Tales of Monkey Island Review
Hey, an update! My computer was out for a while, and then some general annoyances occurred. Look to the near-future for a Live a Live review. But for now, it’s time to look to Telltale Games!
Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 1
Genre: Point-and-Click Adventure
Console: PC, Wii, Xbox 360 (download for all)
Plot Synopsis: Frymush Guybrush Leapfrog Threepwood, Mighty Pirate(tm), is once again at the thrilling conclusion to one of his trademark adventures, off to rescue his wife Elaine from the variably-undead pirate LeChuck. As per usual, he assembles an enchanted weapon out of something useful and root beer, and runs LeChuck through– but rather than killing him, it turns him human, transferring all his evil into Guybrush’s left hand (well, and the surrounding area, but there was a lot.) Then the ship explodes because Guybrush did something stupid, leaving him stranded on a mysterious island where the winds all blow inward…
Gameplay Score: 18/20
I love this game. The puzzles are almost always fairly challenging, and usually not in the wrong way; there’s a lot of room for exploration and trial-and-error; and you’ll often have to think hard about a solution to something. My advice: avoid walkthroughs like the plague, because you usually don’t have to resort to them; and there’s a shortcut to the altar. The best part is probably the bit in the Marquis de Singe’s office, which despite only giving you a few actions to perform is still fun and challenging. The Treasure Hunt bit seems a bit superfluous to me, though.
Wait, who are you? When the hell did you show up?
Tolerability Score: 8/10
Aside from a couple of annoying “wall banger” sections, the puzzles are straightforward and merely require a little critical thinking. Just remember the maxims of “look freaking everywhere for tiny things,” and “go back to where you were earlier and see if anything’s changed, moron.”
Plot Score: 10/10
The plot is both frequently hilarious and occasionally dramatic, as befitting a game in the series. The system of episodic gaming that Telltale uses sets up a nice cliffhanger, leaving you hungry for more, and they clearly put effort into writing this.
Graphics Score: 4/5
I love the graphics for this game. They’re quirky, interesting to the eye, and very distinctive. The one problem I have is that rarely, when speaking to someone, something interesting is obscured (for example: that guy up there has two peglegs. Not that you can see them when you’re actually talking to him).
Music Score: 4/5
The music is a pleasant mix of accordions(?) and marimbas. I always enjoy the music they come up with, although it’s a tad scarce in certain areas.
Final Score: 44/50
While by no means a perfect game, Tales of Monkey Island is entertaining and should only get better as they release the remaining episodes. I give it two thumbs up.
Hmm, would you say it’s good value for money?
g0m - October 14, 2009 at 3:55 pm |
Definitely. It’s cheap but entertaining. Gotta warn you though, you can’t really only play one, so you’d probably be smart to buy the season pack if you liked Telltale’s other work.
mrguy555 - October 14, 2009 at 3:58 pm |
The pictures you got already are good (thematic and all) but add an extra screenshot or two, show us what the gameplay is like.
Snoomanwaff - October 14, 2009 at 7:49 pm |
Hi! This is a crit of your whole blog, but I’m just putting it here because it’s the most recent entry.
You’ve chosen very good categories to judge the games on. However, I was a bit thrown by the title of the ‘tolerability’ section. It seems more like you’re assessing the game’s difficulty than anything else, and “tolerability” sounds too widespread. Everything you’re judging on goes into how tolerable it is.
Your reviews are very detailed, and you do a good job explaining why you’ve given each section the rating that you have. I think you’ve got a good writing style for this type of a site. Nothing I’d change there.
Echoing what I’ve noticed some others have said, you could do with some more photos, and perhaps make the captions a bit more relevant. For instance, on this entry, you have a picture with a seemingly irrelevant caption, and then your comments on the picture are in the next paragraph.
A few other suggestions: saying what platform the game is for was good on earlier entries. Any reason why you took it out for this one? Also, I think more people are interested in recent games (or at least classics) than the old ones some of your entries are on, though I’m not much of a gamer myself. Saying the price range might also be a good idea, as I’ve noticed someone has asked.
Best of luck on your website! It seems like you’re off to a good start.
Rose - October 14, 2009 at 8:57 pm |