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Tales of Monkey Island
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Graphics & Sound:
Having the chance to play Tales of Monkey Island on a Mac is big. The irony is that I can remember playing the original Secret of Monkey Island in the '90s on a Mac, so it was surprising when Tales of Monkey Island was originally released without a Mac version. Gamers have revisited the original classic on various platforms in recent years, but Tales of Monkey Island can stand on its own piratey feet just fine, thank you very much. The graphics, compared to what I can remember playing so long ago, are awesome. There are better looking games on Mac, but considering that the thrust of these games has always been primarily around storytelling, having nice presentation is just a bonus. The five episodes that comprise Tales of Monkey Island were released close together, and plopped onto the Mac in one fell swoop, so there isn't a noticeable difference between them from a visual perspective. We appreciated the new locations and characters as the game progresses, even if there isn't some sweeping upgrade each time.
Making a point-and-click adventure game means that graphic and sound play a special role. You'll often find that subtle visual clues mean the difference between progressing and staying stuck in one place. There are puzzles that depend entirely on how you can discern patterns and changes in objects, and a great early example of how a puzzle incorporates sound is the maze sequence on Flotsam Island. At this stage, you'll have to "listen your way to success" and follow some clues left for you in a handy map. The music is spirited, original, and perfectly suited to the action and your surroundings. The voice actors are perfectly done, delivering their lines with comedic timing that brings out the humor in the writing for Tales of Monkey Island. Some of the jokes are inside references (e.g. mentions of SCUMM) to older games, and others are sly cultural humor. More than a few are movie lines. Not all the humor will connect with all gamers, but at least one of the jokes throughout these games will put you on the floor, in stitches. The depictions of the characters, their facial expressions, and the way they deliver their lines, all support the great writing done for Tales of Monkey Island. |
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Gameplay:
Saying that Tales of Monkey Island is about a pirate and his quest is like saying The Old Man and the Sea is about a fisherman and his catch. This game packs more narrative punch in an hour than most games manage to achieve in 30+ hours. It's not that other games all stink and this one is great, but there's something special about a classic adventure game of this style. If you think about it, the mechanics of the game really force the gameplay to be extraordinary. There's no action without a click from the player, and the actions are generally constructed through a long, intricate sequence of gathering items and talking to other characters. This exploration and interaction is what makes Tales of Monkey Island great, but it requires a lot of scripting. We'd love to know how many lines of dialogue are included in the game, but it must be up there with some of the longer RPGs. Rather than just provide filler content, these games have to unfold in a logical and directed way. Knowing that your surroundings will always contain the solution to a puzzle you're faced with seems like a formula for boredom (or a generic seek-and-find game), but these Tales of Monkey Island episodes manage to create a world that you just want to occupy.
Guybrush Threepwood (don't forget the Mighty Pirate part) is in a fight for his life at the beginning of the first episode, and the drama doesn't stop until the credits roll on Episode 5. Defeating LeChuck should be the answer to all Threepwood's prayers, but the victory is snatched from him as the side-effects of battling with LeChuck become apparent. Stranded on Flotsam Island, Threepwood spends the first episode (titled "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal") attempting to free himself and return to the fight against LeChuck. By Episode 2, what began as Threepwood's problem has now spread to the Jerkbait Islands, and you'll spend your time trying to broker peace between feuding pirates and the resident Vaycalians. Once this drama subsides, Threepwood finds himself literally in the belly of the beast, where he spends most of the third episode (titled "Lair of the Leviathan) exploring and searching for an escape route. "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood" goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished, but Threepwood has always had a talent for getting himself out of various scrapes, jails, brigs, and gallows. The final episode, "Rise of the Pirate God," brings us full circle back to the face-off with LeChuck, in which Threepwood must finally prove himself victorious.
Saying that the solution to every problem is no more than a click away doesn't mean these games feel routine. Each episode brings new puzzle mechanisms, new plots and characters, and lots of interesting ways to stretch your brain without requiring one iota of twitchy reflexes. Gamers have long appreciated this brand of casual, mind-bending entertainment. It's been a long road for Guybrush Threepwood, but the legacy of Monkey Island remains intact. |
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Difficulty:
Trying to describe how puzzles work in games like Tales of Monkey Island is almost impossible. It isn't that a visual can't be created, just that the fun-factor of a point-and-click game doesn't come across until you play. There are some helper features in Tales of Monkey Island, with the most obvious being a setting that adjusts the frequency of hints. You can resolve a few puzzles by simply exhausting options, but most scenarios reward a careful and studied approach. Explore, interact, gather items, and prepare to solve your way to success, is the real formula. Each unexplained object you gather ends up being used as a solution to some puzzle, either on its own or in combination with some other object. One neat thing about the episodic nature of Tales of Monkey Island is that you'll end up carrying certain items over from one episode to the next. This increases the challenge, since you can't be entirely sure that you've gathered all the items you need, just because you've attempted to use everything in your inventory. There may be that one elusive ingredient... Once you are in possession of an item, attempting to use it will sometimes provide a hint. Combining items can also lead you to some inspiration, or blindly using objects on anything you can to solve a puzzle. Tales of Monkey Island is a state of mind; once you get acclimated to things here, you'll start to see things in "puzzlevision." This means you'll see something broken, and realize you need to gather things that will provide a fix. Other times you'll see unexplained objects, that have no apparent purpose. In these cases, you'll have to start looking for random items you can use to interact with the object, but you'll also realize that some objects won't give up their purpose until you reach the right moment in the story. This is the only gripe we have with Tales of Monkey Island - at times it can seem like you are led on rails through certain puzzles, because the sequence of your solution is completely scripted. Mostly, this isn't the case, and you can bounce around as you like and construct the solutions to several puzzles at once. The weakest and most difficult moments in Tales of Monkey Island are when you only have one thing to do, and can't crack the sequence of actions and/or objects needed to complete your task.
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Game Mechanics:
Point. Click. Okay, there's a bit more to it than that, but not much! The main tool you'll need to use again and again in Tales of Monkey Island is your brain. The game's interface is very stripped down, just enough to let you select and use items, when you need to. The arrow keys and A-W-S-D combination work to move through the game world, and while you have to think in the context of the camera angle at times to pick the right directional button, movement is the least of your worries. The camera tends to feature objects you'll need to interact with, and to showcase directions in which you can move, from any specific screen. You still need to do a lot of mouse movement around the level, watching for helper text that shows you when something can be clicked. In many instances, clicking an object will just bring out a funny comment from Threepwood. Fans of the game will tell you that these are often classic moments, the things that you'll remember the game for long after you play it. Clicking on a character will generally bring up optional dialogue. This tends to be one of those on-rails propositions, where you just select lines in sequence until you've talked yourself out. Listening to all the dialogue isn't always necessary, but it is always entertaining. Inventory stays out of your way until you need it, and objects can be pulled out and used on anything you could otherwise click.
The extras included with this bundle are excellent. A treasure hunting game tied to the Telltale Games Web site will unlock various goodies, and this connects back to that maze mini-game in the first episode. We wanted to find more of these little things hidden in each episode, but the entire sequence provides plenty of depth. Replay value is questionable, since I think of this style of game as being comparable to reading a good book or watching a movie. You may find it enjoyable to replay certain episodes that moved you, but for the most part you'll experience Tales of Monkey Island and finish Episode 5 wanting new adventures with Guybrush Threepwood. Telltale has more point-and-click adventures on the way for Mac owners, but they've given us quite a meaty dish in Tales of Monkey Island. All five episodes can be downloaded and played as a bundle, plus there is now a special collector's edition DVD that includes the episodes plus lots of goodies. Now that Monkey Island is back on Mac, you can strap on your swashbuckling Mighty Mouse and leap into the fray. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
Minimum System Requirements:
Operating Systems: Mac OS X 10.5 or newer, Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Not Recommended For: Macs with integrated graphics |
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Test System:
iMac G5 running OS 10.6.2, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400 with 256 MB VRAM |
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