.

Tags: adventure, adventure games, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, Lucasarts, Monkey Island, PC, Point and Click, Tales of Monkey Island, Telltale Games

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.