This blog will be about my opinion of the game, the difficulties, what I enjoyed and not, also, the highlights of the game and what I thought of the ending and the graphics. I will briefly mention the characters and their contribution to the story. If you are new to the series I will give you a brief description of what the game is about without revealing spoilers.
The graphics are puppet form unlike the cartoon animation style in the previous game Curse of Monkey Island which in my opinion was much nicer. The puzzles are obscure, but well thought out for those who are into puzzle solving games. You can always consult the book of hints given to you by the Voodoo priestess.
As you solve the puzzles and get clues, there will be constant back and forth to various islands that can be daunting in some instances, but the challenge is fun. I will describe a small segment as an example.
The beginning is quite unique as we meet Boybrush, young son of Guybrush Threepwood and Elaine Marley, along with Chuckie his friend as they get some scurvy dogs which look like hot dogs on a stick. As they are playing, Boybrush sees Guybrush, his dad, and urges him to tell the story of The Secret Of Monkey Island.
The story starts with Guybrush on Melee Island which seems to have seen better days, some of the shops have closed, others are going out of business like the Voodoo Shop and others. There are new pirate leaders at the only restaurant/bar in the town called The Scumm Barr and they are not the friendliest bunch, they sarcastically brush off Guybrush’s idea to fund a ship exploration to uncover the secret of monkey island.
The main theme in this game is that Guybrush is super excited about finding the secret of monkey island at all costs, as you play the game and solve the obscure puzzles one gets the idea that the secret is grand.
One of the parts in the game I disliked is when Guybrush has to craft a mop in order to get on the evil pirate LeChucks ship so he can sail as the ships swabbie to Monkey Island. Now, after getting the info of where to get the wood for his mop, he sets out to the forest on Melee Island and hacks off a branch from what is known as the Mop Tree. This is by far the saddest scene in the entire game, since as he cuts the branch he destroys the entire home of the super adorable animals living there. This could have been done in a much better way. I cannot understand why an entire magical land had to be ruined.
A kind of challenging task is when Guybrush obtains a map from cartographer Wally, and he journeys into the forest just before he destroys it. You have to read the plants and flower alignments to find your way through the forest to get to the Melee Island Museum as well.
Guybrush has great people skills especially when he has to convince LeChucks crew to sail to Monkey Island, after a potion required is ruined, and the crew lose interest in the whole voyage.
The game has some interesting parts where Guybrush travels to various Islands of the archipelago to obtain the golden keys to find the secret of monkey island and also face many challenges. Here is a brief description of his adventures and more.
Brr Muda Island: As the name suggests, the coldest of all the islands, location of ice castle, ice queen, courthouse, rooms in the town center where Guybrush accepts the challenges with Modina the Ice Queen so he can claim the key. The queen has the key on her crown. There is a small town center, the ice quarry where the jail is located. Other than that not much to be found here.
Terror Island: Creepiest of all, this is where Guybrush has to walk through mazes of darkness, gathering various items like sources of light. The graphics are done rather scary. The key will be at the bottom of a cave where Herman Toothrot is staying, Elaine's Grandfather. Not much in the form of life.
Scurvy Island: Elaine Scurvy project. Elaine is gathering as many limes to combat the problem of scurvy among pirates. It seems her character personality changed from The Curse of Monkey Island where she appears to be more assertive. Now, she is more of a supporting character with a softer demeanor. Lime trees all around, some lakes, it's a rather cool place that looks like a resort.
Barebones: The place Stans accountant Ned Filigree is found, he is the only man on the island. It's unclear why Ned dislikes Stan, (Sleazy Marketing Expert) so he hands over some financial records to Guybrush to extend Stan's jail sentence.
This portion has many trips back and forth between all the Islands and LeChucks ship to solve the puzzles and obtain objects and keys.
Beneath The Monkey’s Head: When the keys are finally obtained, Guybrush has to walk through here and after a series of brain teasers he returns to Melee where he uncovers the secret by opening the safe with the Golden Keys where there is a small chest and in it the secret. When Guybrush exits from the last door, after decoding the wheel (bit of a challenge) we find him in an underground amusement park for pirates. Elaine tells him if he is ready to leave.
Now, as for the ending, unfortunately I found it disappointing. First, after all the cool brain teaser puzzles, the secret turns out to be nothing special. I guess I thought it would be jewels, precious stones or money.
Overall, the game is great and it’s quite easy to learn and play even for a beginner. Now, if you are the type of person that follows a story line I suggest starting with the older games, however, during the game some of the characters refer to past events that happened in previous games. The graphics did change from the older games to this last one. The book of hints makes this game quite simple to play, avoids watching a walk-through when you get stuck.
Conclusion, I started out playing The Curse of Monkey Island. It was my first game I played when it was released back in 1997, on PC and the animation and story line really stuck with me, I think I really enjoyed puzzle games since that time. When I saw that there is now a series of games I will try and play them all to compare.
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