Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

"The hilarious seuel to a hilarious game in a hilarious classic series."

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, is the sequel to "The Secret of Monkey Island", a humurous graphic adventure starring Pirate-Wannabe at heart Guybrush Threepwood.

Monkey Island 2:LeChuck's revenge, takes place a few months after the original left off. Guybrush Threepwood, now more mature and quick-witted, has been fabricating his story of how he came to evaporating LeChuck (at the end of Monkey Island 1) all over the place. So much that everyone has been quite sick of the story. Guybrush, determined to prove his worth, begins a search for the most wanted and best-known pirate treasure in the Carribean: None other than the legendary Big Whoop. He sets off with pockets full of riches and no knowledge whatsoever (other than the fact he's looking for it) of the treasure called Big Whoop.

The story unfolds in much the same way the prequel did; leaving many mysteries that add up and arent solved until later. In the last game, Guybrush Threepwood was the perfect character for his environment; determined yet clumsy, unaware yet HILARIOUS, geeky yet ever-so charming. In this installment, he is more quick-witted, but still manages to be MUCH funnier than in the first game (a BIG accomplishment). The jokes are of wry and mature humor, and every time I play I understand a gag that was previously unclear to me.

Guybrush is no longer the dork he used to be. He's lost his geek look and has a cool looking beard and a piratey like jacket, and he seems a little... meaner. Maybe even tougher (but not much, don't worry). The graphics and interface of this game are EXACTLY the same as in the Secret of Monkey Island CD(a VERY good thing), coupled by their VERY close development dates. Monkey Island 2 was already in first stages when The Secret of Monkey Island was only half done. The sound effects are also about the same... nothing special here, and no voice-acted speech. The music... is not quite up to par with The Secret of Monkey Island CD. This sequel was simply never re-coded to take advantage of CD enhancements. Don't get me wrong, the tunes are EXCELLENT. It's just the quality of the music that could have been worked on.

However, like I say for all graphic adventure games, good music, grpahics and interface simply all fall short if the games puzzles arent up to par. The puzzles... in this game... are not quite as well-designed as in the first game, but still excellent. They're a little more frusturating because of their extremely hard difficulty. I beat this game without any hint files, but it took me almost a year to do so. Still, the puzzles are well designed, and I can only think of two occasions when an obstacle had an illogical answer, both near the end. That said, this game is still a quantam leap over any Sierra adventure game in puzzle design.

The non-linaerity of this game is TREMENDOUS. Maybe moreso non-linear than ANY other graphic adventure game I have played. Ever played the pretty non-linear Kings Quest 6? The multiple Island feature is present here, (I cant help but think that Sierra ripped the idea off LucasArts) And it works great. It's rare to run into an occasion where you cant solve at least 6 different puzzles once you get into Part 2, the games largest part by far. There's that much freedom among the game's huge locales, taking away some of the frusturation.

So, how does this game compare to Monkey Island 1 CD? Just as good interface and graphics, almost as good design, almost as memorable characters, even funnier and better dialogue (which does occasionally run long though),a much improved story, not necesarilly better, but tougher challenge, not as good replay value... all in all, I'd say it's better. The main emphasis on the Monkey Island series has been their charm and humor, and this one excells in both. This is my favorite graphic adventure of all time.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99