Name: Return to Monkey Island
Item: Return to Monkey Island
Rating: 9
Author: robiu013

Let's start this out with a bit of story time.

Me and Monkey Island go way back. I don't mean that in a "I played all the games" kind of way. Actually, quite the opposite. I haven't properly played and completed any of them until this point, but I wanted to since I was a child. Enter the year 2000 or so. I used to get babysat at my neighbours place. The son of the house had a PC with a bunch of old DOS games, that we'd get to play for an hour each day (yeah, video games were treated like sweets back then). We played Duke Nukem, a Star Wars FPS I only recall from all the stormtroopers getting shot from laserfire, Golden Axe, Wolfenstein 3D, Prehistorik and a Mario Kart knock-off and our personal favorite back then called Wacky Wheels. Aside from these games one game I always tried to convince the group (we were 3) to play was the original Monkey Island. I guess it was the colourful landscapes and cartoonish graphics that initially gripped me. There was just one problem: It was a story-driven puzzle game and my english skills were pretty much limited to recognizing words while watching Cartoon Network. There was no way we could actually progress through the story other than through sheer luck and trial and error, but I knew sooner or later I would have to return to Monkey Island.

Fast forward to 2022 and it's literally in the title: Return to Monkey Island.

With a gaming laptop on my table, a decently paycheck-filled credit card and fluency in the english language with which I could easily pass as an anglistics student undercover at our local faculty of arts, I was finally ready to take this adventure.

Was the 22 year wait worth it? Yeah, I almost feel a little emotional and nostalgic having finished the game and fully encompassing the story it told.

Let's start the review with the question: "What even is Monkey Island?" Well, it's a point and click adventure game. Colourful backgrounds with lots of interactivity, a story and puzzles to keep you engaged and make you progress to the game's finish line. Gameplay is pretty simplistic: You use your mouse - left click is usually a contextualization or for hearing the thoughts of the main character, right click usually means an action. It's pretty straightforward. It's complexity comes with the lenght and difficulty of the puzzles.

An ambitious young pirate called Guybrush Threepwood is out and about on his search for the cryptic Secret of Monkey Island - a treasure of unknown form, actually. He returned to Meele Island to once again attempt a voyage to the titular island and discover the treasure once and for all. Unfortunately his plan stumbles across many setbacks, the bigger of them being his zombie rival Captain LeChuck with his ghastly crew and the new trio of pirate league leaders.

If the premise seems childish. Well, it kinda is. I was initially a bit held back by just how family friendly the prologue seemed, but the game can still win you over with it's charme as an adult. Oh, and much like a good kids movie it can wander off in some morbid territory and is definitely not looking down on the player. I guess, I should say it's for all ages, but it does initially feel like it's lacking some of the edge modern media of the same tone has. Once the ship sets sail and you start immersing yourself in the world and characters it's only uphill.

As mentioned the gameplay is stretched out with the help of puzzles. Much like fetch quests or logic games you have to figure out who to visit, what to get and which items to combine to get the story moving along. I have to say the puzzles are quite well written and it's satisfying to see them affect and move forward the story. My personal favorite is breaking a salesperson out of jail by prolonging his jail sentence, so he finally deems it too long to wait it out, so you can bring him to a friend with a struggling lime business so he can work out a better marketing strategy for it. If that sounds convoluted, well... play it for yourself, it works and it's great.

The difficulty of the puzzles is nothing too challenging. Well, on casual difficulty that is. Based on my research picking the more challenging mode adds additional sections to the puzzles, which explains why some of them felt a bit abrupt or solved too conveniently on casual difficulty. I should note the easy difficulty is not completely without challenge and it did not feel game breaking to me. If puzzles get too hard you can always consult the guidebook: a handy tool, which points you in the right direction with progressively less vague hints what to do next.

Final thing I should adress are the graphics. Lots of fans found contention in the new style to a point where Ron Gilbert quit posting game development progress on his personal blog due to negative comments and harrassment he received over it. I'd say unjustly, because I love this style. The game looks excellent in my opinion and as some reviewers before me might have pointed out p&c adventures rarely stick to a universal style for their series. Monkey Island is no exception to the phenomenon. Just google Guybrush Threepwood if you want to see the sheer diversity of re-designs the character received.

Anyway, the game gave me 8+ wonderful hours of my life until I reached the story's completion. I assume if I more actively searched for secrets, tried getting more achievements or played on a harder difficulty, I could have amped up the lenght by quite a bit. Overall the journey was every bit as exciting as I had hoped for as a child: fun story, colourful cast of characters, funny jokes and a loving re-handling of the source material, that hit me on an emotional level. Yeah, it was good to finally set anchor on this mysterious island and discover it's secret.

Let's start this out with a bit of story time. Me and Monkey Island go way back. I don't mean that in a "I played all the games" kind of way. Actually, quite the opposite. I haven't properly played and completed any of them until this point, but I wanted to since I was a child. Enter the year 2000 or so. I used to get babysat at my neighbours place. The son of the house had a PC with a bunch of old DOS games, that we'd get to play for an hour each day (yeah, video games were treated like sweets back then). We played Duke Nukem, a Star Wars FPS I only recall from all the stormtroopers getting shot from laserfire, Golden Axe, Wolfenstein 3D, Prehistorik and a Mario Kart knock-off and our personal favorite back then called Wacky Wheels. Aside from these games one game I always tried to convince the group (we were 3) to play was the original Monkey Island. I guess it was the colourful landscapes and cartoonish graphics that initially gripped me. There was just one problem: It was a story-driven puzzle game and my english skills were pretty much limited to recognizing words while watching Cartoon Network. There was no way we could actually progress through the story other than through sheer luck and trial and error, but I knew sooner or later I would have to return to Monkey Island.Fast forward to 2022 and it's literally in the title: Return to Monkey Island. With a gaming laptop on my table, a decently paycheck-filled credit card and fluency in the english language with which I could easily pass as an anglistics student undercover at our local faculty of arts, I was finally ready to take this adventure.Was the 22 year wait worth it? Yeah, I almost feel a little emotional and nostalgic having finished the game and fully encompassing the story it told.Let's start the review with the question: "What even is Monkey Island?" Well, it's a point and click adventure game. Colourful backgrounds with lots of interactivity, a story and puzzles to keep you engaged and make you progress to the game's finish line. Gameplay is pretty simplistic: You use your mouse - left click is usually a contextualization or for hearing the thoughts of the main character, right click usually means an action. It's pretty straightforward. It's complexity comes with the lenght and difficulty of the puzzles.An ambitious young pirate called Guybrush Threepwood is out and about on his search for the cryptic Secret of Monkey Island - a treasure of unknown form, actually. He returned to Meele Island to once again attempt a voyage to the titular island and discover the treasure once and for all. Unfortunately his plan stumbles across many setbacks, the bigger of them being his zombie rival Captain LeChuck with his ghastly crew and the new trio of pirate league leaders.If the premise seems childish. Well, it kinda is. I was initially a bit held back by just how family friendly the prologue seemed, but the game can still win you over with it's charme as an adult. Oh, and much like a good kids movie it can wander off in some morbid territory and is definitely not looking down on the player. I guess, I should say it's for all ages, but it does initially feel like it's lacking some of the edge modern media of the same tone has. Once the ship sets sail and you start immersing yourself in the world and characters it's only uphill.As mentioned the gameplay is stretched out with the help of puzzles. Much like fetch quests or logic games you have to figure out who to visit, what to get and which items to combine to get the story moving along. I have to say the puzzles are quite well written and it's satisfying to see them affect and move forward the story. My personal favorite is breaking a salesperson out of jail by prolonging his jail sentence, so he finally deems it too long to wait it out, so you can bring him to a friend with a struggling lime business so he can work out a better marketing strategy for it. If that sounds convoluted, well... play it for yourself, it works and it's great.The difficulty of the puzzles is nothing too challenging. Well, on casual difficulty that is. Based on my research picking the more challenging mode adds additional sections to the puzzles, which explains why some of them felt a bit abrupt or solved too conveniently on casual difficulty. I should note the easy difficulty is not completely without challenge and it did not feel game breaking to me. If puzzles get too hard you can always consult the guidebook: a handy tool, which points you in the right direction with progressively less vague hints what to do next.Final thing I should adress are the graphics. Lots of fans found contention in the new style to a point where Ron Gilbert quit posting game development progress on his personal blog due to negative comments and harrassment he received over it. I'd say unjustly, because I love this style. The game looks excellent in my opinion and as some reviewers before me might have pointed out p&amp;c adventures rarely stick to a universal style for their series. Monkey Island is no exception to the phenomenon. Just google Guybrush Threepwood if you want to see the sheer diversity of re-designs the character received.Anyway, the game gave me 8+ wonderful hours of my life until I reached the story's completion. I assume if I more actively searched for secrets, tried getting more achievements or played on a harder difficulty, I could have amped up the lenght by quite a bit. Overall the journey was every bit as exciting as I had hoped for as a child: fun story, colourful cast of characters, funny jokes and a loving re-handling of the source material, that hit me on an emotional level. Yeah, it was good to finally set anchor on this mysterious island and discover it's secret.

Return to Monkey Island

Return to Monkey Island

Player Score

robiu013