Escape from Monkey Island

"If the hero, Guybrush Threepwood, were a monkey, he might've been funnier"

Escape from Monkey Island uses the same formula that LucasArts previously succeeded with in Grim Fandango. LucasArts makes a puzzle game with Escape from Monkey Island, but in order to make it more interesting they attempt comedy and succeed rarely. At least Grim Fandango was funny when Tim Schafer was behind the helm. Escape from Monkey Island plays in the exact same way with the hero making various comments about various objects in the environment. Sometimes you have to solve a puzzle. The puzzles and some of the jokes are where the game falls flat on its face. Rarely does a puzzle make sense and rarely does a joke force a smile.

Story – 6/10

The hero, Guybrush Threepwood, is not funny – and neither is his name despite what LucasArts might think. He cracks joke after joke as though the game world was made for him to make fun of, and it probably was. LucasArts must find him funny, but I doubt many other people will share this view. Only occasionally I found him funny, but that's because he cracked so many jokes that a couple of them hit the mark. It works just like the theory that when you put a couple hundred monkeys into a room with word processors they'll come up with a novel.

Guybrush's life starts out hectic in the game. He's tied to his own ship while pirates raid it. Fortunately a bucket of hot coals falls down at his feet and he's able to destroy the enemy ship (I'll leave the explanation for you to figure out). His wife, Elaine Marley-Threepwood, congratulates him as they return to their home on Melee Island. Elaine happens to be the mayor, except for the fact she learns she is pronounced dead when she arrives. A man tries to destroy her house with a catapult but can't figure out the coordinates to set it at. When Elaine tells him to stop because she is alive he tells her to bring documents as proof since her presence isn't enough to prove she's still alive. To make matters worse she has to go up for re-election against a politician named Charles L. Charles who states his evil intentions to Elaine and Guybrush but shows his good side to the public. It's up to Elaine's dorky husband to get the papers proving she's alive along with the family heirloom, not to mention a whole lot of other plot details. He meets a lot of strange characters such as the villain Ozzie Mandrill who wants to rid the world of pirates and turn the islands into people-friendly places. That won't due for wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood.

The story is somewhat amusing. Guybrush goes through a lot of strange situations, but the game's not quite as funny as it thinks. It has some good jokes at times, but mostly they fall flat. The funniest jokes come from supporting characters. Especially listen for the game's most hilarious moment involving a man who sells walking sticks. As he describes with psychotic intensity the violent intention he has toward Ozzie Mandrill, after stating he's not a violent person, I never laughed so hard in any other game. Also funny is when Ozzie lets his “evil” intentions known (stated in the previous paragraph). Though I wish the game did a little more with this, some comic moments were lost when LucasArts left it alone. Mostly the jokes consist of Guybrush attempting witty remarks. Sometimes I found him amusing, but usually I wished he would just shut up. The game's worst joke compliments its worst puzzle. In one scene, after winning a diving match against the undefeated diver Marco de Pollo, Guybrush taunts the diver by chanting, “Marco,” as the audience follows up with “Polo!” While it's silly, it's still cruel and just not very funny. It only shows how poor of a sport Guybrush is.

Gameplay – 5/10

Escape from Monkey Island starts out as entertaining and rather simple, but becomes a fetch quest where you don't know what you're looking for, and when you find something you don't know what to do with it. After you look on the internet for the solution you will wonder what the developers were thinking. Many of the items utilize the physics and rules of a cartoon world, but the problem lies in the fact that the gamer doesn't know these rules. One of the game's early puzzles has you wrap a deflated tire around a cactus and use it as a slingshot. Another puzzle expects you to replace a manhole cover with prosthetic skin and jump on it like a trampoline. The puzzles are head scratchers when trying to figure them out and head scratchers when you do figure them out either on your own or with help from the web. The solution to the game's most ridiculous puzzle (trying to figure out how to make a smaller splash in the dive competition) will have you rolling your eyes.

Much of the gameplay consists of dialogue sequences. In some RPG's, especially older RPG's such as Dragon Warrior 4, characters would give useful information to the gamer. The dialogue in Escape From Monkey Island has multiple purposes. One is to give useful information (though not as useful as you'd like) and the other is for entertainment purposes. Mainly the game's dialogue tries to entertain. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether some sentences are meant for merely entertainment or to give useful information as well. I wouldn't ask for serious dialogue, in fact I think the game's dialogue is much better than the dialogue in many serious games, but sometimes it seems the game could have toned down a little.

I would like to say that the game has a few entertaining gameplay moments and even some decent puzzles. One puzzle especially the rest of the game should have more closely resembled took place toward the end and deals with rocks and holes. It gives you all the resources you need but leaves the rest up to you to fiddle around with and solve. It's not a fetch quest and doesn't expect you to combine items from your inventory. If more of the game's puzzles were like this I would recommend the game.

One of the game's most memorable moments toys around with time. In it, as the present Guybrush, you run into the future Guybrush who hands you some items and explains everything. Later on, as the future Guybrush, you run into the present Guybrush and you hand him the same items and have to say the same things. This cycle obviously goes on forever. You're given a few choices as to what to say, but the free will is only an illusion since every other Guybrush (future and past) had/has to say the exact same thing.

Graphics – 9/10

The game's cartoony look works very well. The graphics aren't realistic, but to criticize the game for lack of realism would be silly seen as how it doesn't even attempt realism. Since this isn't an action game you shouldn't expect fancy special effects and character animation. What you see is what you get, but what you see sure does look nice.

Sound – 9/10

The voice acting is very good. Much of the time the voice acting adds to the hilarity of the dialogue. Even when the jokes are off the actors do their jobs well. The music and background noise do a good job of adding to the goofy atmosphere without being overly silly.

Longevity – 6/10

This is a decent length game, especially with the length added in trying to figure out what to do next. You might not want to play through the whole game for that reason, though. The game's funniest moments come rather early on, and later on the jokes grow lamer and lamer. Also, if you've heard about Monkey Kombat (an obvious parody of Mortal Kombat, though I'm not sure how besides in the name) you're due some disappointment if you wish to stay and try it out. Its fun figuring out different button combos for each move, but the actual game is too easy and repetitive. It has nothing more complex than performing the move that will beat the other guy's move. I guess you could describe it as Rock, Paper, Scissors (as Gamespot describes it), only you know your opponents move beforehand and you both have health. Performing the same move your opponent performed regains some health for you, but not enough to make it an effective strategy. I don't recommend this game, although I suppose if you played all of the previous games in the series you have no choice but to play this.

Score – 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/05