Escape from Monkey Island

I'd never played a Monkey Island game before playing this one but after finishing this game I wish I had.

I'm not a PC gamer, I'm a PlayStation guy. I bought this game for the PS2 (My understanding is that this version is virtually identical to the PC version.) The only games of this type that I had played before are the Broken Sword games for PS1 (which were also excellent) so I can only compare this to them.

Escape from Monkey Island (EMI) is a lot more lighthearted than Broken Sword 1 & 2 (BS1&2). Although there is an element of humour in the Broken Sword games this game is full of it. At times, BS1&2 became tedious, especially during the long, serious life stories of slow-talking characters. EMI is never like that. The conversations are not always short but they're always snappy and interesting.

Not having played a MI game before the whole "I wanna be pirate. Aargh!" sort of vibe was new to me. It was thoroughly infectious though. I loved the overall style of the game and the portrayal of the characters (which were superbly acted). This game is lot more madcap than BS1&2. You can carry a bizarre array of things around with you, all kept neatly in your pants, including a chest, a duck and a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle!

In BS1&2 you could talk to any character about any object you carried and the character would respond with some relevant comment. Although this is realistic, from a gaming point of view it became tedious after a while because every time you picked up a new object or did something new you felt obliged (for completeness, and sometimes necessity) to ask everybody about it and every time you met a new person you felt you had to show him your whole inventory. The vast majority of the time you would just get some dull, useless comment. EMI goes to the opposite extreme where, in general, you cannot show an object to someone unless it is the solution of one of the puzzles in the game, even when it might seem relevant. For example, I pick up a note "to Herman" written by Jo-Jo Junior. Surely it's not unreasonable to show the note to Jo-Jo or Herman and have him comment on it. If I try to "use note with Jo-Jo" all I get is the standard "I don't think he'd like that" response. I think that somewhere between BS1&2 and EMI would be a better level of object/character interaction.

There were many in-references in this game that I missed out on not having play a MI game before. These included odd references and comments in the dialogue and also recurring characters such as Murray, Stan and Herman. Although I felt I missed out on some of the humour by not being able to identify with some of these references the game is completely self-contained and I didn't feel my progress through the game was hampered.

There were a few niggling technical annoyances in this game. You will often enter a doorway or exit point just by walking too near it. Very annoying given the loading times between areas. Especially when you walk into a room and accidently walk straight back out of it again. Also, as the camera angle changes, the new angle is sometimes from the opposite side. If, for example, you walk left to move to new a camera shot, in the next shot you may need to move right to continue in the same actual direction. But you're still holding left, which just moves you back to where you before. But you're still holding left so you move into the new area again. Etc. Etc. Ad nauseum. This is annoying but just a niggle.

Compared to BS1&2 this game seems very short. I wouldn't say it's any easier or harder but it just didn't take me very long to complete. Maybe this is because of the more succinct dialogue in this game. I don't know really.

Overall, I think I'd rather have a Monkey Island game than a Broken Sword game. Both are great games but I think this, along with other Monkey Island games I believe, is just more fun. And that's what it's all about.

Escape from Monkey Island, the fourth game in the Monkey Island tetralogy, is a mixed bag. One thing is for certain, the ending of the game is so ridiculously over the top that I'm pretty sure the game-series has reached some kind of conclusion (though CMI is still the pinnacle).

On elements that were done well, I must agree that the voice cast of the game was simply professional. Even though I miss Alexandra Boyd's lovely British accent, her replacement Charity James does a good job with Elaine, though truth be told I liked her performance as Grace Nakimura in Gabriel Knight 3 better. Stan is also a bit of a heckler, but decent. Musically the game does not quite deliver as all music is either similar to or borrowed from Curse. That is not to say that the soundtrack isn't high-quality, it just doesn't offer as many memorable moments as the past games.

Graphics wise the game is rather uneven. Certain animations are very fluid and lighting in the game is quite brilliant. However, over-all physics are somewhat lacking. On a positive note, the cut-scenes a really well executed. The interface has seen only minor improvements from Grim Fandango, but if you ask me LucasArts made a wise decision in adding action-lines into the game.

A few points of criticism are in order though. Jambalaya island in Act II came as a rather big shock for long time fans and still one of my least favorite sections in the game. Monkey Kombat in Act III, though fun may seem rather tedious to some gamers. Additionally, I was rather disappointed at the blatant fan-service quality of sticking Murray into the game. He is fun to talk to, but ultimately serves no purpose to the over-all plot.

However, one thing is still in the right place, that one thing that Monkey Island is really about, humour. The humour of the game is a shade different from that of previous games, but just as witty and fresh.

Escape from Monkey Island may not be a shiny package, but it is a funny game and definitely a fine ending for a classic series.

Ahhh the Monkey Island series, easily definable from other adventure series in the genre by it's witty sardonic humour, flavourful Caribbean back drop and... well... the monkeys.

Escape follows the same tried and true Monkey Island design that we've all come to know and love, albeit utilising 3d graphics and a new inventory and command system.

Gone are the days of point and click mouskateering, command and inventory panels. Escape uses the Grim Fandango GRIME graphics engine which is an improvement over the high res SVGA "pencil drawing" graphics of Curse, and continues the trend of past Monkey Island teams to utilise the latest technological advances in each new instalment of the series.

So how does it compare to past Monkey Island titles? Well, the humour is still there, Dominic Armato returns to lend his voice talents to the main role of Guybrush, and he lends the perfect bumbling and slightly naive touch to the well written script. Similarly, the scores of other characters are well represented and Lucasarts should be commended on the high level of authentic acting talent recruited.

The game play is typical wacky fair. The difficulty level is kept down due to the somewhat linear fashion that the game unfolds in. None the less, one is presented with suitably complex challenges and plenty of in-depth exploring will be required in order to complete the game. Lucasarts have also expanded upon the action sub-games within Escape. In MI 1 we were introduced to insult sword fighting and Curse continued this and added a kind of pirate ship shoot em up for good measure. Escape goes further and you'll find yourself engaging in monkey martial arts and cliff top diving.

The graphics are well rendered and I'm pleased to report that the blockiness and jagged edges some of us associate with low res 3d animations are not present in Escape from Monkey Island. The characters are cartoony cute, but not so ridiculous that you would mistake Escape for a Nintendo 64 game.

All in all Escape is a well made game, perhaps a bit short, but never the less a lot of fun, it will be interesting to see where they go after this, it's hard to imagine that the designers of the next sequel will be able to change much when it comes to the graphics or inventory systems, but if history is anything to go by, major changes are install. I for one can't wait!

I love all the monkey island games, they are all excellent. The first Monkey Island Game (the secret of monkey island) was very funny. The second game was my least favourite, but brilliant. The Curse of Monkey Island was one of the best because it was one of the funniest and better graphics than the first two. But this one was possibly my favourite. It is in CGI, it is very funny and it is also one of the hardest (maybe the hardest). It took me forever to defeat Jojo Jr. at Monkey Kombat, but it was fun. I think Guybrush is funnier than in the first three games. The hardest part of the game is Monkey Kombat. I had to use a walk-through as well as it was difficult.

Overall I would give this game: 10/10. Curse: 10/10 Secret: 10/10 Revenge: 8/10

Yes, I played the first game and this one. I missed out on part two and three which is a bit sad as I apparently miss LeChuck as a zombie and demon. I also missed the amusement park and I am sure there were quite a few funny moments and puzzles to be had there. This one is rather funny too, and a rather straight forward kind of game. I really only had difficulty in one section and that is only because I was pushing the wrong button like an idiot. Speaking of idiots, Guybrush Threepwood is back and after a brief skirmish out on the high seas he and his wife return home to find out someone has taken over as governor of the island. There is an Australian making fools of the pirates when they do the insult sword duel and he seems to have an evil scheme. The local bar has become a nice little restaurant where you get your meal served to you on a conveyor belt, you get to go to a cool place and try to out cliff dive some dude, and you of course end up once again at Monkey Island! So lots of comedy bits, the game progresses rather smoothly to be sure with very little thinking needing to be done to get by most of the puzzles. A little more challenge could have helped a bit, and maybe some various endings or something but all in all an amusing game.