Escape from Monkey Island

"Shiver me timbers and poke me other eye out if it ain't Guybrush Threepwood's next big adventure!"

~ Introduction ~

The fourth part of the successful Monkey Island series.
" 'Tis an offbeat adventure of piratey proportions" that's what the box art says. Yes, the game has a good story line like the other but..... they failed with the graphics! I can understand they want to try the game in 3D but WHY, oh WHY did they leave the mouse click movement behind? That's like 80% of the easy game play! This games get a nine because of the good story line and other fun stuff NOT for the controls!

~ Game Play ~ 9/10

Like in The Curse Of Monkey Island you need to pick up things combine them and get something else to advance in gameplay. Move Guybrush from place to place with the arrow buttons aaah!!! Yeah I know, why for gods sake arrow buttons instead of the mouse, No one understands, anyway to continue with the good side of the game ... Talk to, use and examine things to get information. Go to places, use the item you just combined and get something new. You'll find other cool things too like in the Scumm Bar you'll find dart players, you'll need them to break balloons but you can also ask them to throw a dart in your screen, it's funny but pretty annoying because you'll have some kind of hole in your screen in the scumm bar! There are mini games like swordfighting in Monkey Island 3, it's now called insult armwrestling. You'll need to do this with Captain Cheese :)
Another cool but hard to understand at the first time you play it game is the Monkey game. You'll need to win the matches by using monkey language, aak, eek ook and so on, read the guides for easy playing.

~ Storyline ~ 10/10

Like all the other Monkey Island games this game has a super cool storyline.
This time Guybrush has problems with the government, LeChuck wants to be governor, he transformed him to a human when he's with the people, our little pirate wannnabee needs to stop the evil from ruling the city! He goes back to monkey island and gets stuck there ... again. He'll find Elaine's grandfather there. Other parts of the story you'll need to see for yourself else it won't be fun anymore.

~ Graphics & Music / Speeches ~ 8/10

The graphics are in 3D for the first time in a Monkey Island game! They're not that good but I hope they'll be a lot better in the fifth game! There are cool 3D places where you can go, like the Scumm Bar or Monkey Island, Threepwood's manor and other places. Like TCOMI all people talk, yep speech like you never knew it!

~ Play Time & Replay Value ~ 8/10

Not so good as the curse but still good to play a few times, you don't have a mega monkey version like before.

~ Overall ~ 8/10

A good game but too bad they messed up the controls while trying to put the game in 3D

Rent or Buy? Buy if you enjoyed The Curse Of Monkey Island and you don't mind controlling Guybrush with the arrow buttons.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/04