Game Review - Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 2

Where's the review of episode 1? I didn't feel like doing one at the time, but it wasn't too different from the second installment anyway, anything I say about this one in general goes for the first as well.

So, where to begin, the not so long awaited sequel to the long awaited sequel to a legendary series of games which I thought would never see the light of day again. Let's get some things clear though, this is not the game I was hoping for. Strictly speaking it barely deserves to carry the name of monkey Island, but somehow scrapes it. Let's look at some of the elements that make up an adventure game.

Writing - It's unfortunate but probably the most important element of an adventure game is also this games major failing. The writing isn't clever and usually, it isn't funny. The writing is functional however and everything is conveyed in a smooth manner. Nothing remarkable here but nothing terrible either. Voice acting is perfectly adequate, but some of the characters in this game are so flat it must be a challenge to give them any personality.

Graphics - A real strong point, the visual design of this game is excellent. This installment also has some of the classiest transitions between screens that I've ever seen in a game. Particularly impressive is when the camera sweeps upwards from an area to show the entire world map. It's hard to fault what tell tale have achieved in the visual department.

Sound - They fetched back the composer from Monkey Island 3 I believe, and it shows. The music in this game is perfect. The mood in every area is set with perfectly fitting ambient music, close your eyes and you'll know this is a monkey island game.

Puzzles - This should be higher on the list really but the puzzles in this game are stretching it. Nothing here should challenge you, the only part that I thought was challenging me actually resulted from me missing an object in the game. Frankly the puzzles are unimaginative. Well, maybe that's a little harsh.


More Puzzles like this please.

It could be the case that Tell Tale didn't want to alienate new comers to the genre by beating them over the head with tough puzzles but still, I was disappointed by the second episode. I was expecting an increase in difficulty from the first episode but I feel this was actually easier. Additionally there was nothing like the chair puzzle from the first episode to liven things up. (That's where the count de fru fru straps you to the chair and you have to use the inventions in his lab to manufacture an escape in case you haven't played it.)

Well, all in all I enjoyed playing through it. It's an enjoyable game and the episodic nature of it meant their was a cliff hanger at the end, so I'll be playing the next one too. I would like to see the writing improve, after all there must be a world of writers out there who would die to write for a game like this (myself included), how hard could it be to find a few that were able to produce something both coherent and funny?

Get some humour, mix up the puzzles a little and there's not much else that could be improved. It comes recommended.

70/100