Very fun. Not the biggest fan of the ending but the rest of it made up for it.
Competent and enjoyable in stretches, but overall unambitious and held back by its archaic point-and-click design sensibility. Lost count of how many times I basically knew the solution to a puzzle, and then had to fiddle around for what felt like ages just to hit the specific order of events that the designers intended.
The writing and music hold the same standard as the first three titles, but there are too many familiar faces and disappointingly little contemporary energy to be found. Monkey Island was very of its time and cultural moment. It's a quintessentially Gen X/90s franchise. What was once so refreshing about that – the self-awareness, the postmodern signifier juggling, the slacker energy channeled in the underhanded puzzle solutions – somehow I can't help but feel we're past that. It's all been absorbed and sent through the slipstream of pop culture. You can't just throw it at the audience again expecting the same result.
I loved these games growing up and would never really mind getting more of the same if I'm being honest with myself. It's comfort food, pure and simple. Slots right into the grooves. The music is a bop. But it's a relic of the past that never tries to push its frame of reference. Another artifact of stuck culture. Two and a half stars.
The writing and music hold the same standard as the first three titles, but there are too many familiar faces and disappointingly little contemporary energy to be found. Monkey Island was very of its time and cultural moment. It's a quintessentially Gen X/90s franchise. What was once so refreshing about that – the self-awareness, the postmodern signifier juggling, the slacker energy channeled in the underhanded puzzle solutions – somehow I can't help but feel we're past that. It's all been absorbed and sent through the slipstream of pop culture. You can't just throw it at the audience again expecting the same result.
I loved these games growing up and would never really mind getting more of the same if I'm being honest with myself. It's comfort food, pure and simple. Slots right into the grooves. The music is a bop. But it's a relic of the past that never tries to push its frame of reference. Another artifact of stuck culture. Two and a half stars.
Emotional. Funny. Ugly
Love to see monkey island again. I think the new art style is great and it was a fun little jaunt in the monkey island universe. It is not super long and there isn't much that makes you want to do additional playthroughs, but still a good time.
Hilarious game - even if some of the puzzles lean a little too much into "adventure game logic."
Très bonne découverte de la licence. Quelques énigmes un peu tirées par les cheveux mais sinon c'était super.
Review in progress:
The art style is hideous, the puzzles are simplistic (most of the difficulty comes from pixel hunting and backtracking), and the story is weak. Some items can only be interacted with after an arbitrary story trigger, which gets tedious. Return to Monkey Island's plot leans way too heavily on nostalgia and has almost no new ideas of its own. Elaine's character has been completely butchered. She acts like a completely different person in this game. Guybrush continues to act much more stupid and mean-spirited than in the original, to the point where you wonder why anyone even puts up with him. The ending is somehow worse than 2's. It's not clever and feels like yet another cop-out. The characters acting off-brand isn't justified by the twist, either.
The art style is hideous, the puzzles are simplistic (most of the difficulty comes from pixel hunting and backtracking), and the story is weak. Some items can only be interacted with after an arbitrary story trigger, which gets tedious. Return to Monkey Island's plot leans way too heavily on nostalgia and has almost no new ideas of its own. Elaine's character has been completely butchered. She acts like a completely different person in this game. Guybrush continues to act much more stupid and mean-spirited than in the original, to the point where you wonder why anyone even puts up with him. The ending is somehow worse than 2's. It's not clever and feels like yet another cop-out. The characters acting off-brand isn't justified by the twist, either.
The first two monkey island games are 2 of my most favorite games. I love point and click adventures, and I know they're out of fashion, but it was so exciting to see the original creator back after leaving the second game on a cliffhanger. The game has such great art, characters, so funny, challenging and thoughtful, I'm sad it was short, but like all the Monkey Island games it had a level of heart and poetry to it that most games wouldn't dream of. A welcome return I can't wait to play again
A estória é cativante e muito gostosa de jogar.
É um clássico com um peso enorme na indústria dos games.
Vale a pena pela jogar pela importância dele.
Conheça.
É um clássico com um peso enorme na indústria dos games.
Vale a pena pela jogar pela importância dele.
Conheça.
Great art, great music, and the point and click interface and puzzles have all been thoughtfully modernized to sand away the frustrating time-wasting bits without losing what’s unique and important. The writing is so funny and charming, and I’m glad I finally played the first two right before this so the emotional weight and meta back references all hit with max impact.
Return to Monkey Island (2022): Una obra maestra, un puñetazo de nostalgia que aún así se permite aportar nuevas ideas. Dirigido a los adultos que somos los que éramos niños de los 90 pero sin renunciar a nuevos públicos. Pese a lo alto del listón, no se podía hacer mejor (9,40)
This review contains spoilers
Despite being an impatient idiot who usually can't stand puzzles in video games, I strangely have a lot of fondness for the Monkey Island series and grew up mainly with the third game, Curse of Monkey Island but discovered the others in my teens and highly enjoyed those as well (Escape from Monkey Island less so). To say that I was excited when Return to Monkey Island was announced last year is an understatement, but for some reason I just didn't play it despite buying it on release. Really not sure why I'm like that sometimes.
I have played it now though, and just loved my time with most of it. The puzzles are maybe too easy for some veterans of the genre, but for me who rarely touches it, they struck a good balance between being both logical and still requiring some knowledge of the point & click genre language, so to speak, where there is a certain logic not really found anywhere else. It can be a bit fetch quest-y at times and the pacing of the adventure feels a bit off since it's a lot of starting and stopping between acts in a way that feels a bit cheap, like the game should end several times but keeps going. Not that I should be complaining when the overall quality of the puzzles and writing remains very good throughout most of the game (my only real complaint is how some characters are very suddenly dropped during the final act, and how unreasonably understanding Elaine is of Guybrush's path of destruction), but it can be a bit jarring.
I'm not going to spoil anything concrete about within the plot of course since it's a very narrative-driven game, but it is so nice to see both Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman return to the series and seemingly not having lost anything of their sharp wit since their last MI game almost 30 years ago, but they've also matured as both people and writers which reflects in this game where, while it is very funny, they do manage to cut through the comedy to ultimately make a beautiful and surprisingly adult (not in the R-rated way, but more in the themes it tackles) story by the end. It is certainly a very nostalgic love letter to the series that calls back to previous games throughout the journey in a lot of very clever ways, but at the same time it's also a rumination on the passage of time and what really matters in life at the same time as it's a mostly breezy, fun pirate adventure. This might not be the final Monkey Island game (think Ron Gilbert has said he's open for more?), but if it was, it's certainly a worthy sendoff and one for the developers to be proud of.
Also, don't forget about the letter after beating the game. Reading that was definitely one of the strongest little experiences I've had with a 2022 game and made my deep appreciation of the game even deeper. Really itching to replay previous Monkey Island games now.
Also also, I got used to the pretty distinct art style quickly and can't really imagine the game without it. It really does look very good when you're actually playing the game, I promise!
I have played it now though, and just loved my time with most of it. The puzzles are maybe too easy for some veterans of the genre, but for me who rarely touches it, they struck a good balance between being both logical and still requiring some knowledge of the point & click genre language, so to speak, where there is a certain logic not really found anywhere else. It can be a bit fetch quest-y at times and the pacing of the adventure feels a bit off since it's a lot of starting and stopping between acts in a way that feels a bit cheap, like the game should end several times but keeps going. Not that I should be complaining when the overall quality of the puzzles and writing remains very good throughout most of the game (my only real complaint is how some characters are very suddenly dropped during the final act, and how unreasonably understanding Elaine is of Guybrush's path of destruction), but it can be a bit jarring.
I'm not going to spoil anything concrete about within the plot of course since it's a very narrative-driven game, but it is so nice to see both Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman return to the series and seemingly not having lost anything of their sharp wit since their last MI game almost 30 years ago, but they've also matured as both people and writers which reflects in this game where, while it is very funny, they do manage to cut through the comedy to ultimately make a beautiful and surprisingly adult (not in the R-rated way, but more in the themes it tackles) story by the end. It is certainly a very nostalgic love letter to the series that calls back to previous games throughout the journey in a lot of very clever ways, but at the same time it's also a rumination on the passage of time and what really matters in life at the same time as it's a mostly breezy, fun pirate adventure. This might not be the final Monkey Island game (think Ron Gilbert has said he's open for more?), but if it was, it's certainly a worthy sendoff and one for the developers to be proud of.
Also, don't forget about the letter after beating the game. Reading that was definitely one of the strongest little experiences I've had with a 2022 game and made my deep appreciation of the game even deeper. Really itching to replay previous Monkey Island games now.
Also also, I got used to the pretty distinct art style quickly and can't really imagine the game without it. It really does look very good when you're actually playing the game, I promise!
ending SUCKS but the rest of the game is good enough
Having just dragged myself through Gilbert's unforgivably bad THIMBLEWEED PARK, my expectations for this were low to say the least. So it was the pleasant surprise of the century that not only did this not suck, but it was, in fact, fantastic! And probably my favorite of the series.
The writing is absolutely on point from start to finish. We're talking great averages here - multiple chuckles per minute, minimum two belly-laughs per hour, easy. More grinning/nodding/pointing at the screen 'I see what you did there' moments than you can count. Truly, I haven't played a game this consistently entertaining in a while. It more than lives up to the series' rep for humor and wit, and I'm glad of it.
But just as important - possibly even moreso - as the writing in making this game truly special is the voice acting. One of my biggest problems with THIMBLEWEED was the horrendous VA. This LucasArts style dry humor is really tough to find the right tone for and they just did not have it. Dominic Armato, on the other hand, has it so hard he basically invented it. Guybrush specifically is a character that exists at a very precarious balance where he could be anything from grating to cloying to overdone, etc. in the wrong hands, and any one of those would just turn the player against him and instantly sink the whole game. But Armato is so natural and funny that Guybrush's doofy, upbeat obliviousness is endearing instead of annoying, and that basically justifies the entire plot of the game and indeed the series. I don't think anybody else could do it so well. It's up there with Jeff Kramer's York from DEADLY PREMONITION as a game-defining lead VA role in a game that very much needed the home run they gave it. And thankfully, the rest of the supporting cast is good as well. (side note: RIP Earl Boen - a shame he couldn't do this one)
And thank God, the fully expected meta elements of the game's story and ending really worked for me. Once again, these were areas where THIMBLEWEED fell flat on its face and had me worried to even start this thing, but that game's relationship to this one is basically a Goofus and Gallant-type situation where everything that sucked ass and was embarrassing there is done near-perfectly here. A consistently engaging meditation on nostalgia and our (and the game's creators') relationship with the originals that both skewers and indulges our (and their) desire to relive the glory days. The ending had me stunned - in a good way. Just sitting there staring off into space, nodding somberly for a good couple minutes. It's a rare video game that gets that reaction.
Overall:
The writing is absolutely on point from start to finish. We're talking great averages here - multiple chuckles per minute, minimum two belly-laughs per hour, easy. More grinning/nodding/pointing at the screen 'I see what you did there' moments than you can count. Truly, I haven't played a game this consistently entertaining in a while. It more than lives up to the series' rep for humor and wit, and I'm glad of it.
But just as important - possibly even moreso - as the writing in making this game truly special is the voice acting. One of my biggest problems with THIMBLEWEED was the horrendous VA. This LucasArts style dry humor is really tough to find the right tone for and they just did not have it. Dominic Armato, on the other hand, has it so hard he basically invented it. Guybrush specifically is a character that exists at a very precarious balance where he could be anything from grating to cloying to overdone, etc. in the wrong hands, and any one of those would just turn the player against him and instantly sink the whole game. But Armato is so natural and funny that Guybrush's doofy, upbeat obliviousness is endearing instead of annoying, and that basically justifies the entire plot of the game and indeed the series. I don't think anybody else could do it so well. It's up there with Jeff Kramer's York from DEADLY PREMONITION as a game-defining lead VA role in a game that very much needed the home run they gave it. And thankfully, the rest of the supporting cast is good as well. (side note: RIP Earl Boen - a shame he couldn't do this one)
And thank God, the fully expected meta elements of the game's story and ending really worked for me. Once again, these were areas where THIMBLEWEED fell flat on its face and had me worried to even start this thing, but that game's relationship to this one is basically a Goofus and Gallant-type situation where everything that sucked ass and was embarrassing there is done near-perfectly here. A consistently engaging meditation on nostalgia and our (and the game's creators') relationship with the originals that both skewers and indulges our (and their) desire to relive the glory days. The ending had me stunned - in a good way. Just sitting there staring off into space, nodding somberly for a good couple minutes. It's a rare video game that gets that reaction.
Overall:
Guybrush finally finds the Secret of Monkey Island, and it's classic Ron Gilbert. This game is a little more cute than the others, but it's very well polished and funny. The art style is actually great - it really grows on you the more you play it. Make sure you check the scrapbook after you're done, that was the icing on the cake for me.
Загружая Return to Monkey Island, я не надеялся на что-то выдающееся. Шумиха фанатов вокруг выбранного стиля и скандалы связанные с главой команды разработки создали несколько негативный фон игре. Но игра вышла в гейм пасс, и я решил, что не повредит посмотреть самому. Тем более, что визуально мне игра очень даже понравилась.
Запустив игру на часик я залип в неё на весь вечер. Игра очень остроумно написана. Шутки и ситуации если не смешат, то как минимум задают задорное и весёлое настроение небольшого пиратского приключения. Помимо юмора в игре хватает милых моментов, моментов от которых бросает в кринж (в хорошем смысле) и сцен, где авторы довольно явно делятся своей мудростью.
А поделиться им есть чем. Например концовка, которая так сильно вызывает жжение почти у всех кто поиграл в игру, на самом деле несёт очень правильный посыл, как сюжетный, так и смысловой. Не поленитесь досмотреть титры до конца и прочитать новое письмо в альбоме главного меню. Да, может оно не станет для вас оправданием такого поворота, но силу авторского посыла на мой взгляд сложно отрицать.
Ну и не менее важное для квеста -- загадки. В игре есть книга, в которой на манер гайдов с IGN (не с чем сравнить) появляются подсказки для прохождения. То есть, вместо готового решения квеста вам сначала дадут намёки на то, что нужно сделать. И я ни разу не попадал в ситуацию, где мне хотелось завопить "НУ И КАК Я ДОЛЖЕН БЫЛ ДО ЭТОГО ДОГАДАТЬСЯ?", обращаясь к ней. На самом деле я бы мог вполне дойти до решения самостоятельно, но сказывалась усталость, т.к. от игры было ну очень сложно оторваться. А пиксельхантинг вообще отсутствует как таковой. Всё изначально подсвечено для курсора, кроме разве что пары областей для сообразительных охотников за ачивками.
По итогу это было одно из самых весёлых и самых эмоциональных приключений за долгое время. Хочется порекомендовать Return to Monkey Island всем, кто любит хорошие квесты, весёлые приключения и по-настоящему авторские произведения.
Запустив игру на часик я залип в неё на весь вечер. Игра очень остроумно написана. Шутки и ситуации если не смешат, то как минимум задают задорное и весёлое настроение небольшого пиратского приключения. Помимо юмора в игре хватает милых моментов, моментов от которых бросает в кринж (в хорошем смысле) и сцен, где авторы довольно явно делятся своей мудростью.
А поделиться им есть чем. Например концовка, которая так сильно вызывает жжение почти у всех кто поиграл в игру, на самом деле несёт очень правильный посыл, как сюжетный, так и смысловой. Не поленитесь досмотреть титры до конца и прочитать новое письмо в альбоме главного меню. Да, может оно не станет для вас оправданием такого поворота, но силу авторского посыла на мой взгляд сложно отрицать.
Ну и не менее важное для квеста -- загадки. В игре есть книга, в которой на манер гайдов с IGN (не с чем сравнить) появляются подсказки для прохождения. То есть, вместо готового решения квеста вам сначала дадут намёки на то, что нужно сделать. И я ни разу не попадал в ситуацию, где мне хотелось завопить "НУ И КАК Я ДОЛЖЕН БЫЛ ДО ЭТОГО ДОГАДАТЬСЯ?", обращаясь к ней. На самом деле я бы мог вполне дойти до решения самостоятельно, но сказывалась усталость, т.к. от игры было ну очень сложно оторваться. А пиксельхантинг вообще отсутствует как таковой. Всё изначально подсвечено для курсора, кроме разве что пары областей для сообразительных охотников за ачивками.
По итогу это было одно из самых весёлых и самых эмоциональных приключений за долгое время. Хочется порекомендовать Return to Monkey Island всем, кто любит хорошие квесты, весёлые приключения и по-настоящему авторские произведения.
Tenia una buena historia pero luego cuando llego al final dije "¿Y esto?", me decepciono el final la verdad.
It’s wonderful to be back, welcome aboard.
I do not hold Monkey Island up as one of the greatest adventure games but it is certainly close, sadly this is perhaps one of its weakest iterations. Despite that it’s a good adventure with all of the wry wit and whimsy you know and love from this series.
All of your favourite characters return and offer layered and humorous interest throughout the well paced plot. You will enjoy this whether you have played previous games in the series or not, but it certainly helps if you have. I imagine in particular some of the puzzles might be oddly impenetrable if you are not accustomed to Herbert’s way of thinking. I admit I did have to delve into the hints section a few times.
The art style is beautiful and unique, it moves with such fluid colour. I never tired of looking at it. The voice cast are just as good as in past games and the music is suitably joyous.
Alas, a narrative game has to cohere to excel and I cannot get on board with the tone or purpose of the ending. I won’t discuss the detail here but meta narratives always strike me as cheap storytelling. I understand what they are trying to get across to the player but it left me cold, which is a disappointing end to a series I have great fondness for.
I do not hold Monkey Island up as one of the greatest adventure games but it is certainly close, sadly this is perhaps one of its weakest iterations. Despite that it’s a good adventure with all of the wry wit and whimsy you know and love from this series.
All of your favourite characters return and offer layered and humorous interest throughout the well paced plot. You will enjoy this whether you have played previous games in the series or not, but it certainly helps if you have. I imagine in particular some of the puzzles might be oddly impenetrable if you are not accustomed to Herbert’s way of thinking. I admit I did have to delve into the hints section a few times.
The art style is beautiful and unique, it moves with such fluid colour. I never tired of looking at it. The voice cast are just as good as in past games and the music is suitably joyous.
Alas, a narrative game has to cohere to excel and I cannot get on board with the tone or purpose of the ending. I won’t discuss the detail here but meta narratives always strike me as cheap storytelling. I understand what they are trying to get across to the player but it left me cold, which is a disappointing end to a series I have great fondness for.
A worthy sequel to the classic point and click series. Not everyone likes the art style but I found it very coherent and in keeping with the rather humorous tone of the game. The puzzles were fanastic (except for the very last one with the door, which was a bit too out-of-the-box for me^^). The story was also really good with the familiar voice actors from the previous games. What I particularly liked was that although the game relied a lot on nostalgia, it also introduces completely new characters and stories and breaks new ground, which I wouldn't have expected. It was also nice that characters and content from games 3-5 were not ignored but actively incorporated into the world (Murray, for example). Yes, all in all one of the best Monkey Island games and a great adventure game in general.
Stepping into this game is time travel to the genre I grew up loving; A time made more glowing than it really was by the fact that Return to Monkey Island is more accessible, better told and with logical puzzles.
The ending is the most talked-about part of this game, and it's understandable, because the rest of it is pretty unremarkable. It's impossible to discuss without spoilers, but if you've ever read The Dark Tower series of novels, it's vaguely similar to that ending. I get what they were going for, and I appreciate it on a certain level, but I think they went a little too far with it, where several plot threads/characters are not given a good resolution (or any at all, in some cases).
As for the game itself, it's fine, I would place it above Tales (my least favourite) and below Escape.
The puzzles are uniformly too easy, even playing on the supposed hard mode.
Striking a balance between this and moon logic is a notoriously difficult task in adventure games. Overall I think the Monkey Island series has handled it fairly well, the majority of its puzzles are logical at least in retrospect.
But I still think Return fell too hard on the latter end of the spectrum. A little more complexity would have been appreciated.
The art style was a (incandescent) talking about when the game was first revealed. I didn't care for it at the time either, although it grew on me significantly once I actually played the game. I never loved it, but it's inoffensive enough. I find it kind of charming that the Monkey Island series has no consistent visual style, it helps each entry to feel unique.
Overall, it's fine. Not great, but nothing to get upset about.
As for the game itself, it's fine, I would place it above Tales (my least favourite) and below Escape.
The puzzles are uniformly too easy, even playing on the supposed hard mode.
Striking a balance between this and moon logic is a notoriously difficult task in adventure games. Overall I think the Monkey Island series has handled it fairly well, the majority of its puzzles are logical at least in retrospect.
But I still think Return fell too hard on the latter end of the spectrum. A little more complexity would have been appreciated.
The art style was a (incandescent) talking about when the game was first revealed. I didn't care for it at the time either, although it grew on me significantly once I actually played the game. I never loved it, but it's inoffensive enough. I find it kind of charming that the Monkey Island series has no consistent visual style, it helps each entry to feel unique.
Overall, it's fine. Not great, but nothing to get upset about.
You´ve always been the "close enough" sort. Návrat (derniéra?) legendy. Gilbertovo a Grossmanovo velmi osobní zúčtování s kvintesenciální adventurní sérií. Žánrovou klasikou všech klasik, ke které mají vztah i neadventurní hráči. Tentokrát pojednává o stárnutí, o nostalgii, o pokusech zažít zase "to co v mládí" a smiřování se s tím, že staré dobré časy se již nevrátí. A že to nemusí být nutně špatně. Stále je to cynicky humorné, nahláškované až mrtě a výtečně napsané.
Ke cti autorům slouží, že nový Monkey Island plně obstojí sám o sobě "čistě jako adventura" bez vztahu k sérii. Má velmi dobré puzzly, nápady, obtížnost je tak akorát trefená, aby i dílčí zásek umožňoval úspěšné řešení jiného problému jinde. Z počátku působí pro veterány poněkud jednoduše, ale postupně se svět otevře, problémů k řešení přibývá více než stíháte (do)řešit čili i kovaní adventuristé si přijdou na své. K tomu pro neadventuristy méně obtížný režim a k ruce šikovně vyvedený systém postupných nápověd. Čistě žánrově nelze vyčíst ani ň. Je vidět, že v tomto ohledu jsou autoři ostřílení matadoři.
Funguje to tedy pro fanoušky, funguje to pro neznalé, je to sám o sobě výstavní zástupce svého žánru. Přesto to jednu velmi konkrétní skvrnu má. Není jí svébytná stylizace grafiky, která (pravda) z nepohyblivých obrázků působí jak "flashovka z konce devadesátek", ale v pohybu je přesně sednoucí. K tomu povedený soundtrack i velmi zdařilý dabing. Ne, ta chyba je čistě ve vrcholení, finálním twistu, pointě. Je to podraz, něco co se nedalo už z principu ustát se ctí. Tak se vezme to nejlacinější možné řešení. Můžeme samozřejmě říci "ale to je to, o čem ta hra je", zároveň podobně meta mírně zvednutý prostředníček použil Gilbert i v předchozím svém titulu. Jednou se to dalo (a minule to bylo aspoň opodstatněné), dvakrát už je syndrom. Grrr.
Ve výsledku se to nedá nedoporučit. A jestli je to právě pro vás? Vyrostli jste herně s Guybrushovými dobrodružstvími? Máte rádi adventury? Dobré příběhy? Dobré hry? Autorské hry? Chcete konečně vědět, co je onou chimérou v podobě Tajemství? Pokud aspoň na jedno z výše uvedeného je odpověď ano, pak není co řešit.
Návrat legendy, který nepůsobí jako nikým nechtěný dovětek a přiživování se na značce, ale naopak jako pokračování, které jsme ani nevěděli, že chceme. Co chceme, potřebujeme.
Ke cti autorům slouží, že nový Monkey Island plně obstojí sám o sobě "čistě jako adventura" bez vztahu k sérii. Má velmi dobré puzzly, nápady, obtížnost je tak akorát trefená, aby i dílčí zásek umožňoval úspěšné řešení jiného problému jinde. Z počátku působí pro veterány poněkud jednoduše, ale postupně se svět otevře, problémů k řešení přibývá více než stíháte (do)řešit čili i kovaní adventuristé si přijdou na své. K tomu pro neadventuristy méně obtížný režim a k ruce šikovně vyvedený systém postupných nápověd. Čistě žánrově nelze vyčíst ani ň. Je vidět, že v tomto ohledu jsou autoři ostřílení matadoři.
Funguje to tedy pro fanoušky, funguje to pro neznalé, je to sám o sobě výstavní zástupce svého žánru. Přesto to jednu velmi konkrétní skvrnu má. Není jí svébytná stylizace grafiky, která (pravda) z nepohyblivých obrázků působí jak "flashovka z konce devadesátek", ale v pohybu je přesně sednoucí. K tomu povedený soundtrack i velmi zdařilý dabing. Ne, ta chyba je čistě ve vrcholení, finálním twistu, pointě. Je to podraz, něco co se nedalo už z principu ustát se ctí. Tak se vezme to nejlacinější možné řešení. Můžeme samozřejmě říci "ale to je to, o čem ta hra je", zároveň podobně meta mírně zvednutý prostředníček použil Gilbert i v předchozím svém titulu. Jednou se to dalo (a minule to bylo aspoň opodstatněné), dvakrát už je syndrom. Grrr.
Ve výsledku se to nedá nedoporučit. A jestli je to právě pro vás? Vyrostli jste herně s Guybrushovými dobrodružstvími? Máte rádi adventury? Dobré příběhy? Dobré hry? Autorské hry? Chcete konečně vědět, co je onou chimérou v podobě Tajemství? Pokud aspoň na jedno z výše uvedeného je odpověď ano, pak není co řešit.
Návrat legendy, který nepůsobí jako nikým nechtěný dovětek a přiživování se na značce, ale naopak jako pokračování, které jsme ani nevěděli, že chceme. Co chceme, potřebujeme.
It's good, generally, though it does very much assume you've played the previous game to understand things a bit better, which I have not found on PC (yet). The trivia cards are fun.
You have no idea how happy I am that this game turned out to be as good as it is; I hope now everyone understands exactly why this series just isn't the same without Ron Gilbert's involvement
I can't give it the full 5 stars right now, but hell, maybe if I play through it a few more times, I'll start feeling more generous
I can't give it the full 5 stars right now, but hell, maybe if I play through it a few more times, I'll start feeling more generous
Enjoyed significantly more than I expected as I am not really a fan of the genre. Well written, clever and funny throughout. Short and sweet, you can tell the passion put in for a grand return of this series. Controversial ending that I respect but ultimately felt unsatisfying.
Solid Monkey Island game, shame about the deliberately anticlimactic ending, which just does not work at all. Appreciate the effort to make the story accessible to people like me who have lost patience with the P&C genre over the years (gamepad support, casual mode, the generous hint system). Not really laugh-out-loud funny and there's way too much backtracking in Part 4.
This game is a BIG deal. Although I'd argue it streamlines the adventure game formula a little too much, "Return to Monkey Island" still brings much-needed air to an outdated UI and is a remarkable achievement. I recommend playing it with the "Writer's Cut" option on.
But why is it such a big deal? Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman worked on the first two games in the series, then consulted on the fifth one (Grossman helped write the story as Telltale's Creative Director). Magically, unbelievably, they then returned to Monkey Island (ho ho) 30 years after the second one, tasked with both resolving the cliffhanger to "Monkey Island 2" and making it all fit with the other games. Somehow, they did, creating a very funny, pretty moving game in the process. I understand the frustrations some people have with "Return" and would argue that they should have left some of the ending choices out, but the devs should be proud of themselves.
"Return" feels like a response to the first game. "Monkey Island 2" is a remarkable sequel, but this feels like a continuation—sort of like "Godfather, Part II" taking the themes of the first one, then expanding on them and adding to them, being both a great work in its own right and enriching the original. Great, great game. Great "Monkey Island" game.
But why is it such a big deal? Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman worked on the first two games in the series, then consulted on the fifth one (Grossman helped write the story as Telltale's Creative Director). Magically, unbelievably, they then returned to Monkey Island (ho ho) 30 years after the second one, tasked with both resolving the cliffhanger to "Monkey Island 2" and making it all fit with the other games. Somehow, they did, creating a very funny, pretty moving game in the process. I understand the frustrations some people have with "Return" and would argue that they should have left some of the ending choices out, but the devs should be proud of themselves.
"Return" feels like a response to the first game. "Monkey Island 2" is a remarkable sequel, but this feels like a continuation—sort of like "Godfather, Part II" taking the themes of the first one, then expanding on them and adding to them, being both a great work in its own right and enriching the original. Great, great game. Great "Monkey Island" game.
Ron Gilbert, a father.
As a long time fan of the series, I was ecstatic to get a new game.
It’s a wonderful one too. Filled with the humor I’ve loved since the first.
The art style that many seemed to hate suits the series, tbh
It’s a keeper
It’s a wonderful one too. Filled with the humor I’ve loved since the first.
The art style that many seemed to hate suits the series, tbh
It’s a keeper