Pre-ECTS: Escape from Monkey Island

Even though Activision won't have a presence at this year's ECTS show in London, the company did hold its own press event earlier this week called Activate2000. One of the more surprising games at that showing was LucasArts' Escape from Monkey Island, the fourth in the popular series of graphic adventures. Although considered a competitor with LucasArts in the US, Activision is a publisher and distributor of the San Rafael, California-based developer in Europe.

The footage of Monkey 4 displayed at Activate2000 consisted largely of gameplay from the first act. The game's story revolves around the return of the infamous pirate LeChuck, and involves the usual cast of comic characters from the Monkey Island series including Guybrush Threepwood, Elaine Marley, and Otis, as well as a number of new faces. As you can tell from this latest batch of screenshots, the greatest improvement to the game is the incorporation of the Grim Fandango engine. All of the game's characters are made up of polygons and placed against a prerendered 2D background. The polygon count used for the characters is significantly higher compared with Grim Fandango, and the 3D models make use of brand new animations.

Escape from Monkey Island is scheduled for release this November. In the meantime, be sure to check out these new screenshots, linked in our gallery to the right.