Escape from Monkey Island

The Good
Escape can still be funny. The humor in the dialogues does get stale very soon, but there are some situations that, while not necessarily reflecting the unique Monkey Island tone, can be amusing. The Scumm Bar turning into a sushi bar is a typical example of the new humor, its symbolic representation: the time of the pirates has passed, modern consumer culture takes over. No, I didn't like this direction either, but at least the game is consequent enough to base a large part of its story on it.

There is nothing wrong with 3D graphics. They have a certain cartoony edge, and some of the character models are appropriately disproportional. Sure, the game loses an even larger chunk of the mysterious Caribbean atmosphere than its predecessor with the perpetual brightness, but it does fit the new colorful locations and themes.

The puzzles of Escape are truly a coin with two sides. There are some really good ones. I enjoyed the bizarre clock puzzle in the swamps of Lucre Island. The diving competition was tricky and fun. One of my favorite ones is the puzzle with the two parrots on Jambalaya Island. It's a pity those interesting activities co-exist with obscure tasks that often make little sense.

In general, the parts that had nothing to do with previous Monkey Island games were the best. Clearing your name on Lucre Island, diving against Marco, figuring out how to get the bronze head on Jambalaya Island. Those parts were fun and refreshing. But Escape wanted to outdo its predecessors in everything, and that was a big mistake.

The Bad
How do I say this... Something's missing here... let's call this something a soul. Everything seems to be in place, but nothing feels fresh, and the series' unique charm is gone. Escape tries to be holier than the Pope himself - to be more Monkey Island than Monkey Island. The result is remarkable: the game becomes a parody of itself. There is so much recycling here that any new and creative idea can't be perceived anymore. Or, better to say, it is forgotten once the mechanical routine of Monkey Island-ness takes over again. The good parts of the game are drowned in the monotonous mumbling of endless Monkey Island mantras: "You fight like a cow... I'm Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate... Yes, darling... Swashbuckling sea scum..." and so on. There is too much of it. Too much to bear and too much to digest. Those phrases have been recycled so many times that they became meaningless. They are not funny any more, because repetition is the worst enemy of humor. Strangely enough, Escape suffers precisely from what it laughs at - consumer mentality.

This kind of thinking leads me to believe that the game was conceived as some sort of a fan tribute, where elements are used and re-used with the happy, blind stubbornness of a neophyte. Phrases from earlier games are quoted verbatim and characters make totally unnecessary cameo appearances. The game thus becomes an empty container for all possible Monkey Island stuff. Characters who were funny become pale shadows of themselves: they finally managed to ruin Stan, and the hilarious skull Murray is degraded to the level of a harmless curiosity.

This is connected to another aspect that suffered in Escape: the atmosphere. In the previous games the exotic Caribbean setting was treated halfway seriously, the occasional well-placed anachronisms only emphasizing the romantic flair of sea adventures and treasure hunting. This game doesn't feel like that at all. Of course, its whole idea was to show the influence of capitalism and globalization on "authentic" pirate stuff, but the result was an almost complete loss of true Monkey Island spirit. This series was never strictly a comedy, it always had place for real feelings and real pirates. In Escape, everything is a caricature. Pop culture references have lost their former subtlety and are now on full rampage. Voodoo and ghosts are treated with toothless negligence. Pirates have turned into friendly gimmicks for tourists.

The puzzles are a mixed bag. Some of them are way too obscure, while others are surprisingly easy and not rewarding enough. The "pinball" puzzle on Monkey Island is a pain to solve, as there are no clues provided. On the contrary, the manatee puzzle on Jambalaya Island is disappointingly simple, although it was supposed to be one of the central issues in that part of the game. Monkey Kombat is a nice idea, but the moves are too hard to remember unless you write them down, and the whole thing becomes boring even before you realize that the entire finale of the game is based on it. The elegance and smoothness of gameplay, shared by the three earlier games, cannot be felt anymore.

The Bottom Line
I had a tough time with this review. I finished the game two times and there were moments I enjoyed quite a bit. But truth has to be told: the magic is gone. Escape is deceptively familiar, luring fans into a sponsored orgy of recycling that casts a shadow over the series. There's too much Monkey Island in it, and not enough true creativity.

The Good
When talking of recent Hollywood comedies like American Pie or Road Trip, you would most likely describe them as really funny movies, though no necessarily good ones. That description fits perfectly well on Escape from Monkey Island.

The fourth instalment of the famous series of adventure games is still guaranteed to make you laugh. Nice dialogues and the occasional slapstick animation make for a relaxed and humorous ambience that encourages you to press on -- eager to hear the next punch line.
However, the feat of being a funny game is lessened if you take into account that all the good gags are either allusions to past episodes (“Oh yeah? You fight like a cow!”) or even the recycling of humorous mechanisms introduced with Monkey Island 1 (take a closer look at the course of many dialogues). As EFMI contents itself with cycling through all the well-known characters and locations, it neglects the need for originality.

The Bad
A good adventure needs to be thrilling like a film, yet interactive like a computer game. That is to say that its two most important features are the presentation (scenario, characters, plot) and the puzzles. Unfortunately, Escape from Monkey Island is weak in exactly these two categories.

Suppose a friend invited you to her home, and for one reason or the other she didn’t give you her house number. You’d be forced to ring at every door in the entire street, probably going through some embarrassing situations. This is a lot like the puzzles in Escape from Monkey Island: you know the task at hand, but there’s often not the slightest hint on the next step for fulfilling that mission. You’re thus inclined to go from door to door, sorry, location to location, trying anything, sensible or not, to see if you’re lucky.
An example: to enrage one old businessman, Guybrush has to spray cologne at a stuffed animal in the guy’s mansion. This is a strange puzzle all right, but what is more, you are never told that the animal might be of any use, nor that the man might react to the perfume. Consequently, you can only find the solution by guessing. This is a grave mistake in design -- to solve a puzzle, you need to know that it’s there. The majority of puzzles in EFMI are unnecessarily complicated due to a lack of hints and guidance. Don’t get me wrong -- I don’t want to suggest that the solution should be apparent. But the parts of the problem should be. As a mathematician would put it: you cannot solve an equation if there are too many unknowns. It is ample evidence of incapacity if a game forces its players to resort to wild guessing and trial-and-error item usage rather than logical thinking.

Ryan Prendiville has stated in his review that “A few of the puzzles in the game were near impossible, but they were rare.” Although this is true, it is not the point. The point is that not a single puzzle in the game is really cool.

You should think that the pirate scenario is idiot-proof, and to a certain extent this is true. Even though Escape from Monkey Islands stains the pirate flair with a half-hearted attempt at consume criticism, there is still magic in the idea of a Caribbean adventure. However, every scenario is only as good as the characters that make it come alive. The persons populating EFMI are uninspired stereotypes. LucasArts has done a remarkable job at turning Guybrush’s and Elaine’s relationship into the strong-woman-weak-man cliché that even daily soaps are ashamed to use any more. Guybrush is stripped of everything but his childlike naiveté and left to be humiliated at every occasion, pirates are toothless Disney-type cuddly toys, and arch-enemy LeChuck is reduced to a rather clueless brawler with few scenes. Does it even matter that the vindictive, bloodthirsty ghost pirate first appears at Guybrush’s mansion for a brief chat, then walks the streets of the town without anyone seeming to care too much? The plot is weak, full of holes and altogether hardly a reward for the player’s efforts.

Let me give one last comment on the presentation and control of the game. Mark Isaakson said in his review that “The more free flowing gameplay (less use of the mouse) is an interesting move, but in the end, it's a good one.” I do not see where the abolishment of the mouse contributed to a more free flowing gameplay. On the contrary, I am now forced to control the protagonist by hand, aim at objects, avoid bumping into obstacles, scroll endlessly through the inventory and use 11 (!) keys to perform actions, all of which I could do with one single click of the mouse.
Personally, I think the rendered backgrounds with their plastic look to be cold and empty, but that is a matter of taste.

The Bottom Line
Escape from Monkey Island is not a bad game, but it is definitely a disappointment. Lacking the sparkling brilliancy of its predecessors and suffering from some severe mistakes in game design, the weakest episode of the series is also a step backwards for the whole adventure genre.

The Good
There is one thing you can always count on in a Monkey Island game -- laughs, and this is no exception. Escape From Monkey Island is revamped with 3D environments and the control system has been streamlined and simplified. I like the new controls, a mouse is no longer used and there is no more of the hunting and clicking that plague adventure games. The environments for the most part are okay but it is really the characters that shine. They skins are really wacky and suit the characters. The voice acting (like most Lucasarts games) is top notch. The game is hilarious and will have you playing over just to hear all the jokes.

The Bad
A few of the puzzles in the game were near impossible but they were rare. At times I thought some of the environments felt cold.

The Bottom Line
If you are not familiar with the piratey goodness of Monkey Island I highly recommend getting the first three. If you have played the first ones this one is just as good.

The Good
The laughs are always there, no matter where you go in the game, which is a welcome relief from all those serious RPG's from the past few years. 3D environments are a welcome addition to the saga, with a great amount of detail put into the characters as well as the backgrounds. The more free flowing gameplay (less use of the mouse) is an interesting move, but in the end, it's a good one. But it's the laughs that make the game, no doubts there.

The Bad
Some areas of gameplay are a little tricky, but rare, which is a good thing. The only other problem I had was when the game ended. I just didn't want to stop!

The Bottom Line
Well worth the CD it's burned onto. If you are yet to purchase a Monkey title, then start at the beginning, just to get a hold on the storyline. Otherwise, a must have title in your collection.

The Good
Unlike some of the other reviewers, I didn't have a problem with the 3D graphics. The animation in particular, was done with aplomb eg Guybrush moonwalking after winning 'monkey kombat'. The Monkey Island world was still there, with a lot of the old characters as well as some new ones. Marco de Pollo, the diver, was funny as were the judges for the diving competition. The puzzles and the humour were also there but.....

The Bad
....none of them were quite strong enough to carry me effortlessly through the game as they did in the other MI games. The problem was that the plot was rambling and unfocused, and there were no enough dramatic highs and lows. The formula seemed tired and a bit overworked, and the game was overlong. My guess is that MI4 suffered from being the brainchild of a massive team of programmers and designers. We have a saying in England: too many cooks spoil the broth...

The Bottom Line
I'd like to think this is not the last of the Monkey Island games, but there were signs to suggest that the series has run out of steam. This is definitely the weakest of the four. Having said that I thought MI3 was better than 1 and 2. If they exercise some tighter editorial control for the next outing (if there is one), perhaps LucasArts can get the series back on track.

The Good
Escape from Monkey Island is the fourth instalment in the Monkey Island series from LucasArts, and it is a bit different to the previous three games. In The Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush went to great lengths to find the real engagement ring to put on Elaine's finger, and break the pirate curse that caused her to turn into a gold statue. He then buried the ghost pirate LeChuck under a block of ice, and proposed to Elaine, a proposal in which she had accepted.

They started their new life on Mêlêe Island’, an island that is part of the Tri-Islands area, the same island that you explored in The Secret of Monkey Island. But the both of them have a little trouble. You see, Elaine has been declared dead and her famous mansion is to be due for demolition. Furthermore, an election is to be hold that could kick Elaine out of office, replacing her with a new governor - none other than LeChuck. Since they are married, you often hear Elaine calling Mr. Brush such names like "snookums", "honeybun", and "love of my life" all throughout the game. Very typical for a married couple.

EFMI has you starting on Mêlêe Island’. You will notice some differences of the structure between this and the first game. When I explored Mêlêe for the second time, I was surprised at how small it is. The jail, the antique shop, and the church is no longer here. Instead, these were replaced with a huge block of land that leads up to the Governor's mansion. Something tells me that it all has to do with the Australian land developer that you will have to deal with later in the game. And where are the Governor's dogs? She must have sold them to somebody else, or they were put down after Mr. Brush drugged them.

Unlike the previous MI games, EFMI is in 3D. Because it was all the rage post-millennium, that is how today's games are done, and it is no use complaining about it; technology has to move forward sometime in the future. I'd say by the year 2015, 4D will be introduced, which will be heaps better than 3D, but I might be wrong. As they say, who knows what the future holds.

You control Mr. Brush by using the keyboard to move him around, use items, speak to people, and access his inventory. When you access the inventory, it comes up on the screen nicely, and I admire the way that it cycles between different objects in the form of a circle. The inventory is closed the same way that it is opened. Pressing [F1] on the keyboard allows you to save and load a game, erase saved games, change different options, view certain cut-scenes, and return to or exit the game. You can store up to 20 pages of saved games, and some will require you to insert the game's second CD if you saved much later in the game. I still don't understand why Lucas decided to remove mouse support from the game, if the mouse is widely used in other games.

I always look forward to playing 3D games, and EFMI is no exception. As a result of the 3D engine that LucasArts used, the graphics look great. Each scene is done nicely. Mostly all the characters are modeled perfectly, and some of them look amazing and reminds me of my childhood days. Elaine, for example, has never been cute before, especially in 3D.

The sound is very good. At the very start of the game, when you are on board the ship, you will hear a tune that sounds like one of those pirate songs, without the lyrics. The music that can be heard on the overhead maps are the best, in my opinion. Some of the music is actually a combination of reggae and jungle music, and suits the scenario very well.

And what about the humor? Well, EFMI carries a lot of humor, and plenty of it lies within the tasks that you have to accomplish throughout the game, as well as the conversations that you have with the different characters that you meet in the game. On Jambalaya Island’, for example, you have to navigate through the swamp, and you have to do business with your future self by saying the things that he just said, and if you mess up, a hole will appear, which will suck you back to the start of the swamp. Like the first game, you have to tour Monkey Island’ again and do business with Herman Toothrot, also in the first game. You have to keep hitting him with certain objects so that he can regain his memory. And I did not forget the in-one-door-and-out-the-other trick back on Mêlêe.

The familiar characters, like Stan, the voodoo pristess, and Mr. Brush himself, are voiced by the same actors. And some of them sound like the ones that I heard from various cartoon shows. The talking figurehead, for example, sounds like Bobby from King of the Hill, and one of the pirates on Jambalaya sounds like Agnes from The Simpsons

The Bad
Although each character gets voiced by the same person as in CMI, not everybody gets the same treatment. In CMI, Elaine had a British accent, yet in this game, she carries an American one. As for Murray, the talking skull, he was so much funnier in CMI, but in this game, I found him quite annoying just to hear him trying to lure people to Planet Threepwood (a parity of Planet Hollywood). This give me the impression that both of these characters were voiced by different actors.

I hate fighting games, but when I had to play Monkey Kombat with a bunch of monkeys in order to continue the game, I felt a little bit annoyed. The game is slightly different to Mortal Kombat. You see, you have to defeat your opponent using the right calls and stances, and you have no time limit. Not only did I have to play it once, but thrice. Sometimes it was a bit boring to watch my opponent beat me, as I did not have a clue what calls that I need to use to beat him. Even if I did not use the right calls, I managed to reduce my opponent's meter, but every time that I did so, I was forced to perform a save-if-you-win-and-restore-if-you-lose routine, just in case I made a mistake. At the end of MK, I realized that it is important to write down all the calls and stances, as well as what stances beat others. And that's what I did.

I saw a map of the Tri-Islands area, and I was disappointed that the game did not allow me to travel to all the islands on that map. There are only about three islands that you can travel to, but not including those islands.

The Bottom Line
If you like 3D adventure games like I do, give EFMI a try. it's much longer than the previous three.

If you have played the past Monkey Island games, you will be happy to know that most of the characters from the original keep returning in later sequels and have developed over the years. I just heard from Lucas that there is not going to be a Monkey Island 5. I personally like to thank Mr. Brush for the great adventures that he joined me on.

Rating: ****

The Good
There's no such thing as "Monkey Island" without the excellent music. This time, the original MIDI theme got escorted by a full orchestra- including trumpets and drums. It's a pleasure just to hear the game... The character's voices are wonderful, with each character having a unique accent which adds a new layer of personality.

And, of course, there are the jokes- there's nothing I can say about them... They're there, they're nice (not very original, but nice) and that's about it.

The Bad
It's a lethel dose of Monkey Islandlessness... There are many qoutes and ideas that got ressurected from the original Secret of Monkey Island, and I simply don't feel it's a new game. I meet the same characters who has the same jokes (Carla and Otis?! C'mon...) I've the same opponents and the same challanges.
Another problem is the new point of view. The game has an odd, isometric 3rd person perspective, and the controls are odd and uncomfortable, resembling Alone in the Dark. Personally, I prefer using the mouse to point and click like a normal person, rather than running around with bowls of pretzels.

The Bottom Line
Or like I said to my friends- Monkey Island 5 will be...
Holocaust on Monkey Island - The First Person Shooter

The Good
I wasn't going to buy this game; I hated Monkey 3, and the fact that this was 3D made me surer in shying away. After all, I thought, Grim Fandango only worked because they elegantly sidestepped the problem: Everyone looking stylized and acting sort of stiff and lifeless was an integral part of the setting. But when I saw a used copy, I knew I couldn't resist seeing just how close it came to the mark.

The 3D characters actually work out better than I had expected - they're full-body caricatures in varying degrees of exaggeration, which mostly works allright. The best example of this is one of the first characters you meet, a man whose spine is absurdly curved from carrying heavy rocks. As usual with 3D characters, the sticking point is the way they move; it's either too stiff, or too fluid and liquid-like, but the suspension of disbelief required is not too great. Monkey 4 follows Grim Fandango in using practically the same quality of rendering for cutscenes as for in-game action, which means the transition goes almost unnoticed.

The pre-rendered backdrops go some way towards avoiding that cliché look, but don't quite get there; there's a suspicious absence of dirt and grime, and wherever there's a large flat space, the texture tiling becomes obvious. Combined with an overt fondness for round corners and happy pastel colors, the game often looks too much like an amusement park made entirely out of candy.

Also like Grim Fandango, Monkey 4 uses an Alone in the Dark-style control system, which can be annoying when you've come to know an area and just want to get around quickly. The controls are exceptionally awkward on the map scenes, where you're aching to just point to where you want to go, but instead have to direct Guybrush with the arrow keys, carefully navigating the turns and twists of the paths.

The inventory is a bit more abstract this time around. Pressing "I" brings up a carousel of the items currently stuffed down your pants, pressing "U" while looking at an item will make it drop out of the carousel; you can then select another item to combine it with. (Thank Shub. Wouldn't be Monkey Island if you couldn't try to make a longbow with a plunger and a fishing pole.)

It appears that the team have spent quite a bit of manpower on the conversation, which is one of the better things about this game; at several points in play I found myself unable to choose between conversation lines because I couldn't make up my mind which one would make the funnier joke, and there are many trains of conversation which are pure whimsy.

The references to previous games are actually not that imposing this time around, the recycling of known characters being kept to a reasonable level. The problem, though, is still the same; most of the new characters aren't very memorable. Now repeat after me, kids: "Milk & Cheese" is funny. "I. Cheese" is not. I'd commend the reference to the Monkey 2 puzzle that comes around twice, except that it's one of the worst puzzles in this game.

A nice touch is the variety of roaming characters: In a couple of towns there are random wandering people, you get to see Elaine campaigning around Mêlée Town, and characters can follow you. This goes some way towards helping the emptiness often felt in 3D games.

The Bad
It doesn't begin with "deep in the Caribbean..."

But seriously, the things that really spoil this game are the anachronisms and out-of-place refs to US consumer/pop culture. In the first two Monkey Islands, there were plenty of anachronisms, but they were scattered and adapted to not spoil the pirate-era feeling too much; in Monkey 4, practically half the game is a blatant anachronism - especially jarring are the references to Starbucks and microbreweries. It doesn't become it, it feels like the designers really wanted to make a modern-era game.

The excuse for pulling these anachronisms is that the villain of the day plans to turn the Caribbean into a harmless, family-friendly tourist trap. It's ironic that the game seeks to lampoon this, while at the same time turning out to be the most harmless and uncontroversial of the series. Think about it: in Monkey 1 we have burglary, a decapitated talking head and a lunatic castaway cracking jokes over the corpse of his shipmate, in Monkey 2 voodoo dolls, necromancy and crossdressing, in Monkey 3 piracy and skin grafting without a license... Monkey 4 is an unceasing barrage of pastel shades and Guybrush being fickle and well-meaning, at most resorting to petty theft, serving alcohol to animals and reviving the occasional childhood trauma. I mean, they don't even dare use the word "hell." What the heck is that?

All this could be forgiven if the jokes were hilarious enough. And although there are laughs, they seem to have turned the 'wacky' screw one turn too far in. Now, the first Monkey Island refs Monty Python, whose comedy secret was not only absurdity, but deadpan; people performing absurd tasks with utterly solemn faces. And Monkey 1 & 2 were partially the result of understanding this. Monkey 4, however, goes for camp rather than subtlety, dangling things like steam-driven brass monkeys in front of you and shouting "Look, monkeys! Monkey funny! Laugh, damn you!"

True, they got it right that Guybrush bumbles about and gets insulted a lot, and Elaine seems more in character than in #3, but it's still not quite there.

The puzzles are a bipolar blend of well-hinted, fine-crafted, funny problems and awkward, out of place, poorly hinted ones. I'd say only about one-third of the puzzles are of the good kind: In particular, I disliked most of the puzzles on Lucre Island - even though the ideas behind them are very original, the execution fails badly. Not to mention the whole 'free prosthetic' puzzle, which made no sense at all. But, when the puzzles work, they work beautifully; finding the bronze hat, illuminating the seabed and stopping the demolition man are all memorable moments.

There are a few arcade-flavor sequences, which can get annoying, though they're mostly exercises in taking notes rather than split second timing. And there's one annoying time limit: At one point, the time you have in a location is barely enough to discover all the objects within it.

The music is okay, though it seems to aim to please a bit too much; I only found it noticeable when it recalled themes from the first two Monkey Islands. The modern incarnation of the iMuse sound system doesn't seem to make much of itself; nowhere did I notice any of the smooth transitions that were so brilliant in Monkey 2. On the other hand, the voices are pretty good; even though Guybrush's voice annoyed me in Monkey 3, I thought it worked nicely here. It's a shame though, they seem to be using some voice compression tech that mangles the high tones.

And finally, the last two chapters form a steep downhill slope, ending somewhat over-the-top, strained and hurried (though it's not nearly as pathetic as Monkey 3).

The Bottom Line
The end result is a mixed pleasure, fun in parts, but... I just wish the effort could have been spent on something where they didn't have to lean on past greatness, microwaving a dead monkey and jiggling it to make it look alive: Monkey Island without Ron Gilbert just isn't right.

Bonus point for allowing latin-1 characters in savegames.

The Good
This comes with the typical Lucasarts quality. The soundtrack is ok (if worse than Grim Fandango's), the graphics are ok (if worse than Grim Fandango's), the cutscenes are adequate (if worse than Grim Fandango's), and the characters and their personalities are typically well brought across (if not as good as Gri...well you get the point). Some of the locations are enjoyable, I particularly liked the diving game. The voice acting is generally good (even though Guybrush is too significant a personality, and should never have been given a voice no matter how good the actor). Some of the voices were brilliant however, the hippie diving judge for example.

The Bad
Look lets get one thing straight: just because it's a game that's trying to be funny, it doesn't mean it IS funny. Monkey Island 1 was slightly amusing at times, so was Monkey 2. Monkey Island 3 was NOT. And neither is this, only even less so. This is not funny AT ALL! It has less wit than most children's cartoons. Watch some if you don't believe me. This is told like a story for 5yr olds. It is NOT funny. Got it? Some of the ideas are drained to the last drop, like Monkey Kombat, which wasn't very interesting to begin with. Monkeys are cool, but it's not a selling point so don't fill the game with them. The cut-scenes look worse than Grim Fandango's and that was made 2 years before; the camera doesn't swoop gracefully and artistically like the aforementioned Lucasarts title. It's too static, and they're never very interesting anyway. The plot is dull. Ideas are rehashed mercilessly. The series should have stopped when it still was respectable. Now it's a cash in, and even the critics still applaud it.

The Bottom Line
About as worthwhile as Rocky 5. Seems even Lucasarts aren't daring to be original anymore. This is typically well presented but lacking any substance or worth. Great adventure games look at this, laugh and call it names behind it's back. The series, once great, is now a cash-horse. Just try and remember the days when Lucasarts created Loom. Remember all the talent they once had. Someday people will look at this and say it's bad the way they say no3 was bad. They thought it was brilliant when it was released yet look at it now. Lets hope they pull it off for the next one, otherwise they'll take the Bullfrog route.

The Good
I love the hilarity of this game - as with all other MI games, the jokes are common and well executed, meaning that the player always has a smile on his/her face.

The storyline is pretty good, although perhaps not as strong as the previous games, and it lets the player truly become a part of the experience.

The Bad
Unfortunately, there was a lot more to dislike in this addition to the series.

Firstly, the graphics are horrible. When 3D was advertised for it, we all thought "great, it'll look awesome" - but how wrong we were; since it runs in extremely low resolution, it can look pretty jagged on the big monitors. The facial expressions are not clear enough due to the image distortion, and this takes a huge chunk out of the game, as a lot of the game is based around reaction and timing (which TV comedies also rely upon).

Secondly, I don't like the new control method - I prefer the classic point and click interface, rather than having to use the keyboard to control Guybrush. Often, while running, I will end up going to the wrong place because of the difficulty I have in controlling the character: Point and click was far more efficient. Also, various parts of the game were extremely difficult to master, like Monkey Kombat - this is an adventure game and should not have something that is so hard to beat present in an action game form. With the insult sword fighting of Monkey Island 1 and 3, and the insult arm wrestling of this game, at least it wasn't too difficult and was incredibly amusing - but Monkey Kombat simply doesn't have the enjoyment, and is more of a 'chore' than anything else - this is something I really disliked.

The Bottom Line
Probably worth buying, but ONLY if you have played the other games in the series first; otherwise, avoid it as it will make little sense to you and you will probably find the poor graphics and control difficult to master and not worth the hassle.

The Good
Dominic Armato is perfect as Guybrush. The story was original, and some new characters (Ignatius Cheese and Ozzie Mandrill in particular) were welcome additions. The music was... well, Monkey Island music.

The Bad
Firstly, the graphics. When I first heard they were going to be 3-D, I was skeptical, but still kept my hopes up because LucasArts hadn't disappointed me yet. But not only is the new look awkward and blocky, it's very hard to move around and get the hang of. Now, the voices are always good, as are the characters, but it's unbelieveable that with the LucasArts' discovery of Murray (the demonic skull) in The Curse of Monkey Island, and the immense popularity of the character, he was only in one scene.

The Bottom Line
This is not a great adventure game. It's good, but if you haven't played an adventure game, or especially if you haven't played a Monkey Island game, don't play this just yet. Wait until you've played The Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Day of the Tentacle (and maybe even a few more) before you try this, because this is not what a great adventure game should be. And a note to LucasArts if they happen to read this: please go back to the cartoon-style of The Curse of Monkey Island. I understand that 3-D is the way of the future, but just as movies like Shrek haven't gotten rid of the animation style movies like of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, there is always room for 2-D animation, if it's better than 3-D, which you've proven in Escape from Monkey Island.

The Good
The fact that it's Monkey Island!, the seires of games which has been on the PC since 1990 and now for the first time, it is now in 3-D!. The game is so funny and is full of pop culture references and parodies. Some old favorite characters make a return appearence (including Murray from MI3, Carla, Otis and Meathook from MI1, Stan and the voodoo lady from all the Monkey Island games)

The Bad
The controls are a bit iffy at first, and some might not like the change from 2-D to 3-D. To some people the Monkey Island seires was better off in 2-D and also you'd need to play the first three Monkey Island games in order to get some of the jokes in this game.

The Bottom Line
Lucasarts have done it again!, another adventure that will become a classic

The Good
The backgrounds looked quite good.

The Bad
The 3D interface, the game's humour had turned into plain stupidity, some of the puzzles were much too hard, and the loss of the 2D point-and-click interface.

The Bottom Line
The 3D interface is not very good as there are some bugs in it, but the graphics was OK. Guybrush Threepwood and the other characters weren't funny anymore either, and some of the puzzles are extremely hard to solve.

The Good
The graphics look really amazing in this game, the gameplay is great, and the music is well, Monkey Island!

The insults are even better, the humour is great, and this game is really, really, cool, I don’t know if anybody noticed, but Gybrush is so much cooler in this game than he was in episode 3!

You play Gybrush Threepwood, you return from your honeymoon to find that your wife (also the mayor of Melee Island) has been declared dead! You have to go and talk to the lawyers on Lucre Island, while you are there you stumble upon adventure!!!

The Bad
I find nothing wrong with this game.

The Bottom Line
Shiver me timbers and poke me other eye out if this isn’t the coolest game ever, My personal rating for this game is 10 out of 10, as the Voodoo lady would say: I advise you to buy this game!

The Good
The fact that it's a Monkey Island game alone should excite anyone, and it did me. The return of the guy who voiced Guybrush from part 3 was rather good as well.

The Bad
Where to start? Once I heard that they were going to make it a 3D adventure type game, like Grim Fandango I started to worry. But, I still had faith considering it was a Monkey Island game, and they wouldn't let down their fans. Boy was I wrong. Not that I'm saying Grim Fandango was a bad game, I actually loved it, even though it did get boring at times. I just didn't like the graphics, and Monkey Island 4's graphics are even worse. Added to this, the whole perspective which we view Guybrush from seems really distorted and at a weird angle, which really annoyed me. But the most important aspect had to be the gameplay. Man this game bored me so bad I had to use a walkthrough for most of it. It was so...repititive. Considering that the creators were the guys who made Sam & Max and Maniac Mansion, I hoped for a lot more. Oh well.

The Bottom Line
Don't bother. Play Monkey Island 1-3, and forget they even made this one. With news of a Monkey Island 5 in production, I really hope Lucasarts puts their act together and brings back Ron Gilbert...although I doubt it. At least bring back the guys who made part 3 and revert the graphics back to either the style of 1 & 2 or the comic look of 3. Please.