Charming, witty writing can't save Monkey Island 2 from its obtuse, irritating puzzles.

User Rating: 5.5 | Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge PC
Pros: Some genuine chuckles scattered throughout; That occasional logical puzzle; Easy-to-use, interesting developer commentary

Cons: Way too many puzzles have convoluted solutions; The game constantly forces you to travel back-and-forth for no reason; The hint system isn't terribly useful

Let's get this out of the way: I didn't particularly like Monkey Island 2. Sure, it was a competent game with some mildly enjoyable humor, but it didn't succeed in the area most important: gameplay.

You see, almost every puzzle in Monkey Island 2 is needlessly convoluted. Once you reach the second part of the game, you are constantly travelling between three islands to find map pieces to a treasure. Each of the map pieces you are collecting requires that you have at least one item from each island. Since you have no way of telling which items you will need (and in what illogical way you'll need to use them), this means a lot of tedious backtracking in the long run. This is basically tedious prep work for the actual puzzles, and fetching all the items is not fun.

Then, of course, you get to the actual puzzles, which task you with things like turning a crank using a monkey, storing a dog in your inventory, and interpreting random song lyrics given to you in a dream. While there are occasionally neat "a-ha" moments (such as when you have to win a drinking competition in which you stand no chance), most of the puzzles are either accomplished by frustratingly trying everything or looking up a walkthrough (since the hint system is frequently useless).

Luckily, the writing occasionally takes some of the frustration away. The absurdity of having to wear a dress to a party, or hearing "the hip bone is connected to the head bone" in a dream make for some hearty chuckles. I wouldn't say that it's quite as funny as the original, but Monkey Island 2 definitely has its moments, and overall comes across better than most games in the writing department.

As with the first Monkey Island, the special edition of Monkey Island 2 adds new art, voice acting, and developer commentary. The art is still comical, but a tad bit ugly, and the voice acting is solid, but it's really the developer commentary that stands out this time around. Whenever you are in an area with commentary, the game displays a button prompt that allows you to toggle developer commentary. It's immediately accessible, insightful, and unintrusive-in other words, everything that it should be.

But alas, the game itself isn't everything it should be. Were it a book or cartoon, Monkey Island 2 might pass better, but as it stands, this is a game that just isn't much fun to play. Is Monkey Island 2 entertaining? At times. Is Monkey Island 2 frustrating? Most certainly. Is the "classic" Monkey Island 2 worth buying?

Not really.