Welcome to what looks to be a bit of a Monkey Island extravaganza here on Negative Gamer. Stay with us as we play catch up with the first two episodes of the Tales of Monkey Island series in preparation for the release of the newest episode later this week.

The Monkey Island series holds a very special place in many gamers’ hearts, and rightly so too. The original Lucasarts series was the granddaddy of point and click adventure gaming, combining ludicrous humour with a fantastic story. It’s understandable then that the Tales of Monkey Island series is surrounded by a fair share of hype and anticipation. However, I think many fans of the old games don’t know whether to get excited or not, especially with the game once again entering 3D territory (we all know how well that went last time don’t we?). Another question I couldn’t stop asking myself before playing was this: can Telltale really do justice to an old series whilst still keeping it fresh and enjoyable?

No Guybrush, go around the tree.

As you watch the game’s opening cut scene, any fears of it looking as unpolished as the previous game in the series disappear immediately. Though a little dated, the graphics engine does just fine, and really helps bring the characters to come to life. The game begins with the now familiar scenario of the zombie pirate LeChuck holding Guybrush’s beloved Elaine hostage, causing Guybrush to once again attempt to rescue her. A rescue which of course doesn’t go exactly to plan and leaves him even worse off than when he started, trapped on the windy Flotsam island with no way to get off or any idea if Elaine is safe.

The opening puzzle, whilst easy, is also brimming with trademark Monkey Island humour, one particular quip involving root beer still makes me giggle now thinking about the moment I realised what needed to be done. However, though the jokes may be hilarious, nothing to do with the controls will illicit even the smallest of smiles. Two options are placed in front of you, you can either a) drag Guybrush around on an invisible leash like a puppy with a gimpy leg, or b) use the still inferior but slightly better WASD controls.

I don’t know why Telltale feel the need to reinvent the wheel, but there are no areas in the game where having a traditional point and click interface would have caused any problems. After spending the first half of my time with the game using the ‘œdrag’ interface I must have got caught on a dozen different bits of scenery and been unable to dislodge myself without the use of the WASD control scheme.

I forgave the easy difficulty of the opening puzzle, putting it down to being an introduction for those unfamiliar with the genre. Unfortunately as the game progressed and I neared the end of the chapter, I realised that I had breezed through the puzzles. I only paused to think about what to do next for a total of around 5 minutes, and I’m no adventure game prodigy. It didn’t help that the reason I got stuck was a result of not remembering the directions to a specific location within the maze-like jungle area, and had nothing to do with the actual puzzles themselves.

Maybe if I combine these two items…

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I want to get completely bogged down and have to cheat, but I do want to be challenged. I felt like I was being led by the hand for the vast majority of the time, with nigh on every solution to a problem being provided by the in-game camera ‘œhelpfully’ zooming right in on the important objects.

I get what Telltale were going for here; one problem with the adventure games of old was the tedious clicking of every single object in the background. What they have done now though is go too far in the other direction and watered down the experience a little too much for my tastes.

Not everything from the original Monkey Island series has been watered down though. The irksome combining of seemingly unrelated items in your inventory is still present, and has managed to change from a mildly boring but necessary part of the game into quite a niggling annoyance thanks to the new combination system. You now have to place the two objects into separate boxes and hit a combine button, rather than just dragging and dropping one item onto another. I know it doesn’t seem like much work, but doing it over and over again for an entire inventory if you get stuck gets very tiresome very quickly.

A few other points worth mentioning…

• For many of the dialogue ‘choices’ it does not actually matter which option you pick, as Guybrush will actually speak the same line regardless.
• Though the voice acting for Guybrush himself is nigh on perfect, the supporting characters are entirely forgettable, often relying on stereotypes. Even the mighty LeChuck seems a shadow of his former self  (though that could be down to his recent transformation).
• Even though I am running a veritable beast of a PC, I experienced extreme choppiness and slowdown whilst in the main menu upon starting the game or when trying to save. Altering the graphical quality didn’t do anything to alleviate the situation.
• Though throwbacks to the original games will greatly please the fanboy/girl inside all of us, a little more new humour would be nice. Three headed monkeys are only funny so many times guys ‘n gals.
• The game still seems a little short. Even after taking into account the low price point and the episodic nature of the series, I still feel like there should have been more there.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal certainly feels like the Monkey Island of old. The writing is spot on, the voice acting for Guybrush is fantastic and all of the elements that make up classic adventure game puzzles are there. Yet, something still feels odd. I think the combination of the unintuitive controls, forgettable supporting cast and what at times feels like a ‘œmy first adventure’ game really take away from what is otherwise a fantastic game. I really hope that the next episode sees a more memorable cast and a step up in difficulty without sacrificing the story and humour that we all know and love.

You should play this game if…

…you are a fan of adventure games in any capacity that doesn’t mind a few easy puzzles.

Final Score

A good first foray back into the Monkey Island universe, that is hampered by a few niggling little problems and easy difficulty.

(What does this score mean?)