why is it that the best review you can find about the tales of monkey island is on a thread on a forum rather then on some so called professional review sites by a so called professional reviewers whose texts tend to be rather uninspired and generic?
why is it that the best review you can find about the tales of monkey island is on a thread on a forum rather then on some so called professional review sites by a so called professional reviewers in articles that tend to be rather uninspired and generic?
Because mainstream video game reviewers are mainstream gamers, which means they have no taste on all fronts. =p
The British Empire: The Caribbean was part of the slave-triangle; hugely profitable sugar plantations; strategic importance for the Royal Navy.
The Royal Navy's mission was to seek out and destroy piracy (and the Dutch, Spanish. Portuguese etc..).
Oh don't get me wrong - I fully understand the relationship between the British Royal Navy, The East India Trading Company, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, etc...
My question is, how do the British fit in in THIS story? I think the British could be used to great effect if the plot had room for them. My concern is that we ALREADY have a bit too much going on in this game, with none of it tying together (yet).
To add the british as an additional antagonist at this late stage would give us too many potential villains, muddy the waters even more, and wouldn't really make sense. (As you mentioned, Elaine is at least sometimes British, and I can't imagine that the British and DeSinge would get along, unless DeSinge was deliberately working with the British to somehow discredit King Louis - but I think that's a bit more convoluted than it needs to be.)
I think it's a great idea. Guybrush trying to smuggle himself, or something, in or out of a British garrison deep in the Caribbean.
Can't get any more piratey than that!!
I'm not saying that it couldn't be an interesting idea...I just don't think it works HERE.
Edward VanHelgen:
why is it that the best review you can find about the tales of monkey island is on a thread on a forum rather then on some so called professional review sites by a so called professional reviewers whose texts tend to be rather uninspired and generic?
If you're referring to this thread, thank you for the kind words.
I would guess it's because as a writer, I get way too long-winded. No magazine would be able to print a review that rambles on as long as I do - it'd take up the whole magazine!
Also, part of the reason this works is the give-and-take as we explore ideas and themes. The internet is MADE for this kind of discussion...unfortunately, you can't have that kind of interaction in print.
well, it's a pirate story set in the British West Indies at the height of the British Empire.
In the Monkey Island games most of the stereotypical pirates are British.
Bringing the Royal Navy, whose mission was to protect British interests from piracy, into the story would be a legitimate fit.
To answer your question, is it not obvious why Pirates would be hiding from the British? By definition, they have plenty to hide!
I think you misunderstood sladerlmc77. He's not saying the British Navy wouldn't fit in the Monkey Island universe, only it's a bit late to introduce them in the "Esponja Grande" story arc.
Besides who needs the British Navy when you already have an over-the-top homicidal french physician ?
Could fit into Season Two though, along with that Pirate Bar (see the FanArt thread) on a secret pirate port, where one chapter must be based at dawn, along with all those piratey hangovers! Arrr!
well, it's a pirate story set in the British West Indies at the height of the British Empire.
Huh? Is the Gulf of Melange actually a section of the West Indies?
In the Monkey Island games most of the stereotypical pirates are British.
Captain Rottingham might have something to say about that!
Bringing the Royal Navy, whose mission was to protect British interests from piracy, into the story would be a legitimate fit.
This is the point I actually find most interesting. One country's pirate is another country's privateer.
Most English pirate ships were former British Royal Navy vessels that had either mutineed or turned their flag as a result of the heavy level of impressment that was going on.
That said, a british "privateer" would be a british pirate...to a spaniard.
To answer your question, is it not obvious why Pirates would be hiding from the British? By definition, they have plenty to hide!
I guess that depends on whether or not they were carrying a letter of Marque from the local governor. But being as Elaine IS the governor (of the Tri-Island area, and presumably beyond), she automatically carries the authority of the crown. In fact, her gubernatorial symbol in Escape was used for this express purpose!
By that logic, one could argue that Guybrush still isn't a pirate at all...he's a privateer! (unless he's in unfriendly waters)
Marzhin:
I think you misunderstood sladerlmc77. He's not saying the British Navy wouldn't fit in the Monkey Island universe, only it's a bit late to introduce them in the "Esponja Grande" story arc.
Yes, that's correct. Introducing the british would introduce yet another antagonist (while we have a wealth of them already), and I suspect would lead to more confusion and frustration.
That's not to say that they couldn't work in a DIFFERENT Monkey Island story.
I feel it's just right. It's getting very dark and Murray provided enough comic relief to balance this.
The plot still hasn't been sealed but then again the centre of the plot wasn't revealed in the Sam & Max series until the beginning of the last episode of each. That seems to be the way TT work and it worked well for Sam & Max. Perhaps it could work well for Monkey Island too.
I apologize for vanishing from the thead for so long. After playing the 3rd episode (Lair of the Leviathan) I started to review it twice...and both times stopped.
Episode 3 had a different impact on me than I think it did most reviewers, and I wasn't quite sure how to articulate it...I also knew after Lair of the Leviathan that The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood would be crucial to my feelings of both Episode 3 and the season as a whole.
Now that I've played through Trial, I'm going to review both episodes. Without further ado, here are my feelings on "Lair of the Leviathan":
Ranking
Alright! To refresh everybody's memory, my take on the original games was that they were ranked as follows, worst to best:
Escape from Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChucks' Revenge
Since playing the first three "Tales" episodes, I would rank them thusly:
Escape from Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Tales of Monkey Island - The Siege of Spinner Cay
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Lair of the Leviathan
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Story
Finally we are introduced to Coronado De Cava...a moment which I felt was long overdue. We find our lost explorer outdoing Guybrush himself in the item-creation department, actually attempting to create an artificial cochlea for the tragically lost and lovelorn manatee that we (and De Cavas crew) are riding in. Sadly, it will likely take years to produce his artificial replacement.
After a brief incarceration (and a truly clever puzzle requiring you to convince De Cava that you and Morgan are husband and wife (and not at all interested in La Esponje Grande), most of the remainder of the episode takes place within the belly of the manatee.
Once there, we're introduced to De Cavas mutinous crew - who have decided that the belly of the manatee is the best place to throw a kegger...of Manatee Ichor. (yech!) To make sure the party never ends, the mutinous crew has stolen the inner ear of the manatee and hidden it away, faking their own deaths so that De Cava believes he is alone.
They especially don't want you to rock the boat (so to speak). The majority of the puzzles inside the manatee involve convincing each crew member to let you into their little club, in order to gain access to the lost cochlea and repairthe manatees sense of direction, make it to the Sacred Manatee Mating grounds, and retrieve the lost voodoo sponge.
Script
The Script for Lair of the Leviathan felt the sharpest in the series so far...while there are certainly a lot of questions that could be asked about the interior of the belly of the manatee (What IS all that treasure doing in there, anyway?) the fact that we're in the belly of the manatee at all tells you that you don't need to worry about details like that in a game like this. It just works.
The new characters introduced all have distinct and logical personalities that they remain true to throughout the episode, and their motivations made sense. Bugeye in particular was fun, and the return of Murray lives up to the hype...particularly in his new persona as Santino. ("Aloha!")
While La Esponje Grande was finally retrieved in this episode, we still didn't really move the ball down the field with regards to the pox in general, or what LeChucks evil plot really is. We keep an eye on each of the major characters through brief interludes (which were VERY welcome), and I didn't feel like any major plot point had been ignored - but I was left with an uneasy feeling that we're STILL waiting to get to the meat of the series. 3 episodes in, this was really starting to grate on me.
This episode works almost as an interlude from the main plot, but the character work and dialogue keep the excitement high. At this point in the series, this episode is the closest to the elusive "Monkey Island" tone as we'd gotten.
Dialogue
Dialogue is where Lair of the Leviathan really shines. Each of the characters introduced in this episode have very distinct personalities, and this shines through - De Cava, Bugeye, Moose, Noogie, "Santino"/Murray, and Morgan all are complete characters - in terms of character design, motivation, and dialogue.
Each one "fits" within this little microcosm, in a way that Davey Nipperkin never did. Each one has funny dialogue, and there's not one of them who didn't get a laugh out of me.
Puzzles
Puzzle Design continues to be the weak point in this series for me. What I have found most frustrating in this series has been that when I do get stuck, it's not because it's not been because I don't know what I need to do...it's been because the game hasn't liked the way I've tried to do it.
All of the puzzles in Lair are logical (using adventure-game logic), but I found that I got stuck in two important areas:
The first was in getting De Cava to drink the "orange" ichor. I don't know how, but I simply missed the fact that I could pick up his monocular device. I kept trying to use the Eye of the Manatee on it, but I didn't conceive of the idea that I could pick up the glasses when he set them down.
To be fair, this ISN'T a puzzle design problem...I was just being thick.
The second problem I ran into was at the end of the episode, using the SeaHorse Head to attack De Cava and the mutinous crew.
I knew I needed to use the Sea Horse head...this was fairly obvious. Why couldn't I just toss it into the water? This would seem to be logical...yet the game refuses to allow you to do so. Using the cannon to shoot the seahorse head didn't feel logical in any way to me...it's not shaped like a cannonball, and if the goal is to get it into the water, shouldn't I be able to toss it?
These are both still minor gripes, but they're indicative of a larger problem. If I know WHAT needs to happen, I should be able to make it happen...not frustrated by the game preventing me from carrying the action out in a specific way.
That said, Telltale also continues to come up with Inspired new puzzles to keep things fresh. The "Pirate Face Off" competition and the "Voodoo Posession" puzzle are both clever and force you to think in a brain-bendy kind of way. While not as devious as puzzles from previous entries in the series, they definitely were unique and helped elevate this episode above the bar of the previous two.
Art Direction
Not much to say here that I haven't said in other reviews. Telltale has some of the best artists in the business, and it's continually impressive to see what they squeeze out of the Telltale engine.
The interior of the Manatee is both gross, and atmospheric...which is a hard combination to pull off.
When the series is finally released on DVD, I hope they include all of the Concept Art that has been released on the website.
Characters
De Cava - A possible look at what Guybrush could end up like 20 years down the road...a hint of madness, and filled with fiery spanish passion, he also has what is probably my favorite accent in the game.
BugEye - Here's a guy that I truly love...I can't quite put my finger on why, but BugEye really resonates with me. I think everybody at one point in their life has had a bully to deal with, and BugEye is that guy. He's tough when he's got a crowd to back him, but at heart he's a coward, especially when defeated. The voice is perfectly matched to the character - of the new characters in this episode, he's probably my favorite.
Moose - ("Dude!" "Bro!") (Apologies to Telltale Poker fans) - The surfer/hippie/stoner of the bunch, Moose exudes a mellow cool. He lives for nothing but good times, ichor, and his best bro Santino. Seeing him outwardly hostile while bound up near the end, and expressing solidarity with his brothers was a surprising but welcome change....particularly when seeing his resolve crushed at the "death" of Santino. "OhmyGod! OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod! He did it! He killed Santino!"
Noogie - The expendable, sweet nerd. Not much else to say, except that he plays a wicked bongo, and has excellent taste in women.
"Santino"/Murray - Finally, the welcome return of Murray. Just as evil as before (or eviler!) his hilarious turn in the guise of Santino is worth the price of the episode all on its own
Environments
One surprising element of Lair of the Leviathan is how small it is, environment wise. There are very small number of rooms in this episode.
Even more surprising is how well the episode fares in spite of this fact. The art design for each room is gorgeous and reflects the proper atmosphere. The cinematic pans and tilts in the environment continue to be used to good effect, and the limited number of locations actually allow you to focus more time on the characters and their relationships in this episode. This was a GOOD THING. Kudos to Telltale for making the right choices.
Music
It's been about a month since I've played this episode, so my memory of the music is a bit fuzzy at this point.
However, i can tell you that the music didn't stand out as a negative, and what I can remember seemed to fit the atmosphere. Not as memorable as previous entries in the series, but nothing distracting either.
Voices
Pitch Perfect. I loved every single voice, and really can't give a higher commendation than that.
Technical
I had no technical issues with this episode whatsoever. It ran smooth as silk from start to finish!
Judgement
My judgement of this episode is actually why I had to wait for Episode 4 before writing this review. My complaints about Episode 2 largely dealt with the fact that the episodes didn't feel like they were tying together into an overarching narrative.
Each felt self-contained, but also as though they weren't moving any coherent plot forward.
After episode 3 was released, I read a number of reviews praising the episode as a work of genius.
Yet, after I played it...I was almost more frustrated than when I played the first 2.
While we finally got to meet DeCava, and kept better track of other players in the series, the episode was largely self-contained, and I still didn't feel like we were getting anywhere with the actual main plot of the game.
While the characters were inspired, the artwork was gorgeous, the voice-work was fantastic, an the puzzles were getting better...I wasn't sure there was actually any STORY here...while it was obvious that Morgan was going to betray Guybrush, to once again end on a cliffhanger felt a little cheap, and was beginning to annoy me. I ended episode 3 frustrated and disgruntled.
This feeling intensified as I read other peoples reviews...it seemed to me that most people regarded Episode 3 as the Second Coming of Monkey Island, and I began to suspect that I had an entirely different experience than most people playing the game.
I let a couple of weeks go by, and tried to write this review a couple of times, and stopped each time.
Then I decided to do something different. I went to Youtube, and WATCHED the episode being played.
Strangely, I had an entirely different experience when watching the episode. The dialogue was funnier. I could appreciate the little moments, and caught myself chuckling to myself in the chair.
I realized that when playing, I had focused almost entirely on the puzzles, and particularly those little areas where I got stuck, but felt that I shouldn't have. When taken in concert with the fact that I still didn't feel that the plot was moving rapidly enough, I realized that my ultimate frustrations were mechanical, and that my feelings for this episode would hinge entirely on whether Episode 4 worked. I knew I couldn't write this review until I saw how The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood played out.
What Worked Best
Morgan LeFlay. (still)
De Cava and his deranged crew
Pirate Face-Off/Voodoo Posession
What was Missed
Main Plot Progression, outside of the capture of the Sponge.
Advice to Telltale
I'm skipping Advice to Telltale in this review, as they've already completed Episode 4 and have already scripted Episode 5. I will give some parting words of advice for Telltale on Episode 5 in the next review, however.
Conclusion
At the end of playing Episode 3, I was growing more frustrated and a little worried for the series. I knew my feelings about this episode could only be solidified after playing Episode 4. So...what was the final verdict? *heh*
I'm afraid you'll have to read my review of "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood" to find out!
Nice review, as usual, and i agree with pretty much all of your points.
I found it pretty easy to decide chapter 3 was the best yet, though... It's actually about chapter 4 that i have some trouble making up my mind now.
Lots of great things in that one, and a definite switch in tone, but there's a little something that still bothers me, i don't really know what it is.. Maybe it has something to do with that switch being too sudden, or maybe "cheesy" as some have pointed out... (it's still interesting to see Telltale going that way, they definitely haven't been so "dark and serious" before). I'll have to replay it to try and see what it is.
It was still good, but I guess i'm just like you after chapter 3, i think i'll need to see how it all plays out in the next episode to really judge what happened in that one.
Waiting for your thought anyway, since they're always an interesting read
Really looking forward to reading your chapter four review.
I don't always agree with your assessment of the games, but I think your reviews make a lot of good points and are very well thought out. They are incredibly enjoyable to read as well, so thank you for posting them here.
depends on whether or not they were carrying a letter of Marque from the local governor. But being as Elaine IS the governor (of the Tri-Island area, and presumably beyond), she automatically carries the authority of the crown. In fact, her gubernatorial symbol in Escape was used for this express purpose!
Hmm.. It's dangerous thinking *too* closely to the historical record, I think, especially since I developed my theory that EMI is a burlesque of the attempted depiratisation of the Caribbean following the issue of the general pardon to pirates following the Treaties of Utrecht.... (problematic, not least, because technically that makes Ozzie Mandrell the good guy)
Alright guys...here are my thoughts on "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood."
Let me know what you think!
Ranking
As usual, here is my ranking of the original games in the series:
Escape from Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChucks' Revenge
Normally, I would place my ranking of the new episode in the following list - but this episode was so crucial to the series that I feel that it's important to preserve the ranking until after I've made my review of episode as a whole. For now, here is the ranking of the entire series up to this episode:
Escape from Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Tales of Monkey Island - The Siege of Spinner Cay
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Lair of the Leviathan
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Story
When I first began reviewing this series, I started with a little story about the announcement of the series, and mentioned that when I first heard that Telltale was going to release a new Monkey Island series, I whipped out my credit-card so fast that the edge nearly melted.
Everybody has their own reasons for falling in love with the Monkey Island Series - and I have a feeling that everybody who loves the series feels strangely protective of it. For a lot of us, Monkey Island represents a first love - An image of perfection that may not actually reflect reality, but our best memories OF that reality.
ANY kind of follow-up to a first love has a high bar to clear, and those feelings have rightly generated debate and no small feelings of anxiety in the fan base.
I think this is why so many people have a problem with Escape from Monkey Island...after a series of 3 games that were almost universally acclaimed, Escape felt like a strange departure - a first flaw that couldn't be ignored on what had previously been idolized as a creature of perfection. While it's true that not everybody feels that way, I think enough people did that it made Lucasarts sketchy about EVER releasing another product in the line. The problem for the fans was - this left us with a disappointing ending. Could anybody argue that the series SHOULD end with Escape?
So...when the announcement hit, I felt what I imagine most fans felt...an overwhelming sense of joy ("YES!") followed closely behind by the Shadow of fear. Could Telltale really pull this off?
What I've tried to explore with all of you in this series is an analysis and debate over what makes Monkey Island work. What is the mystical combination of plot, humor, whimsy, magic, art, music, and tone that somehow makes a perfect work?
I don't feel ashamed to admit that Launch of the Screaming Narwhal seriously underwhelmed me...to the point that I was actually a little bit frightened. I felt that (short of the introductory confrontation with LeChuck) the entire first episode was rather...perfunctory. I got no sense of scope, plot, or even a hint of the humor that I felt the original games embodied.
Episode 2 was an improvement...I could see where Telltale was going with the tech, and some of the old humor began poking out...even so, I didn't get a sense that the series was going anywhere.
Episode 3 was great...as a self-contained episode...but also a serious irritant. By this point, I was impatient, and fearing that Tales would be a noble experiment, but a failure. While I enjoyed the episode as a stand-alone, I didn't feel the plot was moving nearly fast enough, and wasn't sure that the "grand plot" would ever be revealed. For me, I knew Episode 4 was sink or swim time, and I wasn't optimistic. "A trial?" While the premise sounded good for an adventure game, I was afraid that a trial would slow down a plot that was already moving like molasses. Did Telltale succeed, for me?
Oh Hell Yes.
Remember all of that "Tone" talk I've been harping on? Telltale finally screwed the bolts down.
They've even retroactively "fixed" some of the problems with the earlier episodes. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We open on a somber note...Guybrush, defeated, is rowed back to Flotsam (and the Marquis De Singe) by the treacherous but lovelorn Morgan LeFlay. The scene plays somber...there is no dialogue. Guybrushes gaze, and Morgans inability to hold it...not to mention her hesitation in rowing...convey all that we need to know.
Upon collecting her bounty, Guybrush is mobbed by the angry townfolk. Thrusting a voodoo summons into his hand, Guybrush can't stop his legs from marching towards the courthouse. The Marquis implores Morgan to stop him, to which she replies that their deal is concluded...and goes to drink her sorrows away in Club 41.
Guybrush finds himself the subject of 4 civil lawsuits...his past actions coming back to haunt him. Forced to represent himself against the merchandising Stan, Guybrush cleverly calls for a recess to confer with his client. *heh*
In the cell, Guybrush outfoxes Hardtack, and is free to roam the island.
A series of puzzles ensue (some of which will be discussed below), all to try and win Guybrush his freedom.
When the final civil charge is dismissed...a criminal charge is discovered that had been overlooked - the release of the Pox upon the entire Pirate community, for which the sentence is - predictably - Death.
At that moment, who should appear but...Elaine? Good Lord, she's poxed out of her mind...
After getting thrown back into the hoosegow, Guybrush is forced to serve Elaine with a voodoo summons - but this proves difficult while she's swordfighting Morgan.
After another series of puzzles, we're back to the witness stand. Elaine certainly doesn't seem like she's going to be much use as a character witness, but a healthy rub from the sponge ought to clear that voodoo pox right up....ought to clear it...right...up....Um. Uh-oh.
That's when LeChuck swoops in to take the fall, and implicate the Voodoo Lady as the source of all of this madness.
After speaking to the incarcerated parties, Guybrush has some tall orders to fill. The Sponge apparently needs a meal to grow, and with the help of a voodoo map and some cryptic clues, Guybrush can get on his way to saving the Gulf of Melange. A quick detour to the Marquis' mansion gives him another motivation, however - finding Morgans body, Guybrush swears vengeance on the responsible party, and goes to set things right.
After a long series of puzzles, the sponge is properly prepared - all that is left is to confront the Marquis (and Elaine) at the Sacred Wind machine. After being trapped at the vacaylian clamshell, Guybrush manages to defeat DeSinge, just in time to grow La Esponje Grande and cure Elaine (and the other inhabitants of Flotsam)...just in time for LeChuck to arrive.
LeChuck! Our old buddy! Who wants to have an unholy marriage ceremony...what the - URK?!
To probably no-ones surprise, this was LeChucks plot all along...with Guybrush dying in his wifes arms, helpless to resist, things look Grim for the Gulf of Melange....
Script
This script has been what I've been waiting for throughout the entire series. Remember all that stuff about "Tone"? The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood has it in spades.
Trial seems to take place at the witching hour....night has finally fallen, and the moon is high in the sky...the only thing missing is a light mist creeping around our feet.
Contrasted with the creepy night-time environment is the ever-gaudy and enterprising Stan. He's set up his neon merchandise booth, hands-a-waving as he promotes himself during the Trial of the Century-y-y-y.
But more than the dark atmosphere (which I had privately believed was impossible to pull off on Flotsam Island), this episode FINALLY brings DANGER back to the Monkey Island series.
Do you remember how you felt in the tunnels underneath Dinky Island? Depite the fact that LeChuck was comprised of a relatively small sprite, his demeanor, thirst for vengeance, and the MUSIC combined to make him a Force to be Reckoned with.
Since LeChucks revenge, LeChuck...ceased being a threat. As much as I enjoyed LeChuck in Curse of Monkey Island, I was never *afraid* of him again. He'd become a comic foil..and a bumbling one at that.
In the very first episode of this series, this was practically brought up by Telltale themselves...Guybrush nonchalantly confronts LeChuck, completely unconcered by whatever Voodoo Machinations LeChuck had cooked up this time. With a cocky "Unholy THIS!", Guybrushes failed "Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu" substitution landed him in this whole mess to start with. He'd stopped being careful, and was all-too aware that he was the hero in this series. Heck, others even bought into the hype, here.
And for their hero-worship, they've paid with their lives. Morgan is gone, and Guybrushes words come back to haunt him..."Unholy THIS" as Lechuck plunges the substitute sword right into Guybrushes chest.
And with that...one more moment to ponder...remember how much torment LeChuck said it was to be stuffed back into his zombie body? Do you remember how he said he would make Guybrush pay?
I will take your bones, still alive and in great pain, and make them into a chair. I will call it "My Screaming Chair". Every day I will sit in it and listen to you scream.- LeChuck
He meant it. He still means it. And more than that, he orchestrated this scenario so that Guybrush would do it all to himself - and be forced to watch as he lay dying.
Dialogue
To be honest, I don't think that any particular dialogue stuck out in this episode, but that's largely because the dialogue was used to move the plot along. Nothing to complain about here, just nothing particularly memorable either.
Puzzles
Thankfully, Telltale also focused on puzzles in this episode. I've read some reviews that stated that the puzzles didn't feel as integrated into the plot as they could have been. The best example for puzzle integration in the series so far comes from the last episode (Lair of the Leviathan), but I didn't feel that the puzzles in Trial were any more "illogical" than anything in LeChucks Revenge.
All of the staples are here....item collection, item combination, "fuzzy logic", normal logic being stymied and having to come up with an alternate solution, and some puzzles that are downright devious.
THANK you Telltale. You finally threw in some tricky ones. I can't tell you how long I fumbled with that map before I got to the Chest of Foreshadowing, but I loved every minute of it. (Heck, this twist even allowed me to enjoy another jungle maze, which I'd sworn off in the past!)
I have only ONE complaint about a puzzle in this episode, and that involved the "shock" for the desert.
I knew that was being shocked when I exited Club 41, but I had no idea why. Nothing obvious indicated to me that I was building up a static charge, and no dialogue clued me in either. I was forced to assume that it was "faulty wiring" (there's a doorbell-looking kinda thing on the outside of Club 41.) When I couldn't induce *enough* of a static shock, I was finally forced to look at the walkthrough.
This is another case of "knowing exactly what I needed to do, but not understanding how to do it." I think Telltale still needs to work on this a bit, but I definitely applaud them for upping the complexity of the puzzles - I now know they can trust me to think and not have everything spelled out for me.
Art Direction
I really have to applaud Telltale here. While I felt the interior of the courtroom was a little underwhelming, the town of Flotsam itself was spectacular at night. The lighting, the gloom, and most especially the moon (of all things) really caught my eye and made me smile.
The interior of Club 41 was gorgeous, with a nice little tribute to the Scumm Bar, and the feel of the entire location redeemed Flotsam Island in my eyes.
Characters
The Judge: The Judge was probably the most underwhelming character for me. I didn't see him as anything special, but he served his purpose and then got out of the way. No complaints here.
Stan: At first, the new voice was a little jarring. I've never been fond of the voice of Stan in any of the previous installments, but once I got used to it I found it to be a vast improvement. I still dont' know if *anybody* has nailed the definitive Stan voice for me, but he's definitely in character, and was a welcome returning character.
Morgan: What can I say about Morgan that I haven't already said? Her spunk here is diminished...she's doing a job she doesn't want to do, and she's done it because she's a professional. Even though I still think Guybrush needs to stay together with Elaine, my heart can't help but ache when I see how melancholy her unrequited love makes her. Finding her body was a genuine shock...I hope we find her on the other side of the Crossroads.
Elaine: A pox-infested Elaine is a scary thing to behold - during the confrontation with the Marquis, she said some geuinely hurtful things, and for the barest moment I had to ask myself - "Should Guybrush *really* get back together with her if this is the way she really feels?" It only took one sentence to convince me again that this is Guybrushes true love..."From Melee to Monkey and all the islands in between, my love." Wow.
Music
This episode saw a reprise of some of my favorite themes, including the harpsichord-heavy "Marquis" theme, and a couple of different variations of LeChucks theme. (Cheerful Human and Pox-Infested Demon Pirate varieties!)
I wasn't a big fan of the Club 41 theme (thought this was a little *too* derivative of the Scumm Bar), but that's the only music complaint I have.
Voices
Earl Boen is back. Nuff said. (BTW, does anybody else suspect that this line was probably recorded while Earl recorded dialogue for a LeChucks Revenge Special Edition? I can't imagine they wouldn't have had Earls voice for the first episode if he had recorded this line for the SMI release?)
Technical
Once again, no technical issues.
Judgement
My fears for the plotline have been laid to rest. LeChuck has finally been restored to the scary villain he should be, and Guybrush has suffered a needed comeuppance.
An atmosphere surrounded this episode that I hadn't felt in a long, long time.
My only complaint is...WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?
I'm still frustrated that it took us getting 80% of the way though the series to hit this point, but I'm also gratified that they've retroactively fixed some of the complaints from previous episodes. (What is an altar doing out in the middle of the jungle?)
This episode did what I thought no Monkey Island episode could do again...it restored some gravitas to the series, and actually made me feel some pretty deep emotions while playing. Some people have described this episode as "cheesy", or asked whether or not Monkey Island could carry this kind of weight. My only response to them is - what series of games have YOU been playing?
What Worked Best
Pretty much all of it, but most especially the trickier puzzles, the nighttime/spooky atmosphere, and the return of a treacherous, deadly, SCARY LeChuck.
What was Missed
Van Winslow. (By the way, is he still poxed sitting out there on that ship? Or were people off the isle of Flotsam cured as well?)
Advice to Telltale
Everything that you did in this episode, please do it again for the Finale. I have a hunch that we're going to get to see the Voodoo Crossroads, and I liked another commentors theory that Guybrush will be resurrected in the same way as LeChuck was - with his poxed voodoo hand. After all, wasn't that what LeChuck wanted him to feel? The pain of resurrection?
Here's hoping we also see Morgan and Noogie on the other side. Also...a personal plea...please find a way to resurrect Morgan. She's too good of a character to kill off.
Conclusion
I don't think I could've asked for a better Episode 4. The only complaint that I have is with the "shock" puzzle, but that's a minor quibble. Telltale rightly killed off the minor (though entertaining) villain, leaving LeChuck to occupy his rightful place at center stage for the finale.
This episode made me laugh, made me feel, and came damned close to making me cry. If that's not entertainment, I don't know what is.
I can also honestly say...I don't know where Monkey Island could go after this. Character relationships have been explored and deepened, and I can honestly say that if this really is it...I'll be satisfied with the series ending here. I dont' think I can give a greater compliment.
Just don't screw up the last episode!
Ranking 2:
Escape from Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Tales of Monkey Island - The Siege of Spinner Cay
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Lair of the Leviathan
The Curse of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
One surprising element of Lair of the Leviathan is how small it is, environment wise. There are very small number of rooms in this episode.
Even more surprising is how well the episode fares in spite of this fact. The art design for each room is gorgeous and reflects the proper atmosphere. The cinematic pans and tilts in the environment continue to be used to good effect, and the limited number of locations actually allow you to focus more time on the characters and their relationships in this episode. This was a GOOD THING. Kudos to Telltale for making the right choices.
First point may be a little long, sorry!
You write a lot about "tone." One of the key elements, for me, is setting the scene. I have always been fascinated by the self-contained and insular sets which can often be seen in TV. You may get a show going left, right and centre to keep the atmosphere fresh, but then I find that for shows such as (say) Blackadder, a simple mix of three-four rooms can fill an entire series of reasonably long shows. The limited size of the set isn't a drawback. It allows for more dedication to the rooms that do exist. The size also allows for a more cozy feel, and especially a more character-centred feel (which is a problem if your characters are poor like the minor-characters in chp. 1). Though as much as a small number of locations is important, I think insular/busy locations are in order.
I think this is exactly what Monkey Island has achieved on all the best locations. We loved the dark and busy Monkey Island games of the early '90s. Nearly all of us loved the third Monkey Island game. Bill Tiller has rightly been praised for CoMI's success as much as Jonathan Ackley and Larry Ahern. Why? Because Tiller almost single-handedly set the scene perfectly, time after time.
Blood Island is dark and isolated. There is an hotel, a graveyard, some cannibals, and a clearing/beach/lighthouse/windmill. These places all have a backdrop to some other part of the island with one exception. The Cannibals' village is at the foot of the volcano; the windmill nestles amongst the trees; from the beach we can see both the lighthouse and the hotel; from the hotel we can see the graveyard; from the graveyard, the hotel; from the lighthouse we see the beach. The windmill's location is quite lonely (or would be, if in a 3d model confined to TTG's size-restrictions), yet the trees provide an insular feel, while the large yellow moon and the covering of clouds all keep you feeling snug. The only really lonely or isolated place on the island is the lighthouse, as we perch atop a vulnerable-looking tower. Even here, there is a lot going on. The heavy clouds merging into the sea, the sharks, the stars.
Compare this to the first incarnation of Flotsam. The almost offensively bright blue sky merges with the deep blue ocean along a rigid line. Few clouds intersperse the barren landscape. We stand by the Narwhal and see nothing but sky. We stand at the small beach, and see nothing but the small shacks that make up the hamlet of Flotsam. On the occasions that we do see a forest, it's as bad a cardboard cutout as in EfMI. The whole place lacks soul. Even if you like the first episode it's not aided by the location, even though there are roughly the same amount of locations as Blood Island.
Location, then, is as much to do with linking in to other places and filling the screen, as with the number of rooms. The Leviathan ticks both boxes. There can be no immaculate sky, or monotonous blue ocean. Every element of the Beast is unique. Veins, bile, goodness-knows-what. It's creepy, it's warm, it's insular. Every location within the belly from necessity ties in with another location. This, rather than "night-time" or Bill Tiller himself, is what has been missing. Indeed, in ep. 4 I think the addition of Club 41 interior and the courthouse add a depth to the hamlet of Flotsam that the bare and soulless place missed in the first episode, which is partly why it goes down so well. People loved the night-time Blood Island, but on an old thread of mine I got the impression many were left cold by the night-time Scabb Island. It was less self-contained. The elements of the island were thrown across a barren island, many feeling isolated from one-another.
But more than the dark atmosphere (which I had privately believed was impossible to pull off on Flotsam Island), this episode FINALLY brings DANGER back to the Monkey Island series.
Do you remember how you felt in the tunnels underneath Dinky Island? Depite the fact that LeChuck was comprised of a relatively small sprite, his demeanor, thirst for vengeance, and the MUSIC combined to make him a Force to be Reckoned with.
Since LeChucks revenge, LeChuck...ceased being a threat. As much as I enjoyed LeChuck in Curse of Monkey Island, I was never *afraid* of him again. He'd become a comic foil..and a bumbling one at that.
...
remember how much torment LeChuck said it was to be stuffed back into his zombie body? Do you remember how he said he would make Guybrush pay?
He meant it. He still means it. And more than that, he orchestrated this scenario so that Guybrush would do it all to himself - and be forced to watch as he lay dying.
You've almost exactly summed up how I feel, here! While exceptional artwork and a good balance on the storyline of CoMI, for me, kept MI alive, I don't think the LeChuck change was for the best. First it's a rollercoaster-of-doom, then it's a Transformer, etc. Exactly what I loved was the way that the poor graphics of MI1/2 (which leads to a constant dark overtone as default and its strong contrast with the light in places like Phatt, and a dreamlike feeling to the game) allow us to feel like we really are in a kid's imagination on the PotC ride, and that LeChuck is one of those nightmares we were so afraid of as children. As he chases us around not only does the music get harsher and more ominous, but the lighting changes for the darker. The finale in LCR sees us trapped like rats in the tunnels of Big Whoop.
What's the key to the danger? Darkness following LeChuck, and fear. Both kicked in big-time, as everybody is against us (even Elaine is unavailable to support him due to pox).
The lighting, the gloom, and most especially the moon (of all things) really caught my eye and made me smile.
The interior of Club 41 was gorgeous, with a nice little tribute to the Scumm Bar, and the feel of the entire location redeemed Flotsam Island in my eyes.
It felt, to me, more insular again. The moon took up a large part of the sky (yes I bang on about it, but at the end of the day it can take up about 40% of the screen at times) along with stars and clouds. The gloom and foreboding gave everything a greater raison d'etre. There is something bad going on and we have to stop it. Rather than "you're damned to boring purgatory until you solve a few riddles".
Judgement
My fears for the plotline have been laid to rest. LeChuck has finally been restored to the scary villain he should be, and Guybrush has suffered a needed comeuppance.
My question would be, how much time are we going to have for the story to finish itself? I believe there's no definite Series 2, and so they have one episode for
Guybrush to walk through the land of the dead, do whatever he needs to "break the cycle"
and fix all this mess. Now, given how far we've come: the unfolding of the problem in CH1; the necessary setting of the search for Esponga Grande in CH2; the beautiful CH3; and the plot-heavy CH4, just how long will this ep have to be?
Sure, Esponga Grande and apparently the Pox have both worked themselves out, but Guybrush is going to have a lot to do if
the underworld
is to be made worthwhile. Equally, we need him to finish everything off with Elaine...
Okay I have a few points to raise or expand upon but first let me say: fantastic review! I'm glad you enjoyed the episode (4) too.
I hadn't remembered the Crossroads, so maybe Nor Treblig is the Pirate God down there...cue a very very very special cameo by Ron Gilbert.
Those who are asking for seriously crammed visuals and busy rooms - have you any idea how much work that involves, what the game size rockets up to and the likelihood no customer at this very moment has a graphics card that can cope? If we had another 2D adventure, then fine.
Telltale is good at wrapping things up at the final hour imo, if Sam & Max is anything to go by. Also, everything's getting better with every season and indeed every MI episode (the backgrounds, the music, the characters, the voices, the dialogue, the puzzles, the plot, the script, the feel, the interface...). So if they did a Tales Season 2 (after Sam & Max Season 3, ofc ), I have full confidence that all the complaints we had in Tales Season 1 will have been addressed.
And with that...one more moment to ponder...remember how much torment LeChuck said it was to be stuffed back into his zombie body? Do you remember how he said he would make Guybrush pay?
He meant it. He still means it. And more than that, he orchestrated this scenario so that Guybrush would do it all to himself - and be forced to watch as he lay dying.
No way, man. Tales' LeChuck is a good villian, but he's not the horror that MI2's LeChuck was.
Still pretty good, though. Better than the cartoon villiany of CMI or, heaven forbid, the boneheaded second-banana cartoon viliany of EMI.
The Judge: The Judge was probably the most underwhelming character for me. I didn't see him as anything special, but he served his purpose and then got out of the way. No complaints here.
No? Finding the judge bartending at Club 41 was a highlight for me. The contrast between his sterotypical harsh judge personality and his gregarious barman personality was very funny...and I laughed when he let Guybrush start a tab. Since when has any barman been so generous in an adventure game?
I agree with you that they really nailed the tone in this episode. However, I don't think this episode would be nearly as effective if the tone was this dark in Chapter One.
It's a contrast thing. It's also that we are nearing the final act of the story, and in most stories this is the dark moment. I assume some people here are familiar with the Hero's Journey--the Belly of the Whale segment comes to mind.
I think the point in SMI with the most darkness was not the night-time island of Melee, but the caverns under Monkey Island. The darkest island in CMI was Blood--but remember that these locations were not reached until 2/3 of the way through the game.
I think Ch. 1 probably should've been dark, start it out with a bang. Then get light in ch. 2, and eventually darker again in Ch. 4 and possibly 5. That's kind of a MI pattern in the classics.
I like Ch. 3 and 4 quite a bit, but they still miss the mark on certain things to me. I don't agree with sladerlmc77 apparently thinking it's a flat out home run. When I think of what this series could've realistically been in this day and age, I can't help but be a bit disappointed. But I'm enjoying it, and play through the games until I'm done, not wanting to stop. I think I would pretty much forgive everything, however, if the damn puzzles were harder and the settings more detailed and varied.
While i sure agree thaty this change in tone was much needed, i can't help but feel that something was wrong with it here.
It's not the actual high drama, i certainly think this kind of things belongs in a monkey island game, and when trying to think objectively about it i can't decide why, but it somehow felt "forced".
Maybe because, as sladerlmc said, it's arriving too late in the story : the progression towards darkness was there in the previous chapter, but it was a slow and steady one. Here, it just dives into drama... Maybe it is this suddenness that thrrew me off. Contrast IS an effective way toi get your point across but maybe this one was too important.
Or, maybe this has to do with the graphics : The old MI2 sprites had so little details that they left MUCH to the imagination. Here, we get to see the characters model "act", and although a great job is made on their expression and stuff, it's just not convincing enough to pull off such strong feelings ?
(I'm by no means the kind of guy to judge games by graphics quality, by the way, and overall i love what telltale had done with them).
Now i don't wanna sound more negative that i am : in the end i did enjoy the episode, it surprised me and i thought the writing, plot and character developpement were all good : It sure left me impatient to see what happen next. But it just failed to really grab me on the whole emotional thing, for some reason i just didn't feel involved in the whole drama stuff. I plan to replay it soon and try to understand why.
I also feel, as i said, much in the same way that slader did after chapter three : I think i really need to see what this is all actually leading up to to really make up my mind. A lot of tension have been raised, and while this sure makes both expectations and excitation rise, the fact that it hasn't been released yet might actually be the only reason why i can't quite join the praising crowd right now.
I'd also like to point out that, no matter how i feel about it or the way it was done, i really didn't expect Telltale to go that far into the "dark drama" stuff, and that's a good thing. Their games, although very good, have always been just a little to cheerful up until now, and it's great to see them add deptht and a whole new edge to their stories.
Those who are asking for seriously crammed visuals and busy rooms - have you any idea how much work that involves, what the game size rockets up to and the likelihood no customer at this very moment has a graphics card that can cope? If we had another 2D adventure, then fine.
It's not so much wanting crammed visuals. The belly of the leviathan managed the effect of crammed visuals and a busy room simply by having interesting textures (I talked about clouds on Blood Island, and these aren't mega-huge objects). It's more a matter of always being conscious that we want to have more to look at than plot-points and major characters. Take, for example (as people talk about Blood Island not being representative because of the time it came about in the game), Plunder Island. Images here: http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plunder-BrimstoneBeach.jpg http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plunder-Fort.jpg http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plunder-snake.jpg
And, no, i'm not nearly so stupid as you think. Having taken economics at university I pride myself on being able to work out the principle that extra TR & HR equals higher costs. But it's really not about having too much in the scenes here. The scenes back on to another part of the Island, re-using other things which have already been created to give the illusion of more. This is a very basic principle in anything from a theatre show to a TV show. The problem is, I don't feel like the designs of the actual islands are creating this same illusion after MI3. It is evident (whether accidentally or not) in the first 3 games (look at the roads leading on in Phatt, or the continuing peninsula behind the governor's mansion; or on Monkey Island, how the canyon continues into the distance and the beach shows mountains etc. behind it). Yet in the last two, it has felt more like there's the ocean, there's the sky, here's a circular island that you could trek across in all of five minutes, and here's the plotpoints. It doesn't necessarily make for a bad game, but it does make it harder for the reader/watcher/player to immerse themselves in the scene, and it damages the ability to create an atmosphere.
Telltale is good at wrapping things up at the final hour imo, if Sam & Max is anything to go by. Also, everything's getting better with every season and indeed every MI episode (the backgrounds, the music, the characters, the voices, the dialogue, the puzzles, the plot, the script, the feel, the interface...). So if they did a Tales Season 2 (after Sam & Max Season 3, ofc ), I have full confidence that all the complaints we had in Tales Season 1 will have been addressed.
I agree entirely. TTG are (overall) doing a wonderful job with two franchises I never thought I would see again. I just wonder, because of the resources it will take for this "new location" (nudge nudge, wink wink), how they will manage to make everything in this location happen, and then still manage to bring everything together for the finale, which I wouldn't have thought would be there.
However, I don't think this episode would be nearly as effective if the tone was this dark in Chapter One.
It's a contrast thing. It's also that we are nearing the final act of the story, and in most stories this is the dark moment. I assume some people here are familiar with the Hero's Journey--the Belly of the Whale segment comes to mind.
I think the point in SMI with the most darkness was not the night-time island of Melee, but the caverns under Monkey Island. The darkest island in CMI was Blood--but remember that these locations were not reached until 2/3 of the way through the game.
I know what you mean, and I was perhaps not explaining myself thoroughly with the Blood-island example. It's not that the brightness in ep1 was necessarily bad, it's more the fact that there was no backdrop. In Blood Island everything tied in with everything else, and the sky felt heavy etc. Yet, we get a similar effect on Plunder Island. Just by putting in background that we won't go to (and therefore doesn't need to be more than a cardboard cutout, but it should look like its not) or putting the image (which we already have) of Danjer cove below the Snake-Xing, or a random piece of rock behind the beach, it creates a feeling of size which doesn't necessarily exist.
One interesting thing, BTW, is how plunder-island seems to be schizo when it comes to time-zone: http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plundermap.jpg
Danjer cove is where Elaine is kidnapped, and where Guybrush needs to save her. It is, therefore, the darkest place. Fear of darkness is the most primitive of our feelings. It exists because darkness and danger come together (when it's dark, a predator could come out of nowhere to kill us). It follows, therefore, that where there is danger there should be darkness. Yet, the barbershop and the beach are both light, because it's a fairly leisurely and light-hearted adventure through a new environment. I'm not sure how they could have done it with Flotsam. Maybe make de Singe's lab more remote and covered by stereotypical storm-clouds? To make a contrast: "here is the nice Narwhal challenge etc; here is the dangerous serious-plot bit." Just an idea, not sure if it would work...
One thing that got me was how light the forest was. This forest was the scene of the final confrontation of the chapter between the protagonist and his antagonist. Yet de Singe was chasing Guybrush around a friendly, bright forest filled with animal-noises as if it's some kind of audio-version of animal-crackers.
there's a little something that still bothers me, i don't really know what it is.. Maybe it has something to do with that switch being too sudden, or maybe "cheesy" as some have pointed out... (it's still interesting to see Telltale going that way, they definitely haven't been so "dark and serious" before). I'll have to replay it to try and see what it is.
I think it's the same thing that still bothers me about the series...and this didn't come out quite as forcefully in my review as I'd hoped.
It comes down to "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!" While I reviewed this episode slightly above "Curse" (which is VERY high praise for me), the only reason I have done so is because LeChuck has been reset - he's frightening, calculating, and has been made a threat to Guybrush again.
That said, the series (as a whole) still ranks BELOW Curse for me. Whether that remains the case will almost certainly depend on the finale, but I wish that the first 3 episodes had flowed more easily into this one. The "plot dump" feels too abrupt.
FitsoliverJ:
Hmm.. It's dangerous thinking *too* closely to the historical record, I think, especially since I developed my theory that EMI is a burlesque of the attempted depiratisation of the Caribbean following the issue of the general pardon to pirates following the Treaties of Utrecht.... (problematic, not least, because technically that makes Ozzie Mandrell the good guy)
What I think is interesting about the various attempts to offer pardons to pirates is that half the time, the Pirates would TAKE the pardon, swear to the local authority to give up their pirating ways, and lounge on the beach for a month or two in Buccaneer communities....but when times got lean again (or enough people got bored) back to the sea they would go.
Gryffalio:
The size also allows for a more cozy feel, and especially a more character-centred feel (which is a problem if your characters are poor like the minor-characters in chp. 1).
I think this is the most salient point in your first paragraph. Part of why I was surprised about how well Lair worked was because I felt that Flotsam in the first episode was almost claustrophobic. It SHOULDN'T be, as it' actually has quite a number of locations. The problem for me was that I felt like I was railroaded everywhere. I couldn't ENTER the buildings which made them feel like nothing more than facades, and what characters I could interact with were cringeworthy.
This made Trial even more surprising....with improved characters and an improved atmosphere, suddenly Flotsam became a fascinating place to explore.
Bill Tiller has rightly been praised for CoMI's success as much as Jonathan Ackley and Larry Ahern. Why? Because Tiller almost single-handedly set the scene perfectly, time after time.
I can't disagree with this point at all. Bill Tiller managed to capture the whimsy of Monkey Island in an entirely different art style, which has forever since defined the "look". I don't think there's a single bad background in Curse, and that is half of the appeal of the game.
Blood Island is dark and isolated. There is an hotel, a graveyard, some cannibals, and a clearing/beach/lighthouse/windmill. These places all have a backdrop to some other part of the island with one exception. The Cannibals' village is at the foot of the volcano; the windmill nestles amongst the trees; from the beach we can see both the lighthouse and the hotel; from the hotel we can see the graveyard; from the graveyard, the hotel; from the lighthouse we see the beach. The windmill's location is quite lonely (or would be, if in a 3d model confined to TTG's size-restrictions), yet the trees provide an insular feel, while the large yellow moon and the covering of clouds all keep you feeling snug. The only really lonely or isolated place on the island is the lighthouse, as we perch atop a vulnerable-looking tower. Even here, there is a lot going on. The heavy clouds merging into the sea, the sharks, the stars.
This was a point I hadn't actually considered before, but you're right. There *are* a relatively small number of locations, but due to careful framing the space *feels* bigger.
I suppose this is equivalent to having a relatively small house, but placing mirrors on either side of the room to enhance the sensation of depth.
People loved the night-time Blood Island, but on an old thread of mine I got the impression many were left cold by the night-time Scabb Island. It was less self-contained. The elements of the island were thrown across a barren island, many feeling isolated from one-another.
Hmmm...not sure I can agree with this point, but then I have a hard time finding any flaws in LeChucks Revenge.
You've almost exactly summed up how I feel, here! While exceptional artwork and a good balance on the storyline of CoMI, for me, kept MI alive, I don't think the LeChuck change was for the best.
I struggle with Curse here. I love nearly everything about Curse, particularly because it's the debut of Earl Boen voicing LeChuck. I loved the retroactive explanation for Big Whoop and didn't mind the Carnival of the Damned, either. I happily keep Curse in the company of the first two games, but I can't deny that LeChuck wasn't *scary* in Curse. I don't think he was a buffoon, but his edge...wasn't quite there anymore.
Unfortunately, Escape nearly mortally wounded the character AND the mythology. Not only did LeChuck no longer make sense (he can change form at will? And what the heck kind of pirate IS he in a Stone form?)...but he played second banana to a villain that was more annoying than anything else.
That doesn't even begin to touch on the mucked up chronology, the changes in Toothrot, and the completely boneheaded idea to make the Monkey Head a robot.
What I feel "Trial" has sucessfully done is restored the air of menace and calculated cunning around LeChuck. While it's true that he's still not as horrifying as he was in LeChucks revenge, he at least feels like he's the same character that went through those events...he hasn't forgotten, and wants to make Guybrush pay for them.
Unfortunately I can't comment on the rest of your post, because I am doing my level best to avoid spoilers on the final episode. Rest Assured I'll read them after I get through the climax!
tbm1986:
I hadn't remembered the Crossroads, so maybe Nor Treblig is the Pirate God down there...cue a very very very special cameo by Ron Gilbert.
I've been looking forward to seeing the Crossroads since the very first episode. The Crossroads is the voodoo equivalent of the gates of the afterlife, and I think a lot of fun can be had here. I hope they don't make Nor Treblig a direct reference to Ron, but whatever they do, I'm anxious to see it.
Those who are asking for seriously crammed visuals and busy rooms - have you any idea how much work that involves, what the game size rockets up to and the likelihood no customer at this very moment has a graphics card that can cope? If we had another 2D adventure, then fine.
I guess I interpreted that statement a little differently than you did. One of the things I still miss in the newer Monkey Island games is the feeling that these islands are really inhabited. Part of the problem with keeping characters in static locations is that they end up feeling like mannequins. Melee Island always felt like there was something going on that *didn't* involve the main plotline, simply because folks ambled about, entered and exited doors, and generally went about their business. It'd be nice to have some of this background activity, that really shouldn't take up all that much in the way of additional resources.
Fronzel:
No way, man. Tales' LeChuck is a good villian, but he's not the horror that MI2's LeChuck was.
Well...not yet. I think a lot of it depends on what his real plot is. I suppose I should've made my feelings a bit more clear. While he's *not* sweeping in like a remnant from a nightmare, there's no question that he remembers the torment that Guybrush has put him through and intends to pay him back in kind.
My own theory? I'm guessing that LeChuck somehow knows that Monkey Island ties into the Crossroads...we already know that it sits on a gateway to Hell. If that's the case, I think that LeChuck plans to use the monkeys in a Blood Sacrifice to pierce the veil between the real world and the Crossroads...freeing ghosts and zombies on the world, an army at his command.
My second hunch? LeChuck actually intends to resurrect Guybrush using his poxed hand...to force him to watch the unholy marriage ceremony, as well as make him feel the pain of resurrection...possibly over and over again.
Meems:
I agree with you that they really nailed the tone in this episode. However, I don't think this episode would be nearly as effective if the tone was this dark in Chapter One.
I don't disagree. I'm not trying to suggest that the series should be "all dark, all the time." I think the transition between lighthearted and sunny to dark and a little magical needs to be a gradual thing. (Pirates of the Caribbean - both the ride and the movies - handle this transition beautifully)
What I DO think needed to happen was that the threads of the plot needed to be layered back all the way to the first episode, and needed to gradually unfold. I feel that that hasn't worked so well.
If the last episode has the major payoff we all want, I think the series has the potential to be greater than Curse, but it's all going to depend. If the last episode is as good as this one, I'll consider episodes 3, 4, and 5 to be great and that will carry it over the 50% threshhold to be great. If it falters, though, I think the series as a whole will be one step below Curse.
I think the point in SMI with the most darkness was not the night-time island of Melee, but the caverns under Monkey Island. The darkest island in CMI was Blood--but remember that these locations were not reached until 2/3 of the way through the game.
I also agree with this point...my problem is that it's taken us 4/5 of the way through this series to get to that dark point. The difference is getting 66% of the way through the overall story before the "magic hour" shows up, as opposed to getting 80% of the way through it. While I'm very happy with episode 4, I think waiting till the 80% mark to get there is pushing it a bit too far.
RockNRoll:
like Ch. 3 and 4 quite a bit, but they still miss the mark on certain things to me. I don't agree with sladerlmc77 apparently thinking it's a flat out home run. When I think of what this series could've realistically been in this day and age, I can't help but be a bit disappointed. But I'm enjoying it, and play through the games until I'm done, not wanting to stop. I think I would pretty much forgive everything, however, if the damn puzzles were harder and the settings more detailed and varied.
Bear in mind that I'm talking about this individual episode, not the series as a whole. I think we *finally* got where we needed to be in Trial, in terms of tone...but I'm not happy that it was all crammed into this episode. I'd be a lot happier if more hints of the plot had been introduced earlier in the series, threading their way through to be revealed.
I do agree that prior to this episode, the puzzles have been too easy. I understand Telltale wanting to rope in new players, but they needed to rachet up the difficulty sooner.
As to th more detailed and varied locations, I still think we were pretty much limited by the series release on the Wii. I hope in the future, Telltale won't make that mistake again.
Astro Gnocci (Again):
It's not the actual high drama, i certainly think this kind of things belongs in a monkey island game, and when trying to think objectively about it i can't decide why, but it somehow felt "forced".
I think this is all because they took too long to dive into it, leaving threads abandoned for entire episodes. Unfortunately, too much of this series has felt like "introduction." The "middle" section got short shrift in the series, and I think that shows. It makes the narrative flow feel disjointed.
Or, maybe this has to do with the graphics : The old MI2 sprites had so little details that they left MUCH to the imagination. Here, we get to see the characters model "act", and although a great job is made on their expression and stuff, it's just not convincing enough to pull off such strong feelings ?
I don't think I agree with this point. Much is made of the fact that the original backgrounds and sprites were low-res, and thus left more to the imagination...but I'm not sure I buy that. I think the sprites just told all the story that needed to be told. I never felt like the graphics weren't good enough, or like i had to fill things in with my imagination....for me, the sprites and backgrounds simply effectively told the story. I think this had to do with the artists and animators simply knew how to reduce a core emotion down to its essence, and distill it into something magical.
That also leads me into something I've been very impressed by in this Telltale series, but haven't really talked about - and that is facial animation in the character models. I've been blown away with how much is communicated through the characters eyes in this series. Bravo.
Now i don't wanna sound more negative that i am : in the end i did enjoy the episode, it surprised me and i thought the writing, plot and character developpement were all good : It sure left me impatient to see what happen next. But it just failed to really grab me on the whole emotional thing, for some reason i just didn't feel involved in the whole drama stuff. I plan to replay it soon and try to understand why.
I'm sorry to hear that you weren't grabbed on the same emotional level as I was by this episode. As I keep harping, I'd have been happier if this stuff had been explored through the other episodes, building more gradually to the climax, but this episode really did tug at my heartstrings a couple of different times. I hope the second playthrough works better for you (as Lair did for me).
I also feel, as i said, much in the same way that slader did after chapter three : I think i really need to see what this is all actually leading up to to really make up my mind. A lot of tension have been raised, and while this sure makes both expectations and excitation rise, the fact that it hasn't been released yet might actually be the only reason why i can't quite join the praising crowd right now.
I absolutely understand. This series could still come crashing down...now that the stakes have been raised, they really have to have a stunning finale for all of this to work.
They've shown me now that they CAN though, so I'm hopeful they'll continue the upward trend from this last episode into the climax. If they do, I'll be very happy with the series.
I'd also like to point out that, no matter how i feel about it or the way it was done, i really didn't expect Telltale to go that far into the "dark drama" stuff, and that's a good thing. Their games, although very good, have always been just a little to cheerful up until now, and it's great to see them add deptht and a whole new edge to their stories.
Definitely. This "dark drama" is what I have been wanting...to add depth to what had become a far-too-comic series. I wasn't sure if Telltale would have the stomach to go this dark, but I'm glad that they did. A sense of threat has been restored, and that was needed.
I also agree with this point...my problem is that it's taken us 4/5 of the way through this series to get to that dark point. The difference is getting 66% of the way through the overall story before the "magic hour" shows up, as opposed to getting 80% of the way through it. While I'm very happy with episode 4, I think waiting till the 80% mark to get there is pushing it a bit too far.
And I would like to point out that the cheesiness of what happened AFTER Blood Island totally ruined the ongoing darkness. And though we got to "darker atmosphere point" (I say "Darker" because MI series never was intended to be DARK in the first place, and, personally, I wouldn't like it to turn into a DARK story, but darkER touches are always nice and maybe even essential... I mean, each MI game has those darkER touches at least somewhere) in CMI kind of earlier, we also roll down from this dark atmospheric point helluva fast. The Carnival of the Damned part is what I don't like in CMI the most, mind you. But, well, we have to live with it
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that TT will manage to stay on top and make a great and darkER final chapter
EDIT:
P.S. Come to think about it, if they wouldn't decide to explain EVERYTHING and make Carnival of the Damned a REAL place... CMI would have been so much more enjoyable in the end.
What I feel "Trial" has sucessfully done is restored the air of menace and calculated cunning around LeChuck. While it's true that he's still not as horrifying as he was in LeChucks revenge, he at least feels like he's the same character that went through those events...he hasn't forgotten, and wants to make Guybrush pay for them.
Agreed, they did that extremely well. It's kinda funny, because even though i was pretty much expecting it they still managed to surprize me. I mean, as soon as i saw him arrive after the DeSinge fight, i KNEW they were going to end the "good guy" thing (it was pretty obvious the chapter was coming to its end and it just seemed like the perfect cliffhanger, plus i never bought into the "he might ACTUALLY be a good guy now" thing). But the way it was done was just... Brutal. Thinking back about it only a few seconds later i thought i should have seen the blow coming, but i clearly didn't. That was really great.
I think this is all because they took too long to dive into it, leaving threads abandoned for entire episodes. Unfortunately, too much of this series has felt like "introduction." The "middle" section got short shrift in the series, and I think that shows. It makes the narrative flow feel disjointed.
Thinking again about it al, i think that's basically it. I remember your commenting about pacing after the second episode was released, and it didn't bother me so much back then (and also after chapter 3), but here i guess what was really lacking was a true build up. I guess that's what trhew me off.
And regarding the graphics comments, i was basically just throwing the idea around, but i don't think that's quite the reason. And i want to stress it out, i certainly didn't mean to imply the animators and designers had done a poor job or anything like that.
I'm sorry to hear that you weren't grabbed on the same emotional level as I was by this episode. As I keep harping, I'd have been happier if this stuff had been explored through the other episodes, building more gradually to the climax, but this episode really did tug at my heartstrings a couple of different times. I hope the second playthrough works better for you (as Lair did for me).
Not as sorry as I am
I think i'll wait before replaying it, though. Let the whole monkey thing slip out of my mind and then replay it with a fresher mind. I'll see how it all goes then.
Also, i'm surprised no one else seems to have mentionned it anywhere, and i'm starting to wonder if maybe i had a bug or something...
Did anyone else felt the the opening scene was somehow... flat ? I don't mean the very begining, on the boat with morgan. This scene was brillant. But afterwards, when the crowd starts running at guybrush to summon him to court. I felt it really lacked something, the music remained pretty quiet, and overall, the whole thing just lacked some real punch (which is a shame, because apart from that the scene was overall pertty well done as well). As the chapter screen came up afterwards, which usually kinda breaks up the dynamics, it just remained on the same level o, and this all made the begining of the game feel rather... well, yeah, flat.
This is quite a minor and somewhat off-topic complain, but it sure didn't help me get immersed into the game.
I find your reviews very well-written and thought-through and I agree with many of your points. As I have commented earlier, I would prefer if you gave ratings as clarifications of your opinions, but your lists of how well you like the different chapters serve much the same purpose, and thus I will leave it alone.
I completely agree with your take on chapter 3. It had a piratey feel and some of the puzzles were extraordinary - convincing De Cava of your marriage to Morgan and especially posessing the voodoo lady and the pirate face making thingy. What I enjoyed very much about the voodoo puzzle that you could make some progress and still get some funny/real endings - the Marquis getting slapped in the ass, which helped build up suspense for the final solution. It wasn't just; "That is not the solution to this puzzle"-like dialogue, but there were actually real things that could happen despite not finding the solution. Also, I loved the way you had to find the solution to the face puzzle - interacting with everybody in different ways and finally the painting of the horribly ugly guy - funny and challenging.
However - I don't think that chapter 4 was quite as good as you say (better than curse). I actually found the first two parts to be lacking distinctively in monkey island feel and to be succumbing to escape syndromes. The four civil charges were silly - and not in a good way. Nacho sauce and a little frightened cat just doesn't seem very piratey. I also disliked that you suddenly found a leg lamp that matched Bosun Krebbes' (or something like that) completely, that you were able to acquire a glass eye photo copy print thingy or that the magnet you needed was a monkey - it smells like game designer lazyness to me. He needs a leg - let's just put one on the ground right outside the courthouse. It sort of ruins the authenticity for me. Why not use one of the severed legs from De Singes lab in this puzzle? It would have seemed more genuine.
Neither did I like the club 41 puzzle where you had to give Elaine her court summons. It was just unclear why the two women would stop fighting to get drinks and so why you had to make the bartender make these drinks in the first place. It seemed illogical and therefore the story suffered.
However! And here I totally agree with you - the third part was fantastic! Finding Morgan dead was tragic - too bad there aren't more references later in the game though, the puzzles for enlarging la esponja were very well-crafted. Having to run from the lab to get to the pepper in time was exciting' the puzzles with Stans jacket and the jungle beast were both at a level of difficulty that most central puzzles in a game should have for me (easy enough to solve without getting annoyed, but still satisfactory to finish) - some should of course be harder, the sixth sense puzzle was challenging and different and finally the static carpet was great - although I admit to kinda solving it by accident, I had already discovered that the electricity was related to the carpet. Finally the story with the marquis and lechuck in the end works flawlessly. Great climax.
So I agree with you on many points, but feel that you may have forgotten the flaws of the first stages of the game because of the glorious final stage.
Hence, I think chapter 3 was better, since it was more consistent in it's relatively high quality.
My son was born on November 8th, but he was born very, very sick...so much of the last month has been spent in the hospital.
The good news is, he seems to be doing better.
Because of the various hospital stays, I wasn't able to play the 5th episode on the day of release.
After I finished it, I had to do some serious pondering over the series as a whole.
Without a doubt, this will probably be my most difficult episode to review yet...so I hope you'll understand if I take my time while writing it. I want to do justice to the discussion we've all had already!
In the meantime...feel free to add your own thoughts. Some of what you have to say may be points that I want to touch on in my own review!
We're not all the way out of the woods yet, but he is at least home and appears to be doing better. We won't know the full impact of his illness until he's at least a few years old, but we do know that (at least so far) it could've been much, much worse.
My apologies and I'm sorry to hear that. All I can hope for is that it gets easier (which by what you've said is probably only wishful thinking). Perhaps you'll remember his first Christmas with some joy, at least.
I'm still organizing my thoughts as well, but I know there is a sort of lingering disappointment.
I really thought the end fight with Lechuck was "neat" but it was somehow hollow. It harkened back to MI1, but whereas in that scenario it was perfectly obvious what to do, this felt a little forced. I really thought the fact you had to get Elaine to do all the work was not a very well thought out puzzle.
I think thus far that is my main complaint. The lack of atmosphere and "true cities" makes the puzzle options extremely limited. Add that to the fact there is again only one verb, and it makes for a lacklustre adventure solving experience.
Telltale does a GREAT job in the specialty puzzles. The Lechuck one included, just a great job. From being in Desinge's grips to the fight with Morgan, this is where Tellltale and the entire season shined, BRIGHTLY. The other puzzles were, usually, disappointing.
Story, mood and humor I think have been beaten to death. The Crossroads was "neat" I guess, but again, not really very monkey islandish. I thought when I saw that the boat was on what sounded like a roller coaster track that we were going somewhere interesting, but alas, we weren't. Was that ACTUALLY the crossroads? I sure hope not, because it was pretty dull. If it is somehow revealed that it is the Voodoo Lady's specific purgatory for a boring afterlife, that might redeem it somewhat.
I think I would sum up the game as "Cool, if not uneventful"
Ok, so i'm way too lazy to think of any comment right now about chapter 5 (even though i'm replaying it these days), i DO want to read lorn's review of it, so here's an useless post in the hopes he'll notice the thread and post it
Comments
Oh don't get me wrong - I fully understand the relationship between the British Royal Navy, The East India Trading Company, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, etc...
My question is, how do the British fit in in THIS story? I think the British could be used to great effect if the plot had room for them. My concern is that we ALREADY have a bit too much going on in this game, with none of it tying together (yet).
To add the british as an additional antagonist at this late stage would give us too many potential villains, muddy the waters even more, and wouldn't really make sense. (As you mentioned, Elaine is at least sometimes British, and I can't imagine that the British and DeSinge would get along, unless DeSinge was deliberately working with the British to somehow discredit King Louis - but I think that's a bit more convoluted than it needs to be.)
I'm not saying that it couldn't be an interesting idea...I just don't think it works HERE.
Edward VanHelgen:
If you're referring to this thread, thank you for the kind words.
I would guess it's because as a writer, I get way too long-winded. No magazine would be able to print a review that rambles on as long as I do - it'd take up the whole magazine!
Also, part of the reason this works is the give-and-take as we explore ideas and themes. The internet is MADE for this kind of discussion...unfortunately, you can't have that kind of interaction in print.
Lorn
well, it's a pirate story set in the British West Indies at the height of the British Empire.
In the Monkey Island games most of the stereotypical pirates are British.
Bringing the Royal Navy, whose mission was to protect British interests from piracy, into the story would be a legitimate fit.
To answer your question, is it not obvious why Pirates would be hiding from the British? By definition, they have plenty to hide!
I think you misunderstood sladerlmc77. He's not saying the British Navy wouldn't fit in the Monkey Island universe, only it's a bit late to introduce them in the "Esponja Grande" story arc.
Besides who needs the British Navy when you already have an over-the-top homicidal french physician ?
Huh? Is the Gulf of Melange actually a section of the West Indies?
Captain Rottingham might have something to say about that!
This is the point I actually find most interesting. One country's pirate is another country's privateer.
Most English pirate ships were former British Royal Navy vessels that had either mutineed or turned their flag as a result of the heavy level of impressment that was going on.
That said, a british "privateer" would be a british pirate...to a spaniard.
I guess that depends on whether or not they were carrying a letter of Marque from the local governor. But being as Elaine IS the governor (of the Tri-Island area, and presumably beyond), she automatically carries the authority of the crown. In fact, her gubernatorial symbol in Escape was used for this express purpose!
By that logic, one could argue that Guybrush still isn't a pirate at all...he's a privateer! (unless he's in unfriendly waters)
Marzhin:
Yes, that's correct. Introducing the british would introduce yet another antagonist (while we have a wealth of them already), and I suspect would lead to more confusion and frustration.
That's not to say that they couldn't work in a DIFFERENT Monkey Island story.
Lorn
I feel it's just right. It's getting very dark and Murray provided enough comic relief to balance this.
The plot still hasn't been sealed but then again the centre of the plot wasn't revealed in the Sam & Max series until the beginning of the last episode of each. That seems to be the way TT work and it worked well for Sam & Max. Perhaps it could work well for Monkey Island too.
I apologize for vanishing from the thead for so long. After playing the 3rd episode (Lair of the Leviathan) I started to review it twice...and both times stopped.
Episode 3 had a different impact on me than I think it did most reviewers, and I wasn't quite sure how to articulate it...I also knew after Lair of the Leviathan that The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood would be crucial to my feelings of both Episode 3 and the season as a whole.
Now that I've played through Trial, I'm going to review both episodes. Without further ado, here are my feelings on "Lair of the Leviathan":
Ranking
Alright! To refresh everybody's memory, my take on the original games was that they were ranked as follows, worst to best:
Escape from Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChucks' Revenge
Since playing the first three "Tales" episodes, I would rank them thusly:
Escape from Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Tales of Monkey Island - The Siege of Spinner Cay
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Lair of the Leviathan
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Story
Finally we are introduced to Coronado De Cava...a moment which I felt was long overdue. We find our lost explorer outdoing Guybrush himself in the item-creation department, actually attempting to create an artificial cochlea for the tragically lost and lovelorn manatee that we (and De Cavas crew) are riding in. Sadly, it will likely take years to produce his artificial replacement.
After a brief incarceration (and a truly clever puzzle requiring you to convince De Cava that you and Morgan are husband and wife (and not at all interested in La Esponje Grande), most of the remainder of the episode takes place within the belly of the manatee.
Once there, we're introduced to De Cavas mutinous crew - who have decided that the belly of the manatee is the best place to throw a kegger...of Manatee Ichor. (yech!) To make sure the party never ends, the mutinous crew has stolen the inner ear of the manatee and hidden it away, faking their own deaths so that De Cava believes he is alone.
They especially don't want you to rock the boat (so to speak). The majority of the puzzles inside the manatee involve convincing each crew member to let you into their little club, in order to gain access to the lost cochlea and repairthe manatees sense of direction, make it to the Sacred Manatee Mating grounds, and retrieve the lost voodoo sponge.
Script
The Script for Lair of the Leviathan felt the sharpest in the series so far...while there are certainly a lot of questions that could be asked about the interior of the belly of the manatee (What IS all that treasure doing in there, anyway?) the fact that we're in the belly of the manatee at all tells you that you don't need to worry about details like that in a game like this. It just works.
The new characters introduced all have distinct and logical personalities that they remain true to throughout the episode, and their motivations made sense. Bugeye in particular was fun, and the return of Murray lives up to the hype...particularly in his new persona as Santino. ("Aloha!")
While La Esponje Grande was finally retrieved in this episode, we still didn't really move the ball down the field with regards to the pox in general, or what LeChucks evil plot really is. We keep an eye on each of the major characters through brief interludes (which were VERY welcome), and I didn't feel like any major plot point had been ignored - but I was left with an uneasy feeling that we're STILL waiting to get to the meat of the series. 3 episodes in, this was really starting to grate on me.
This episode works almost as an interlude from the main plot, but the character work and dialogue keep the excitement high. At this point in the series, this episode is the closest to the elusive "Monkey Island" tone as we'd gotten.
Dialogue
Dialogue is where Lair of the Leviathan really shines. Each of the characters introduced in this episode have very distinct personalities, and this shines through - De Cava, Bugeye, Moose, Noogie, "Santino"/Murray, and Morgan all are complete characters - in terms of character design, motivation, and dialogue.
Each one "fits" within this little microcosm, in a way that Davey Nipperkin never did. Each one has funny dialogue, and there's not one of them who didn't get a laugh out of me.
Puzzles
Puzzle Design continues to be the weak point in this series for me. What I have found most frustrating in this series has been that when I do get stuck, it's not because it's not been because I don't know what I need to do...it's been because the game hasn't liked the way I've tried to do it.
All of the puzzles in Lair are logical (using adventure-game logic), but I found that I got stuck in two important areas:
The first was in getting De Cava to drink the "orange" ichor. I don't know how, but I simply missed the fact that I could pick up his monocular device. I kept trying to use the Eye of the Manatee on it, but I didn't conceive of the idea that I could pick up the glasses when he set them down.
To be fair, this ISN'T a puzzle design problem...I was just being thick.
The second problem I ran into was at the end of the episode, using the SeaHorse Head to attack De Cava and the mutinous crew.
I knew I needed to use the Sea Horse head...this was fairly obvious. Why couldn't I just toss it into the water? This would seem to be logical...yet the game refuses to allow you to do so. Using the cannon to shoot the seahorse head didn't feel logical in any way to me...it's not shaped like a cannonball, and if the goal is to get it into the water, shouldn't I be able to toss it?
These are both still minor gripes, but they're indicative of a larger problem. If I know WHAT needs to happen, I should be able to make it happen...not frustrated by the game preventing me from carrying the action out in a specific way.
That said, Telltale also continues to come up with Inspired new puzzles to keep things fresh. The "Pirate Face Off" competition and the "Voodoo Posession" puzzle are both clever and force you to think in a brain-bendy kind of way. While not as devious as puzzles from previous entries in the series, they definitely were unique and helped elevate this episode above the bar of the previous two.
Art Direction
Not much to say here that I haven't said in other reviews. Telltale has some of the best artists in the business, and it's continually impressive to see what they squeeze out of the Telltale engine.
The interior of the Manatee is both gross, and atmospheric...which is a hard combination to pull off.
When the series is finally released on DVD, I hope they include all of the Concept Art that has been released on the website.
Characters
De Cava - A possible look at what Guybrush could end up like 20 years down the road...a hint of madness, and filled with fiery spanish passion, he also has what is probably my favorite accent in the game.
BugEye - Here's a guy that I truly love...I can't quite put my finger on why, but BugEye really resonates with me. I think everybody at one point in their life has had a bully to deal with, and BugEye is that guy. He's tough when he's got a crowd to back him, but at heart he's a coward, especially when defeated. The voice is perfectly matched to the character - of the new characters in this episode, he's probably my favorite.
Moose - ("Dude!" "Bro!") (Apologies to Telltale Poker fans) - The surfer/hippie/stoner of the bunch, Moose exudes a mellow cool. He lives for nothing but good times, ichor, and his best bro Santino. Seeing him outwardly hostile while bound up near the end, and expressing solidarity with his brothers was a surprising but welcome change....particularly when seeing his resolve crushed at the "death" of Santino. "OhmyGod! OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod! He did it! He killed Santino!"
Noogie - The expendable, sweet nerd. Not much else to say, except that he plays a wicked bongo, and has excellent taste in women.
"Santino"/Murray - Finally, the welcome return of Murray. Just as evil as before (or eviler!) his hilarious turn in the guise of Santino is worth the price of the episode all on its own
Environments
One surprising element of Lair of the Leviathan is how small it is, environment wise. There are very small number of rooms in this episode.
Even more surprising is how well the episode fares in spite of this fact. The art design for each room is gorgeous and reflects the proper atmosphere. The cinematic pans and tilts in the environment continue to be used to good effect, and the limited number of locations actually allow you to focus more time on the characters and their relationships in this episode. This was a GOOD THING. Kudos to Telltale for making the right choices.
Music
It's been about a month since I've played this episode, so my memory of the music is a bit fuzzy at this point.
However, i can tell you that the music didn't stand out as a negative, and what I can remember seemed to fit the atmosphere. Not as memorable as previous entries in the series, but nothing distracting either.
Voices
Pitch Perfect. I loved every single voice, and really can't give a higher commendation than that.
Technical
I had no technical issues with this episode whatsoever. It ran smooth as silk from start to finish!
Judgement
My judgement of this episode is actually why I had to wait for Episode 4 before writing this review. My complaints about Episode 2 largely dealt with the fact that the episodes didn't feel like they were tying together into an overarching narrative.
Each felt self-contained, but also as though they weren't moving any coherent plot forward.
After episode 3 was released, I read a number of reviews praising the episode as a work of genius.
Yet, after I played it...I was almost more frustrated than when I played the first 2.
While we finally got to meet DeCava, and kept better track of other players in the series, the episode was largely self-contained, and I still didn't feel like we were getting anywhere with the actual main plot of the game.
While the characters were inspired, the artwork was gorgeous, the voice-work was fantastic, an the puzzles were getting better...I wasn't sure there was actually any STORY here...while it was obvious that Morgan was going to betray Guybrush, to once again end on a cliffhanger felt a little cheap, and was beginning to annoy me. I ended episode 3 frustrated and disgruntled.
This feeling intensified as I read other peoples reviews...it seemed to me that most people regarded Episode 3 as the Second Coming of Monkey Island, and I began to suspect that I had an entirely different experience than most people playing the game.
I let a couple of weeks go by, and tried to write this review a couple of times, and stopped each time.
Then I decided to do something different. I went to Youtube, and WATCHED the episode being played.
Strangely, I had an entirely different experience when watching the episode. The dialogue was funnier. I could appreciate the little moments, and caught myself chuckling to myself in the chair.
I realized that when playing, I had focused almost entirely on the puzzles, and particularly those little areas where I got stuck, but felt that I shouldn't have. When taken in concert with the fact that I still didn't feel that the plot was moving rapidly enough, I realized that my ultimate frustrations were mechanical, and that my feelings for this episode would hinge entirely on whether Episode 4 worked. I knew I couldn't write this review until I saw how The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood played out.
What Worked Best
Morgan LeFlay. (still)
De Cava and his deranged crew
Pirate Face-Off/Voodoo Posession
What was Missed
Main Plot Progression, outside of the capture of the Sponge.
Advice to Telltale
I'm skipping Advice to Telltale in this review, as they've already completed Episode 4 and have already scripted Episode 5. I will give some parting words of advice for Telltale on Episode 5 in the next review, however.
Conclusion
At the end of playing Episode 3, I was growing more frustrated and a little worried for the series. I knew my feelings about this episode could only be solidified after playing Episode 4. So...what was the final verdict? *heh*
I'm afraid you'll have to read my review of "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood" to find out!
Lorn
I found it pretty easy to decide chapter 3 was the best yet, though... It's actually about chapter 4 that i have some trouble making up my mind now.
Lots of great things in that one, and a definite switch in tone, but there's a little something that still bothers me, i don't really know what it is.. Maybe it has something to do with that switch being too sudden, or maybe "cheesy" as some have pointed out... (it's still interesting to see Telltale going that way, they definitely haven't been so "dark and serious" before). I'll have to replay it to try and see what it is.
It was still good, but I guess i'm just like you after chapter 3, i think i'll need to see how it all plays out in the next episode to really judge what happened in that one.
Waiting for your thought anyway, since they're always an interesting read
I'm serious in saying I badly want to read it (am I sad? lol)
EDIT: But brilliant to see you back!
Lorn
I don't always agree with your assessment of the games, but I think your reviews make a lot of good points and are very well thought out. They are incredibly enjoyable to read as well, so thank you for posting them here.
Hmm.. It's dangerous thinking *too* closely to the historical record, I think, especially since I developed my theory that EMI is a burlesque of the attempted depiratisation of the Caribbean following the issue of the general pardon to pirates following the Treaties of Utrecht....
Let me know what you think!
Ranking
As usual, here is my ranking of the original games in the series:
Escape from Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChucks' Revenge
Normally, I would place my ranking of the new episode in the following list - but this episode was so crucial to the series that I feel that it's important to preserve the ranking until after I've made my review of episode as a whole. For now, here is the ranking of the entire series up to this episode:
Escape from Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Tales of Monkey Island - The Siege of Spinner Cay
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Lair of the Leviathan
The Curse of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Story
When I first began reviewing this series, I started with a little story about the announcement of the series, and mentioned that when I first heard that Telltale was going to release a new Monkey Island series, I whipped out my credit-card so fast that the edge nearly melted.
Everybody has their own reasons for falling in love with the Monkey Island Series - and I have a feeling that everybody who loves the series feels strangely protective of it. For a lot of us, Monkey Island represents a first love - An image of perfection that may not actually reflect reality, but our best memories OF that reality.
ANY kind of follow-up to a first love has a high bar to clear, and those feelings have rightly generated debate and no small feelings of anxiety in the fan base.
I think this is why so many people have a problem with Escape from Monkey Island...after a series of 3 games that were almost universally acclaimed, Escape felt like a strange departure - a first flaw that couldn't be ignored on what had previously been idolized as a creature of perfection. While it's true that not everybody feels that way, I think enough people did that it made Lucasarts sketchy about EVER releasing another product in the line. The problem for the fans was - this left us with a disappointing ending. Could anybody argue that the series SHOULD end with Escape?
So...when the announcement hit, I felt what I imagine most fans felt...an overwhelming sense of joy ("YES!") followed closely behind by the Shadow of fear. Could Telltale really pull this off?
What I've tried to explore with all of you in this series is an analysis and debate over what makes Monkey Island work. What is the mystical combination of plot, humor, whimsy, magic, art, music, and tone that somehow makes a perfect work?
I don't feel ashamed to admit that Launch of the Screaming Narwhal seriously underwhelmed me...to the point that I was actually a little bit frightened. I felt that (short of the introductory confrontation with LeChuck) the entire first episode was rather...perfunctory. I got no sense of scope, plot, or even a hint of the humor that I felt the original games embodied.
Episode 2 was an improvement...I could see where Telltale was going with the tech, and some of the old humor began poking out...even so, I didn't get a sense that the series was going anywhere.
Episode 3 was great...as a self-contained episode...but also a serious irritant. By this point, I was impatient, and fearing that Tales would be a noble experiment, but a failure. While I enjoyed the episode as a stand-alone, I didn't feel the plot was moving nearly fast enough, and wasn't sure that the "grand plot" would ever be revealed. For me, I knew Episode 4 was sink or swim time, and I wasn't optimistic. "A trial?" While the premise sounded good for an adventure game, I was afraid that a trial would slow down a plot that was already moving like molasses. Did Telltale succeed, for me?
Oh Hell Yes.
Remember all of that "Tone" talk I've been harping on? Telltale finally screwed the bolts down.
They've even retroactively "fixed" some of the problems with the earlier episodes. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
We open on a somber note...Guybrush, defeated, is rowed back to Flotsam (and the Marquis De Singe) by the treacherous but lovelorn Morgan LeFlay. The scene plays somber...there is no dialogue. Guybrushes gaze, and Morgans inability to hold it...not to mention her hesitation in rowing...convey all that we need to know.
Upon collecting her bounty, Guybrush is mobbed by the angry townfolk. Thrusting a voodoo summons into his hand, Guybrush can't stop his legs from marching towards the courthouse. The Marquis implores Morgan to stop him, to which she replies that their deal is concluded...and goes to drink her sorrows away in Club 41.
Guybrush finds himself the subject of 4 civil lawsuits...his past actions coming back to haunt him. Forced to represent himself against the merchandising Stan, Guybrush cleverly calls for a recess to confer with his client. *heh*
In the cell, Guybrush outfoxes Hardtack, and is free to roam the island.
A series of puzzles ensue (some of which will be discussed below), all to try and win Guybrush his freedom.
When the final civil charge is dismissed...a criminal charge is discovered that had been overlooked - the release of the Pox upon the entire Pirate community, for which the sentence is - predictably - Death.
At that moment, who should appear but...Elaine? Good Lord, she's poxed out of her mind...
After getting thrown back into the hoosegow, Guybrush is forced to serve Elaine with a voodoo summons - but this proves difficult while she's swordfighting Morgan.
After another series of puzzles, we're back to the witness stand. Elaine certainly doesn't seem like she's going to be much use as a character witness, but a healthy rub from the sponge ought to clear that voodoo pox right up....ought to clear it...right...up....Um. Uh-oh.
That's when LeChuck swoops in to take the fall, and implicate the Voodoo Lady as the source of all of this madness.
After speaking to the incarcerated parties, Guybrush has some tall orders to fill. The Sponge apparently needs a meal to grow, and with the help of a voodoo map and some cryptic clues, Guybrush can get on his way to saving the Gulf of Melange. A quick detour to the Marquis' mansion gives him another motivation, however - finding Morgans body, Guybrush swears vengeance on the responsible party, and goes to set things right.
After a long series of puzzles, the sponge is properly prepared - all that is left is to confront the Marquis (and Elaine) at the Sacred Wind machine. After being trapped at the vacaylian clamshell, Guybrush manages to defeat DeSinge, just in time to grow La Esponje Grande and cure Elaine (and the other inhabitants of Flotsam)...just in time for LeChuck to arrive.
LeChuck! Our old buddy! Who wants to have an unholy marriage ceremony...what the - URK?!
To probably no-ones surprise, this was LeChucks plot all along...with Guybrush dying in his wifes arms, helpless to resist, things look Grim for the Gulf of Melange....
Script
This script has been what I've been waiting for throughout the entire series. Remember all that stuff about "Tone"? The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood has it in spades.
Trial seems to take place at the witching hour....night has finally fallen, and the moon is high in the sky...the only thing missing is a light mist creeping around our feet.
Contrasted with the creepy night-time environment is the ever-gaudy and enterprising Stan. He's set up his neon merchandise booth, hands-a-waving as he promotes himself during the Trial of the Century-y-y-y.
But more than the dark atmosphere (which I had privately believed was impossible to pull off on Flotsam Island), this episode FINALLY brings DANGER back to the Monkey Island series.
Do you remember how you felt in the tunnels underneath Dinky Island? Depite the fact that LeChuck was comprised of a relatively small sprite, his demeanor, thirst for vengeance, and the MUSIC combined to make him a Force to be Reckoned with.
Since LeChucks revenge, LeChuck...ceased being a threat. As much as I enjoyed LeChuck in Curse of Monkey Island, I was never *afraid* of him again. He'd become a comic foil..and a bumbling one at that.
In the very first episode of this series, this was practically brought up by Telltale themselves...Guybrush nonchalantly confronts LeChuck, completely unconcered by whatever Voodoo Machinations LeChuck had cooked up this time. With a cocky "Unholy THIS!", Guybrushes failed "Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu" substitution landed him in this whole mess to start with. He'd stopped being careful, and was all-too aware that he was the hero in this series. Heck, others even bought into the hype, here.
And for their hero-worship, they've paid with their lives. Morgan is gone, and Guybrushes words come back to haunt him..."Unholy THIS" as Lechuck plunges the substitute sword right into Guybrushes chest.
And with that...one more moment to ponder...remember how much torment LeChuck said it was to be stuffed back into his zombie body? Do you remember how he said he would make Guybrush pay?
He meant it. He still means it. And more than that, he orchestrated this scenario so that Guybrush would do it all to himself - and be forced to watch as he lay dying.
Dialogue
To be honest, I don't think that any particular dialogue stuck out in this episode, but that's largely because the dialogue was used to move the plot along. Nothing to complain about here, just nothing particularly memorable either.
Puzzles
Thankfully, Telltale also focused on puzzles in this episode. I've read some reviews that stated that the puzzles didn't feel as integrated into the plot as they could have been. The best example for puzzle integration in the series so far comes from the last episode (Lair of the Leviathan), but I didn't feel that the puzzles in Trial were any more "illogical" than anything in LeChucks Revenge.
All of the staples are here....item collection, item combination, "fuzzy logic", normal logic being stymied and having to come up with an alternate solution, and some puzzles that are downright devious.
THANK you Telltale. You finally threw in some tricky ones. I can't tell you how long I fumbled with that map before I got to the Chest of Foreshadowing, but I loved every minute of it. (Heck, this twist even allowed me to enjoy another jungle maze, which I'd sworn off in the past!)
I have only ONE complaint about a puzzle in this episode, and that involved the "shock" for the desert.
I knew that was being shocked when I exited Club 41, but I had no idea why. Nothing obvious indicated to me that I was building up a static charge, and no dialogue clued me in either. I was forced to assume that it was "faulty wiring" (there's a doorbell-looking kinda thing on the outside of Club 41.) When I couldn't induce *enough* of a static shock, I was finally forced to look at the walkthrough.
This is another case of "knowing exactly what I needed to do, but not understanding how to do it." I think Telltale still needs to work on this a bit, but I definitely applaud them for upping the complexity of the puzzles - I now know they can trust me to think and not have everything spelled out for me.
Art Direction
I really have to applaud Telltale here. While I felt the interior of the courtroom was a little underwhelming, the town of Flotsam itself was spectacular at night. The lighting, the gloom, and most especially the moon (of all things) really caught my eye and made me smile.
The interior of Club 41 was gorgeous, with a nice little tribute to the Scumm Bar, and the feel of the entire location redeemed Flotsam Island in my eyes.
Characters
The Judge: The Judge was probably the most underwhelming character for me. I didn't see him as anything special, but he served his purpose and then got out of the way. No complaints here.
Stan: At first, the new voice was a little jarring. I've never been fond of the voice of Stan in any of the previous installments, but once I got used to it I found it to be a vast improvement. I still dont' know if *anybody* has nailed the definitive Stan voice for me, but he's definitely in character, and was a welcome returning character.
Morgan: What can I say about Morgan that I haven't already said? Her spunk here is diminished...she's doing a job she doesn't want to do, and she's done it because she's a professional. Even though I still think Guybrush needs to stay together with Elaine, my heart can't help but ache when I see how melancholy her unrequited love makes her. Finding her body was a genuine shock...I hope we find her on the other side of the Crossroads.
Elaine: A pox-infested Elaine is a scary thing to behold - during the confrontation with the Marquis, she said some geuinely hurtful things, and for the barest moment I had to ask myself - "Should Guybrush *really* get back together with her if this is the way she really feels?" It only took one sentence to convince me again that this is Guybrushes true love..."From Melee to Monkey and all the islands in between, my love." Wow.
Music
This episode saw a reprise of some of my favorite themes, including the harpsichord-heavy "Marquis" theme, and a couple of different variations of LeChucks theme. (Cheerful Human and Pox-Infested Demon Pirate varieties!)
I wasn't a big fan of the Club 41 theme (thought this was a little *too* derivative of the Scumm Bar), but that's the only music complaint I have.
Voices
Earl Boen is back. Nuff said. (BTW, does anybody else suspect that this line was probably recorded while Earl recorded dialogue for a LeChucks Revenge Special Edition? I can't imagine they wouldn't have had Earls voice for the first episode if he had recorded this line for the SMI release?)
Technical
Once again, no technical issues.
Judgement
My fears for the plotline have been laid to rest. LeChuck has finally been restored to the scary villain he should be, and Guybrush has suffered a needed comeuppance.
An atmosphere surrounded this episode that I hadn't felt in a long, long time.
My only complaint is...WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?
I'm still frustrated that it took us getting 80% of the way though the series to hit this point, but I'm also gratified that they've retroactively fixed some of the complaints from previous episodes. (What is an altar doing out in the middle of the jungle?)
This episode did what I thought no Monkey Island episode could do again...it restored some gravitas to the series, and actually made me feel some pretty deep emotions while playing. Some people have described this episode as "cheesy", or asked whether or not Monkey Island could carry this kind of weight. My only response to them is - what series of games have YOU been playing?
What Worked Best
Pretty much all of it, but most especially the trickier puzzles, the nighttime/spooky atmosphere, and the return of a treacherous, deadly, SCARY LeChuck.
What was Missed
Van Winslow. (By the way, is he still poxed sitting out there on that ship? Or were people off the isle of Flotsam cured as well?)
Advice to Telltale
Everything that you did in this episode, please do it again for the Finale. I have a hunch that we're going to get to see the Voodoo Crossroads, and I liked another commentors theory that Guybrush will be resurrected in the same way as LeChuck was - with his poxed voodoo hand. After all, wasn't that what LeChuck wanted him to feel? The pain of resurrection?
Here's hoping we also see Morgan and Noogie on the other side. Also...a personal plea...please find a way to resurrect Morgan. She's too good of a character to kill off.
Conclusion
I don't think I could've asked for a better Episode 4. The only complaint that I have is with the "shock" puzzle, but that's a minor quibble. Telltale rightly killed off the minor (though entertaining) villain, leaving LeChuck to occupy his rightful place at center stage for the finale.
This episode made me laugh, made me feel, and came damned close to making me cry. If that's not entertainment, I don't know what is.
I can also honestly say...I don't know where Monkey Island could go after this. Character relationships have been explored and deepened, and I can honestly say that if this really is it...I'll be satisfied with the series ending here. I dont' think I can give a greater compliment.
Just don't screw up the last episode!
Ranking 2:
Escape from Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Tales of Monkey Island - The Siege of Spinner Cay
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - Lair of the Leviathan
The Curse of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island - The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
First point may be a little long, sorry!
You write a lot about "tone." One of the key elements, for me, is setting the scene. I have always been fascinated by the self-contained and insular sets which can often be seen in TV. You may get a show going left, right and centre to keep the atmosphere fresh, but then I find that for shows such as (say) Blackadder, a simple mix of three-four rooms can fill an entire series of reasonably long shows. The limited size of the set isn't a drawback. It allows for more dedication to the rooms that do exist. The size also allows for a more cozy feel, and especially a more character-centred feel (which is a problem if your characters are poor like the minor-characters in chp. 1). Though as much as a small number of locations is important, I think insular/busy locations are in order.
I think this is exactly what Monkey Island has achieved on all the best locations. We loved the dark and busy Monkey Island games of the early '90s. Nearly all of us loved the third Monkey Island game. Bill Tiller has rightly been praised for CoMI's success as much as Jonathan Ackley and Larry Ahern. Why? Because Tiller almost single-handedly set the scene perfectly, time after time.
Blood Island is dark and isolated. There is an hotel, a graveyard, some cannibals, and a clearing/beach/lighthouse/windmill. These places all have a backdrop to some other part of the island with one exception. The Cannibals' village is at the foot of the volcano; the windmill nestles amongst the trees; from the beach we can see both the lighthouse and the hotel; from the hotel we can see the graveyard; from the graveyard, the hotel; from the lighthouse we see the beach. The windmill's location is quite lonely (or would be, if in a 3d model confined to TTG's size-restrictions), yet the trees provide an insular feel, while the large yellow moon and the covering of clouds all keep you feeling snug. The only really lonely or isolated place on the island is the lighthouse, as we perch atop a vulnerable-looking tower. Even here, there is a lot going on. The heavy clouds merging into the sea, the sharks, the stars.
Compare this to the first incarnation of Flotsam. The almost offensively bright blue sky merges with the deep blue ocean along a rigid line. Few clouds intersperse the barren landscape. We stand by the Narwhal and see nothing but sky. We stand at the small beach, and see nothing but the small shacks that make up the hamlet of Flotsam. On the occasions that we do see a forest, it's as bad a cardboard cutout as in EfMI. The whole place lacks soul. Even if you like the first episode it's not aided by the location, even though there are roughly the same amount of locations as Blood Island.
Location, then, is as much to do with linking in to other places and filling the screen, as with the number of rooms. The Leviathan ticks both boxes. There can be no immaculate sky, or monotonous blue ocean. Every element of the Beast is unique. Veins, bile, goodness-knows-what. It's creepy, it's warm, it's insular. Every location within the belly from necessity ties in with another location. This, rather than "night-time" or Bill Tiller himself, is what has been missing. Indeed, in ep. 4 I think the addition of Club 41 interior and the courthouse add a depth to the hamlet of Flotsam that the bare and soulless place missed in the first episode, which is partly why it goes down so well. People loved the night-time Blood Island, but on an old thread of mine I got the impression many were left cold by the night-time Scabb Island. It was less self-contained. The elements of the island were thrown across a barren island, many feeling isolated from one-another.
You've almost exactly summed up how I feel, here! While exceptional artwork and a good balance on the storyline of CoMI, for me, kept MI alive, I don't think the LeChuck change was for the best. First it's a rollercoaster-of-doom, then it's a Transformer, etc. Exactly what I loved was the way that the poor graphics of MI1/2 (which leads to a constant dark overtone as default and its strong contrast with the light in places like Phatt, and a dreamlike feeling to the game) allow us to feel like we really are in a kid's imagination on the PotC ride, and that LeChuck is one of those nightmares we were so afraid of as children. As he chases us around not only does the music get harsher and more ominous, but the lighting changes for the darker. The finale in LCR sees us trapped like rats in the tunnels of Big Whoop.
What's the key to the danger? Darkness following LeChuck, and fear. Both kicked in big-time, as everybody is against us (even Elaine is unavailable to support him due to pox).
It felt, to me, more insular again. The moon took up a large part of the sky (yes I bang on about it, but at the end of the day it can take up about 40% of the screen at times) along with stars and clouds. The gloom and foreboding gave everything a greater raison d'etre. There is something bad going on and we have to stop it. Rather than "you're damned to boring purgatory until you solve a few riddles".
My question would be, how much time are we going to have for the story to finish itself? I believe there's no definite Series 2, and so they have one episode for
Sure, Esponga Grande and apparently the Pox have both worked themselves out, but Guybrush is going to have a lot to do if
I hadn't remembered the Crossroads, so maybe Nor Treblig is the Pirate God down there...cue a very very very special cameo by Ron Gilbert.
Those who are asking for seriously crammed visuals and busy rooms - have you any idea how much work that involves, what the game size rockets up to and the likelihood no customer at this very moment has a graphics card that can cope? If we had another 2D adventure, then fine.
Telltale is good at wrapping things up at the final hour imo, if Sam & Max is anything to go by. Also, everything's getting better with every season and indeed every MI episode (the backgrounds, the music, the characters, the voices, the dialogue, the puzzles, the plot, the script, the feel, the interface...). So if they did a Tales Season 2 (after Sam & Max Season 3, ofc
Still pretty good, though. Better than the cartoon villiany of CMI or, heaven forbid, the boneheaded second-banana cartoon viliany of EMI.
No? Finding the judge bartending at Club 41 was a highlight for me. The contrast between his sterotypical harsh judge personality and his gregarious barman personality was very funny...and I laughed when he let Guybrush start a tab. Since when has any barman been so generous in an adventure game?
I agree with you that they really nailed the tone in this episode. However, I don't think this episode would be nearly as effective if the tone was this dark in Chapter One.
It's a contrast thing. It's also that we are nearing the final act of the story, and in most stories this is the dark moment. I assume some people here are familiar with the Hero's Journey--the Belly of the Whale segment comes to mind.
I think the point in SMI with the most darkness was not the night-time island of Melee, but the caverns under Monkey Island. The darkest island in CMI was Blood--but remember that these locations were not reached until 2/3 of the way through the game.
I like Ch. 3 and 4 quite a bit, but they still miss the mark on certain things to me. I don't agree with sladerlmc77 apparently thinking it's a flat out home run. When I think of what this series could've realistically been in this day and age, I can't help but be a bit disappointed. But I'm enjoying it, and play through the games until I'm done, not wanting to stop. I think I would pretty much forgive everything, however, if the damn puzzles were harder and the settings more detailed and varied.
It's not the actual high drama, i certainly think this kind of things belongs in a monkey island game, and when trying to think objectively about it i can't decide why, but it somehow felt "forced".
Maybe because, as sladerlmc said, it's arriving too late in the story : the progression towards darkness was there in the previous chapter, but it was a slow and steady one. Here, it just dives into drama... Maybe it is this suddenness that thrrew me off. Contrast IS an effective way toi get your point across but maybe this one was too important.
Or, maybe this has to do with the graphics : The old MI2 sprites had so little details that they left MUCH to the imagination. Here, we get to see the characters model "act", and although a great job is made on their expression and stuff, it's just not convincing enough to pull off such strong feelings ?
(I'm by no means the kind of guy to judge games by graphics quality, by the way, and overall i love what telltale had done with them).
Now i don't wanna sound more negative that i am : in the end i did enjoy the episode, it surprised me and i thought the writing, plot and character developpement were all good : It sure left me impatient to see what happen next. But it just failed to really grab me on the whole emotional thing, for some reason i just didn't feel involved in the whole drama stuff. I plan to replay it soon and try to understand why.
I also feel, as i said, much in the same way that slader did after chapter three : I think i really need to see what this is all actually leading up to to really make up my mind. A lot of tension have been raised, and while this sure makes both expectations and excitation rise, the fact that it hasn't been released yet might actually be the only reason why i can't quite join the praising crowd right now.
I'd also like to point out that, no matter how i feel about it or the way it was done, i really didn't expect Telltale to go that far into the "dark drama" stuff, and that's a good thing. Their games, although very good, have always been just a little to cheerful up until now, and it's great to see them add deptht and a whole new edge to their stories.
It's not so much wanting crammed visuals. The belly of the leviathan managed the effect of crammed visuals and a busy room simply by having interesting textures (I talked about clouds on Blood Island, and these aren't mega-huge objects). It's more a matter of always being conscious that we want to have more to look at than plot-points and major characters. Take, for example (as people talk about Blood Island not being representative because of the time it came about in the game), Plunder Island. Images here:
http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plunder-BrimstoneBeach.jpg
http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plunder-Fort.jpg
http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plunder-snake.jpg
And, no, i'm not nearly so stupid as you think. Having taken economics at university I pride myself on being able to work out the principle that extra TR & HR equals higher costs. But it's really not about having too much in the scenes here. The scenes back on to another part of the Island, re-using other things which have already been created to give the illusion of more. This is a very basic principle in anything from a theatre show to a TV show. The problem is, I don't feel like the designs of the actual islands are creating this same illusion after MI3. It is evident (whether accidentally or not) in the first 3 games (look at the roads leading on in Phatt, or the continuing peninsula behind the governor's mansion; or on Monkey Island, how the canyon continues into the distance and the beach shows mountains etc. behind it). Yet in the last two, it has felt more like there's the ocean, there's the sky, here's a circular island that you could trek across in all of five minutes, and here's the plotpoints. It doesn't necessarily make for a bad game, but it does make it harder for the reader/watcher/player to immerse themselves in the scene, and it damages the ability to create an atmosphere.
I agree entirely. TTG are (overall) doing a wonderful job with two franchises I never thought I would see again. I just wonder, because of the resources it will take for this "new location" (nudge nudge, wink wink), how they will manage to make everything in this location happen, and then still manage to bring everything together for the finale, which I wouldn't have thought would be there.
I know what you mean, and I was perhaps not explaining myself thoroughly with the Blood-island example. It's not that the brightness in ep1 was necessarily bad, it's more the fact that there was no backdrop. In Blood Island everything tied in with everything else, and the sky felt heavy etc. Yet, we get a similar effect on Plunder Island. Just by putting in background that we won't go to (and therefore doesn't need to be more than a cardboard cutout, but it should look like its not) or putting the image (which we already have) of Danjer cove below the Snake-Xing, or a random piece of rock behind the beach, it creates a feeling of size which doesn't necessarily exist.
One interesting thing, BTW, is how plunder-island seems to be schizo when it comes to time-zone:
http://www.worldofmi.com/imageviewer.php?image=/info/islands/plunder/Plundermap.jpg
Danjer cove is where Elaine is kidnapped, and where Guybrush needs to save her. It is, therefore, the darkest place. Fear of darkness is the most primitive of our feelings. It exists because darkness and danger come together (when it's dark, a predator could come out of nowhere to kill us). It follows, therefore, that where there is danger there should be darkness. Yet, the barbershop and the beach are both light, because it's a fairly leisurely and light-hearted adventure through a new environment. I'm not sure how they could have done it with Flotsam. Maybe make de Singe's lab more remote and covered by stereotypical storm-clouds? To make a contrast: "here is the nice Narwhal challenge etc; here is the dangerous serious-plot bit." Just an idea, not sure if it would work...
One thing that got me was how light the forest was. This forest was the scene of the final confrontation of the chapter between the protagonist and his antagonist. Yet de Singe was chasing Guybrush around a friendly, bright forest filled with animal-noises as if it's some kind of audio-version of animal-crackers.
My responses are below.
Astro Gnocci:
I think it's the same thing that still bothers me about the series...and this didn't come out quite as forcefully in my review as I'd hoped.
It comes down to "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!" While I reviewed this episode slightly above "Curse" (which is VERY high praise for me), the only reason I have done so is because LeChuck has been reset - he's frightening, calculating, and has been made a threat to Guybrush again.
That said, the series (as a whole) still ranks BELOW Curse for me. Whether that remains the case will almost certainly depend on the finale, but I wish that the first 3 episodes had flowed more easily into this one. The "plot dump" feels too abrupt.
FitsoliverJ:
What I think is interesting about the various attempts to offer pardons to pirates is that half the time, the Pirates would TAKE the pardon, swear to the local authority to give up their pirating ways, and lounge on the beach for a month or two in Buccaneer communities....but when times got lean again (or enough people got bored) back to the sea they would go.
Gryffalio:
I think this is the most salient point in your first paragraph. Part of why I was surprised about how well Lair worked was because I felt that Flotsam in the first episode was almost claustrophobic. It SHOULDN'T be, as it' actually has quite a number of locations. The problem for me was that I felt like I was railroaded everywhere. I couldn't ENTER the buildings which made them feel like nothing more than facades, and what characters I could interact with were cringeworthy.
This made Trial even more surprising....with improved characters and an improved atmosphere, suddenly Flotsam became a fascinating place to explore.
I can't disagree with this point at all. Bill Tiller managed to capture the whimsy of Monkey Island in an entirely different art style, which has forever since defined the "look". I don't think there's a single bad background in Curse, and that is half of the appeal of the game.
This was a point I hadn't actually considered before, but you're right. There *are* a relatively small number of locations, but due to careful framing the space *feels* bigger.
I suppose this is equivalent to having a relatively small house, but placing mirrors on either side of the room to enhance the sensation of depth.
Hmmm...not sure I can agree with this point, but then I have a hard time finding any flaws in LeChucks Revenge.
I struggle with Curse here. I love nearly everything about Curse, particularly because it's the debut of Earl Boen voicing LeChuck. I loved the retroactive explanation for Big Whoop and didn't mind the Carnival of the Damned, either. I happily keep Curse in the company of the first two games, but I can't deny that LeChuck wasn't *scary* in Curse. I don't think he was a buffoon, but his edge...wasn't quite there anymore.
Unfortunately, Escape nearly mortally wounded the character AND the mythology. Not only did LeChuck no longer make sense (he can change form at will? And what the heck kind of pirate IS he in a Stone form?)...but he played second banana to a villain that was more annoying than anything else.
That doesn't even begin to touch on the mucked up chronology, the changes in Toothrot, and the completely boneheaded idea to make the Monkey Head a robot.
What I feel "Trial" has sucessfully done is restored the air of menace and calculated cunning around LeChuck. While it's true that he's still not as horrifying as he was in LeChucks revenge, he at least feels like he's the same character that went through those events...he hasn't forgotten, and wants to make Guybrush pay for them.
Unfortunately I can't comment on the rest of your post, because I am doing my level best to avoid spoilers on the final episode. Rest Assured I'll read them after I get through the climax!
tbm1986:
I've been looking forward to seeing the Crossroads since the very first episode. The Crossroads is the voodoo equivalent of the gates of the afterlife, and I think a lot of fun can be had here. I hope they don't make Nor Treblig a direct reference to Ron, but whatever they do, I'm anxious to see it.
I guess I interpreted that statement a little differently than you did. One of the things I still miss in the newer Monkey Island games is the feeling that these islands are really inhabited. Part of the problem with keeping characters in static locations is that they end up feeling like mannequins. Melee Island always felt like there was something going on that *didn't* involve the main plotline, simply because folks ambled about, entered and exited doors, and generally went about their business. It'd be nice to have some of this background activity, that really shouldn't take up all that much in the way of additional resources.
Fronzel:
Well...not yet. I think a lot of it depends on what his real plot is. I suppose I should've made my feelings a bit more clear. While he's *not* sweeping in like a remnant from a nightmare, there's no question that he remembers the torment that Guybrush has put him through and intends to pay him back in kind.
My own theory? I'm guessing that LeChuck somehow knows that Monkey Island ties into the Crossroads...we already know that it sits on a gateway to Hell. If that's the case, I think that LeChuck plans to use the monkeys in a Blood Sacrifice to pierce the veil between the real world and the Crossroads...freeing ghosts and zombies on the world, an army at his command.
My second hunch? LeChuck actually intends to resurrect Guybrush using his poxed hand...to force him to watch the unholy marriage ceremony, as well as make him feel the pain of resurrection...possibly over and over again.
Meems:
I don't disagree. I'm not trying to suggest that the series should be "all dark, all the time." I think the transition between lighthearted and sunny to dark and a little magical needs to be a gradual thing. (Pirates of the Caribbean - both the ride and the movies - handle this transition beautifully)
What I DO think needed to happen was that the threads of the plot needed to be layered back all the way to the first episode, and needed to gradually unfold. I feel that that hasn't worked so well.
If the last episode has the major payoff we all want, I think the series has the potential to be greater than Curse, but it's all going to depend. If the last episode is as good as this one, I'll consider episodes 3, 4, and 5 to be great and that will carry it over the 50% threshhold to be great. If it falters, though, I think the series as a whole will be one step below Curse.
I also agree with this point...my problem is that it's taken us 4/5 of the way through this series to get to that dark point. The difference is getting 66% of the way through the overall story before the "magic hour" shows up, as opposed to getting 80% of the way through it. While I'm very happy with episode 4, I think waiting till the 80% mark to get there is pushing it a bit too far.
RockNRoll:
Bear in mind that I'm talking about this individual episode, not the series as a whole. I think we *finally* got where we needed to be in Trial, in terms of tone...but I'm not happy that it was all crammed into this episode. I'd be a lot happier if more hints of the plot had been introduced earlier in the series, threading their way through to be revealed.
I do agree that prior to this episode, the puzzles have been too easy. I understand Telltale wanting to rope in new players, but they needed to rachet up the difficulty sooner.
As to th more detailed and varied locations, I still think we were pretty much limited by the series release on the Wii. I hope in the future, Telltale won't make that mistake again.
Astro Gnocci (Again):
I think this is all because they took too long to dive into it, leaving threads abandoned for entire episodes. Unfortunately, too much of this series has felt like "introduction." The "middle" section got short shrift in the series, and I think that shows. It makes the narrative flow feel disjointed.
I don't think I agree with this point. Much is made of the fact that the original backgrounds and sprites were low-res, and thus left more to the imagination...but I'm not sure I buy that. I think the sprites just told all the story that needed to be told. I never felt like the graphics weren't good enough, or like i had to fill things in with my imagination....for me, the sprites and backgrounds simply effectively told the story. I think this had to do with the artists and animators simply knew how to reduce a core emotion down to its essence, and distill it into something magical.
That also leads me into something I've been very impressed by in this Telltale series, but haven't really talked about - and that is facial animation in the character models. I've been blown away with how much is communicated through the characters eyes in this series. Bravo.
I'm sorry to hear that you weren't grabbed on the same emotional level as I was by this episode. As I keep harping, I'd have been happier if this stuff had been explored through the other episodes, building more gradually to the climax, but this episode really did tug at my heartstrings a couple of different times. I hope the second playthrough works better for you (as Lair did for me).
I absolutely understand. This series could still come crashing down...now that the stakes have been raised, they really have to have a stunning finale for all of this to work.
They've shown me now that they CAN though, so I'm hopeful they'll continue the upward trend from this last episode into the climax. If they do, I'll be very happy with the series.
Definitely. This "dark drama" is what I have been wanting...to add depth to what had become a far-too-comic series. I wasn't sure if Telltale would have the stomach to go this dark, but I'm glad that they did. A sense of threat has been restored, and that was needed.
Lorn
And I would like to point out that the cheesiness of what happened AFTER Blood Island totally ruined the ongoing darkness. And though we got to "darker atmosphere point" (I say "Darker" because MI series never was intended to be DARK in the first place, and, personally, I wouldn't like it to turn into a DARK story, but darkER touches are always nice and maybe even essential... I mean, each MI game has those darkER touches at least somewhere) in CMI kind of earlier, we also roll down from this dark atmospheric point helluva fast. The Carnival of the Damned part is what I don't like in CMI the most, mind you. But, well, we have to live with it
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that TT will manage to stay on top and make a great and darkER final chapter
EDIT:
P.S. Come to think about it, if they wouldn't decide to explain EVERYTHING and make Carnival of the Damned a REAL place... CMI would have been so much more enjoyable in the end.
Agreed, they did that extremely well. It's kinda funny, because even though i was pretty much expecting it they still managed to surprize me. I mean, as soon as i saw him arrive after the DeSinge fight, i KNEW they were going to end the "good guy" thing (it was pretty obvious the chapter was coming to its end and it just seemed like the perfect cliffhanger, plus i never bought into the "he might ACTUALLY be a good guy now" thing). But the way it was done was just... Brutal. Thinking back about it only a few seconds later i thought i should have seen the blow coming, but i clearly didn't. That was really great.
Thinking again about it al, i think that's basically it. I remember your commenting about pacing after the second episode was released, and it didn't bother me so much back then (and also after chapter 3), but here i guess what was really lacking was a true build up. I guess that's what trhew me off.
And regarding the graphics comments, i was basically just throwing the idea around, but i don't think that's quite the reason. And i want to stress it out, i certainly didn't mean to imply the animators and designers had done a poor job or anything like that.
Not as sorry as I am
I think i'll wait before replaying it, though. Let the whole monkey thing slip out of my mind and then replay it with a fresher mind. I'll see how it all goes then.
Also, i'm surprised no one else seems to have mentionned it anywhere, and i'm starting to wonder if maybe i had a bug or something...
Did anyone else felt the the opening scene was somehow... flat ? I don't mean the very begining, on the boat with morgan. This scene was brillant. But afterwards, when the crowd starts running at guybrush to summon him to court. I felt it really lacked something, the music remained pretty quiet, and overall, the whole thing just lacked some real punch (which is a shame, because apart from that the scene was overall pertty well done as well). As the chapter screen came up afterwards, which usually kinda breaks up the dynamics, it just remained on the same level o, and this all made the begining of the game feel rather... well, yeah, flat.
This is quite a minor and somewhat off-topic complain, but it sure didn't help me get immersed into the game.
I completely agree with your take on chapter 3. It had a piratey feel and some of the puzzles were extraordinary - convincing De Cava of your marriage to Morgan and especially posessing the voodoo lady and the pirate face making thingy. What I enjoyed very much about the voodoo puzzle that you could make some progress and still get some funny/real endings - the Marquis getting slapped in the ass, which helped build up suspense for the final solution. It wasn't just; "That is not the solution to this puzzle"-like dialogue, but there were actually real things that could happen despite not finding the solution. Also, I loved the way you had to find the solution to the face puzzle - interacting with everybody in different ways and finally the painting of the horribly ugly guy - funny and challenging.
However - I don't think that chapter 4 was quite as good as you say (better than curse). I actually found the first two parts to be lacking distinctively in monkey island feel and to be succumbing to escape syndromes. The four civil charges were silly - and not in a good way. Nacho sauce and a little frightened cat just doesn't seem very piratey. I also disliked that you suddenly found a leg lamp that matched Bosun Krebbes' (or something like that) completely, that you were able to acquire a glass eye photo copy print thingy or that the magnet you needed was a monkey - it smells like game designer lazyness to me. He needs a leg - let's just put one on the ground right outside the courthouse. It sort of ruins the authenticity for me. Why not use one of the severed legs from De Singes lab in this puzzle? It would have seemed more genuine.
Neither did I like the club 41 puzzle where you had to give Elaine her court summons. It was just unclear why the two women would stop fighting to get drinks and so why you had to make the bartender make these drinks in the first place. It seemed illogical and therefore the story suffered.
However! And here I totally agree with you - the third part was fantastic! Finding Morgan dead was tragic - too bad there aren't more references later in the game though, the puzzles for enlarging la esponja were very well-crafted. Having to run from the lab to get to the pepper in time was exciting' the puzzles with Stans jacket and the jungle beast were both at a level of difficulty that most central puzzles in a game should have for me (easy enough to solve without getting annoyed, but still satisfactory to finish) - some should of course be harder, the sixth sense puzzle was challenging and different and finally the static carpet was great - although I admit to kinda solving it by accident, I had already discovered that the electricity was related to the carpet. Finally the story with the marquis and lechuck in the end works flawlessly. Great climax.
So I agree with you on many points, but feel that you may have forgotten the flaws of the first stages of the game because of the glorious final stage.
Hence, I think chapter 3 was better, since it was more consistent in it's relatively high quality.
From worst to best:
Escape: 5/10
Tales 1: 6/10
Tales 2: 7/10
MI 1 : 8/10
Tales 4: 8/10
Tales 3: 8/10
Curse : 9/10
MI 2 :10/10
Did you honestly like the ending to MI2? If not, it doesn't deserve a flawless score. Here's mine:
EMI: 4/10
TMI1: 6/10
TMI2: 7/10
SMI: 7/10
TMI3: 9/10
MI2: 9/10
TMI4: 9/10
CMI: 9/10
You would, you're Australian
Lorn
My son was born on November 8th, but he was born very, very sick...so much of the last month has been spent in the hospital.
The good news is, he seems to be doing better.
Because of the various hospital stays, I wasn't able to play the 5th episode on the day of release.
After I finished it, I had to do some serious pondering over the series as a whole.
Without a doubt, this will probably be my most difficult episode to review yet...so I hope you'll understand if I take my time while writing it. I want to do justice to the discussion we've all had already!
In the meantime...feel free to add your own thoughts. Some of what you have to say may be points that I want to touch on in my own review!
Lorn
We're not all the way out of the woods yet, but he is at least home and appears to be doing better. We won't know the full impact of his illness until he's at least a few years old, but we do know that (at least so far) it could've been much, much worse.
Lorn
I'm still organizing my thoughts as well, but I know there is a sort of lingering disappointment.
I really thought the end fight with Lechuck was "neat" but it was somehow hollow. It harkened back to MI1, but whereas in that scenario it was perfectly obvious what to do, this felt a little forced. I really thought the fact you had to get Elaine to do all the work was not a very well thought out puzzle.
I think thus far that is my main complaint. The lack of atmosphere and "true cities" makes the puzzle options extremely limited. Add that to the fact there is again only one verb, and it makes for a lacklustre adventure solving experience.
Telltale does a GREAT job in the specialty puzzles. The Lechuck one included, just a great job. From being in Desinge's grips to the fight with Morgan, this is where Tellltale and the entire season shined, BRIGHTLY. The other puzzles were, usually, disappointing.
Story, mood and humor I think have been beaten to death. The Crossroads was "neat" I guess, but again, not really very monkey islandish. I thought when I saw that the boat was on what sounded like a roller coaster track that we were going somewhere interesting, but alas, we weren't. Was that ACTUALLY the crossroads? I sure hope not, because it was pretty dull. If it is somehow revealed that it is the Voodoo Lady's specific purgatory for a boring afterlife, that might redeem it somewhat.
I think I would sum up the game as "Cool, if not uneventful"