Initial Thoughts
First, CONGRATULATIONS TELLTALE!!
I long gave up hope on both LucasArts and the possibility of a new Monkey Island. Like so many other people I've waited 9 years for this moment, and I thank you for bringing it to us
Sadly I'm one of those who is having trouble getting the game to run properly, so this may have tinged my experience slightly, however behind the painful framerate I can see an amazing game trying to get out.
When the title was first announced, my finger did hover over the purchase button a little longer than I thought it would have done, because I recalled hearing an announcement that from hereon in Telltale was to be focusing on first person controls and that bothered me. However, I took the advice in the forum to wait and try playing it for myself. Having done that I've reached my conclusion:
Tales of Monkey Island would, to me, play far better if it had a design more akin to LeChuck's Revenge. I'm all for great cinematography in games, but not at the expense of playability. The opening of the game, especially with the framerate I'm suffering, while totally engaging listening to the dialogue, was difficult just to click on things due to the way the ships bobbed up and down and some of the camera angles -sadly- felt reminiscent of the disorientating original Resident Evil.
Personally I didn't find these angles added anything to the story or made the game any more engaging or compelling. I feel the game would have played better from a wider angled lens with those beautiful close ups kept for talking to characters and picking up/looking at items.
On the plus side the art direction is beautiful as are the effects. Everything from the clouds to the voodoo glow of LeChuck's spell. What I've played so far is well written and the graphics bridge the gap between 2 & 3 fantastically. The title credits are easily the best looking since Revenge and the whole package gives me a buzz I haven't felt since Curse. Heck, even the menu was worth waiting the 5 minutes it takes the game to load up - the whole package FEELS like Monkey Island and I couldn't hope for more.
Now the game is out I feel the thoughts I voiced elsewhere on the forum are still true - first person control is fine for pointerless systems such as the 360 and PS3, however you should design to the strengths of the system you are releasing on and as the PC and Wii have no trouble when it comes to cursor control this would have been preferable. Especially due to the ideology that went behind the original games of simple user interface - no more of that mishmash of controls gamers had got used to with Sierra's adventures.
Having washed ashore upon Flotsam Island, I'm very sad to say that I see no benefit in these changing camera angles - something more akin to navigating Woodtick would have worked better.
I feel somewhat reminded of Metal Gear Solid 3; A game that was highly regarded but poor judgement had been made about camera angles. Which brings me to what I've been feeling since getting the game up and running. What we really need is a Tales of Monkey Island: Subsistence
the same game with reworked camera angles and traditional point and click controls.
However, these are relatively small points and it gives me no pleasure making such complaints. The main thing to focus on is that Monkey Island is back and better than it's been for a long time. Thank you Telltale for all you have done!
Now I'm going to have to try to sit and wait patiently for the WiiWare release so I can play the game smoothly, at least that means I don't have to fight with Windows anymore.
Good luck with the rest of the series!!
I long gave up hope on both LucasArts and the possibility of a new Monkey Island. Like so many other people I've waited 9 years for this moment, and I thank you for bringing it to us
Sadly I'm one of those who is having trouble getting the game to run properly, so this may have tinged my experience slightly, however behind the painful framerate I can see an amazing game trying to get out.
When the title was first announced, my finger did hover over the purchase button a little longer than I thought it would have done, because I recalled hearing an announcement that from hereon in Telltale was to be focusing on first person controls and that bothered me. However, I took the advice in the forum to wait and try playing it for myself. Having done that I've reached my conclusion:
Tales of Monkey Island would, to me, play far better if it had a design more akin to LeChuck's Revenge. I'm all for great cinematography in games, but not at the expense of playability. The opening of the game, especially with the framerate I'm suffering, while totally engaging listening to the dialogue, was difficult just to click on things due to the way the ships bobbed up and down and some of the camera angles -sadly- felt reminiscent of the disorientating original Resident Evil.
Personally I didn't find these angles added anything to the story or made the game any more engaging or compelling. I feel the game would have played better from a wider angled lens with those beautiful close ups kept for talking to characters and picking up/looking at items.
On the plus side the art direction is beautiful as are the effects. Everything from the clouds to the voodoo glow of LeChuck's spell. What I've played so far is well written and the graphics bridge the gap between 2 & 3 fantastically. The title credits are easily the best looking since Revenge and the whole package gives me a buzz I haven't felt since Curse. Heck, even the menu was worth waiting the 5 minutes it takes the game to load up - the whole package FEELS like Monkey Island and I couldn't hope for more.
Now the game is out I feel the thoughts I voiced elsewhere on the forum are still true - first person control is fine for pointerless systems such as the 360 and PS3, however you should design to the strengths of the system you are releasing on and as the PC and Wii have no trouble when it comes to cursor control this would have been preferable. Especially due to the ideology that went behind the original games of simple user interface - no more of that mishmash of controls gamers had got used to with Sierra's adventures.
Having washed ashore upon Flotsam Island, I'm very sad to say that I see no benefit in these changing camera angles - something more akin to navigating Woodtick would have worked better.
I feel somewhat reminded of Metal Gear Solid 3; A game that was highly regarded but poor judgement had been made about camera angles. Which brings me to what I've been feeling since getting the game up and running. What we really need is a Tales of Monkey Island: Subsistence
the same game with reworked camera angles and traditional point and click controls.However, these are relatively small points and it gives me no pleasure making such complaints. The main thing to focus on is that Monkey Island is back and better than it's been for a long time. Thank you Telltale for all you have done!
Now I'm going to have to try to sit and wait patiently for the WiiWare release so I can play the game smoothly, at least that means I don't have to fight with Windows anymore.
Good luck with the rest of the series!!
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