Return to Monkey Island is a mighty wave of nostalgia that caught me unprepared, as I took on the review only because no one else on the team was interested. And I must confess a secret: I was never a big fan of Monkey Island. I encountered the series in a completely wrong way – playing The Curse of Monkey Island first, and only in 2009 did I play the original game in its remastered edition. I haven’t played the other parts of the series, and now you’re probably wondering what nonsense I’m writing – how could I be hit by a wave of nostalgia about something that I mostly don’t even know?
Well, that’s the magic of Return to Monkey Island. The game welcomes new players with open arms, even though the celebration is mainly for old fans. The atmosphere of this game is so good that it simply carries you away – you become convinced that you have experienced things that are talked about, even if you may not have been there when they happened.
If You are looking for another retro game, or at least an excellent remaster, check out Metroid Prime Remastered.
The Look and Feel of Return To Monkey Island
From the start, you see an interactive album introducing or reminding you of Guybrush Threepwood’s previous adventures. The entire history of Monkey Island is explained there very directly, with incredible simplicity and charm. Then, this narrative style seamlessly continues into the new story.
The best thing about Return to Monkey Island’s storytelling is that introducing players to Guybrush’s past adventures doesn’t sound like a boring history lesson. It is well woven into the plot that you overlook when dialogue aims to trigger memories of the old days. Every reminiscence of past adventures is usually concise – never tiresome or forced. But Guybrush’s comments make you feel nostalgic pride in everything he has experienced and survived.
The Story, No Spoilers Included
Chronologically, Return to Monkey Island occurs between the series’ second and third games. The new story begins with Guybrush telling his son how he discovered the secret of Monkey Island. This includes a return to the main island and familiar locations on Mêlée Island. There, Guybrush encounters many old characters: his nemesis LeChuck, his wife Elaine, friends Otis and Carla… Most old characters have new roles – although they haven’t moved beyond Mêlée Island, they continue to live their lives. Only Guybrush and LeChuck are focused on the past and race again to be the first to uncover the great secret of Monkey Island.
In this regard, Return to Monkey Island is an excellent lesson on why it’s not good when a person is obsessed and fixated on one goal in life. And it’s certainly not the first or last game with that lesson – something similar even ran through Uncharted 4 (which coincidentally also had a pirate theme). However, Return to Monkey Island has that note of reminiscence and an additional layer to its message. I won’t say more than that because it would be in spoiler territory.
The conclusion of the game is… peculiar. At least you receive confirmation of what the poet wanted to convey (or, in this case, the developer). That part functions well through the video game; it’s effective precisely because it’s achieved interactively. Once everything fell into place, this is one of the best stories I’ve seen in games in the past few years. The story itself isn’t so impressive; it’s how it’s narrated.
The Old School Nature of Return to Monkey Island
You can feel the style of the old-school LucasArts, similar to what Psychonauts 2 has. It’s most noticeable in the sharp humour that has, on several occasions, made me burst into loud laughter. The quality of humour lies in Return to Monkey Island, which does not forcefully try to be funny. The game incorporates things amusing to the creator, and he wasn’t obsessed with whether others would find them funny. The game makes fun of itself, with jabs about the new visual style or comically reenacting scenarios. At one point, LeChuck shouts, “Damn you, Guybrush Threepwood, I should have stopped you the last 58 times I had the chance!”
Humour goes hand in hand with most characters in the game. Several stand out during the ten-hour story, starting with the clumsy Guybrush. His physical comedy carries the game, and seeing how he outwits stronger and smarter characters on his journey is entertaining. Then there’s Otis, who always ends up in jail by mistake, a zombie with a professional deformation of enforcing strictness on everyone, and an enthusiastic museum curator with inaccurate historical facts… The character palette is excellent, and interacting with all of them is a genuine pleasure.
Overall, I can’t praise Return to Monkey Island’s story enough. It simultaneously evokes nostalgia, amuses with new witticisms, and finds a way to convey a lesson that transcends the boundaries of a comedic adventure. I’d love to comment more on that, but I’d instead leave it to you to experience what is worthwhile in this story.
The Gameplay
Return to Monkey Island is a classic 2D adventure, a so-called point-and-click. In this execution, it works well, with the formula being minimally modernized through a few elements. Firstly, there’s a welcome task list that you can consult at any time so you always know your goal. Then there’s a help system if you need help figuring out what to do or how to solve a puzzle.
This help system is interestingly explained in the story’s context, allowing the player a few hints before revealing the direct solution. For example, if you need an item, it tells you where to find it, but it only shows the item you’re looking for on the next step. I wouldn’t say this is the best help system in adventures – I still prefer visual aids like in Machinarium. However, it does its job well, with only one instance of a partial answer that I eventually found online.
The game features two difficulty modes: casual and hard. In the easier casual setting, you have fewer steps to solve particular problems and puzzles, but the gameplay experience is similar to the hard mode. Regarding puzzles, most revolve around finding and using items, though there are occasional creative ones where you must recall something mentioned in a previous conversation.
Return of Monkey Island Puzzles
As fluid as the gameplay is, Return to Monkey Island presents a few abstract puzzles and occasionally peculiar point-and-click logic. For instance, in one situation, I needed to cut something, and for that, I had to look for a knife even though Guybrush had just been waving his sword a minute ago. I understand it’s easier to cut things with a knife than a sword, but in those moments, it feels like the game is leading you by the nose with illogicalities.
As fluid as the gameplay is, Return to Monkey Island has several examples of abstract puzzles or peculiar point-and-click logic.
A few puzzles could benefit from a better design. For example, 75% of the time in the game, there’s an empty item, and you can’t pick it up, so you neglect it and forget about it. And then suddenly, without any warning, the game decides that the item is filled just when you need it, and you’ve already forgotten about it by then.
The Look And Feel
Something strange happened to my impression of the visual style of this game. Before its release, Return to Monkey Island seemed too simplistic to me. Instead of aiming for expressiveness in characters on today’s hardware, they appear in the new Monkey Island as if cut out from a collage. However, all my reservations about the graphics will disappear in the first few minutes you are in the game.
Now, this visual style perfectly suits the humorous 2D game. Return to Monkey Island is among the more beautiful games in the series. It’s undoubtedly more attractive than 3D titles, better animated than the remastered original, and its environment is livelier than in The Curse of Monkey Island, which has my favourite style. In short, I wasn’t expecting to like the game visually, and in the end, this visual style gives it a special charm. It reminds me a bit of the creativity of the old Discworld adventures.
Other segments of the presentation are simply flawless. The music – a delight for the ears! Voice acting in the game – perfect! You know how it goes with these segments – when they are so good, you take them for granted because they blend so seamlessly with the game that you don’t even think about them. I’ll just say that the execution of humour here largely depends on voice acting, and the pleasant atmosphere results from excellent music. This game is a delight when you play it on your headphones, especially our XP-Panthers Sky.
In Conclusion
I played the game’s PC version, and technically, I didn’t encounter any bugs, crashes, etc. It’s an undemanding game, so you only have a few graphical settings aside from the classic resolution change. My only complaint is about the controls, which is odd for a point-and-click game. When it first came out, the PC version had no controller support, which is a strange decision since you can play the game with a controller – but only on the Nintendo Switch version. Now, however, it has full controller support, which was a weird oversight in the beginning.
Return of Monkey Island doesn’t have a formal ESRB rating. We suggest kids older than ten play as the younger kids might prefer to avoid the many jokes or puzzles.
Posted on 10th Jan 2024 by igorthegreat
