Monkeys ate my brain
15 Jul 2009 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
karohemdThe first chapter of the new Tales of Monkey Island game is really rather good. Lush 3D graphics, an OK navigation system (once you realise you can also use the arrow or WASD keys to move like in Wallace&Gromit because the click/drag mouse control sucks) and the typical click to interact with/pick up objects and characters controls. The inventory has two special slots for combining items (drag each into a separate slot, click icon) which is a bit tedious. Don't know why you can't just pick up one object and drop it on another as you do in the game world.
Those are the two only drawbacks, really. The dialogue is well acted and reasonably witty and there are enough references to the old games (and other LucasArts titles) to keep oldtimers like me happy. It's not as outrageously funny as the originals but it's not groanworthy, either. The puzzles are all logical but you need to pay close attention to everything on the screen (and the dialogue) and sometimes have to pan the screen with the cursor to find all clickable objects. The timed bits aren't too tricky and doable even on a laptop without mouse and the two map navigation puzzles are nicely done. I think I only had one or maybe two "try everything with everything" moments but when something worked I usually thought, 'Why didn't I think of that?'.
There's no combat in this chapter. I don't know if this is going to change but I'd love to see a return of the insult system or something similar as timed/exact clicking systems rarely work well in point and clickers where the emphasis is on story and puzzle solving, not pixel accuracy.
It took me about seven hours to finish so it's not that long but it's only the first chapter (there's a total of five, one a month) so the full game will be good value for money ($35). I for one can't wait til Chapter 2, especially with that cliffhanger.
As they did with Sam&Max, Telltale made a classic their own while still staying true to the orginal. If you like point-and-click adventures, you'll love this, especially when you've played the three classic ones (and other LucasArts games).
Those are the two only drawbacks, really. The dialogue is well acted and reasonably witty and there are enough references to the old games (and other LucasArts titles) to keep oldtimers like me happy. It's not as outrageously funny as the originals but it's not groanworthy, either. The puzzles are all logical but you need to pay close attention to everything on the screen (and the dialogue) and sometimes have to pan the screen with the cursor to find all clickable objects. The timed bits aren't too tricky and doable even on a laptop without mouse and the two map navigation puzzles are nicely done. I think I only had one or maybe two "try everything with everything" moments but when something worked I usually thought, 'Why didn't I think of that?'.
There's no combat in this chapter. I don't know if this is going to change but I'd love to see a return of the insult system or something similar as timed/exact clicking systems rarely work well in point and clickers where the emphasis is on story and puzzle solving, not pixel accuracy.
It took me about seven hours to finish so it's not that long but it's only the first chapter (there's a total of five, one a month) so the full game will be good value for money ($35). I for one can't wait til Chapter 2, especially with that cliffhanger.
As they did with Sam&Max, Telltale made a classic their own while still staying true to the orginal. If you like point-and-click adventures, you'll love this, especially when you've played the three classic ones (and other LucasArts games).
