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.