The fifth Monkey Island game will tickle your funnybone, challenge your logic, and warm your heart.
The game drops us off during the climax of the latest adventure of mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood and his wife, Elane Marley Threepwood as they try to foil the latest scheme of the notorious Ghost/Zombie/Demon pirate Captain LeChuck. Things don't quite go to plan, and Guybrush accidentally turns LeChuck into a human, thus releasing all of his evil as a plague known as LeChuck Pox. It turns Guybrush's left hand evil, and is causing all the pirates in the Caribbean to become quite a bit nastier than usual. What follows is an adventure that will take you from the Carribean to the bottom of a sea monster's belly to Limbo and back.
The control setup for this game works pretty well on a PS3 Dualshock 3, although you can tell that they were ported over from a different setup. It would be nicer to be able to point and click on things as with the PC, but given the limitations of a control pad Telltale has done a good job overall. "Consolizing" point and click adventure games has never been an easy task, but I think that we're getting there. TOMI takes a slightly different approach than Heavy Rain. You move the character with the left stick, use the triggers to reveal all objects / characters who can be interacted with, cycle through them with the shoulder buttons, then "click" them with the X button. You can also narrow down which area of the screen you highlight by using the right stick. It may seem a little confusing at first, but it's functional and you'll get used to it. Also, pressing X will usually activate whatever is closest to Guybrush.
The game is a little longer than the first two games in the series. It took me a little less than a week to get through all 5 chapters, whereas it took me about 2-3 days to get through the first two games (which had a similar amount of chapters). How long it takes you to beat will depend on how often you get stumped. For the most part the puzzles are very well designed, however there were a couple that stumped me pretty bad and had me running in circles trying to figure them out for up almost an hour in some cases. I think that in the future, adventure game developers should focus on giving multiple solutions to some of the more difficult puzzles. That would feel more rewarding to intuitive-minded gamers, and it would also mean less likelihood of getting stumped. Stumping puzzles have unfortunately been a problem in adventure games since the beginning, since they are this genre's equivalent to cheap bosses. However, they at least give you the option to hear Guybrush's thoughts by pressing any direction on the D-pad, which will usually give you just enough of a hint to get back on track.
Overall, the voice acting is very good. Guybrush, Elane, and LeChuck are all voiced by their original voice actors, which will be appreciated by anyone who's a fan of the older games. The new characters are voiced well, also, and given how much talking this game has, it's good that it's not brought down by bad voice acting. The only character whose voice I was disappointed with was Stan. The actor from the Monkey Island special edition games was way better all around. The new actor isn't a bad actor per say, but he is totally miscast. He sounds like a straight-laced schmo, not the obnoxious used car salesman who we loved to hate in the originals. Stan is only in one chapter so it's not like it breaks the game, but it was one of the few moments in the game where I was pulled out of the experience.
There's not really a lot to say about the graphics. Visually, the game doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. It's very colorful, but don't expect high-res textures or lots of geometric complexity. I would have liked for Monkey Island to have more lush visuals with more flourishes, but what's here gets the job done. If you want to show off your new TV, stick with Killzone 2, because a graphical showcase this ain't. At least the characters are generally well designed, and since you'll be looking at them a lot that's important. The animation is a bit of a mixed bag, probably since this is an episodic series. Some of it's quite good, like Elane's sword fights and other such action scenes, but at other times it looks a bit amateurish, probably because they had a limited staff and tight deadlines to keep up with. There was also a weird visual glitch during the game's climax when I played, but I don't know if anyone else will experience it.
Lastly, let's talk story. I've already given you the premise, so I won't bog you down with details. Let's get this out of the way first: it's good. Not only is it peppered with references to the other games that fans will love, and not only is the dialogue hilarious, but also they thankfully don't just recycle what everyone liked in the older games and call it a day. The story takes the story somewhere new, and does a good job of exploring some of the trials and tribulations of married life with Guybrush and Elane. When you have a story where two characters are in a permanent relationship, you have to test their relationship to keep things interesting. Overall, they manage to keep things funny while still providing room for Guybrush to do some soul searching. Also, there's a new character in this game who's sure to become a fan-favorite amongst series aficionados, and might even break a few hearts by the time it's over. This is not just a retread of Monkey Island series with 3D graphics, it's a Monkey Island game for people who have played the rest and want to see the story continue. Even though this is a comedy game, you will definitely be rooting for the heroes by the time it ends.
Overall, if you like adventure games, buy this. Telltale has done a great job culling together a worthy addition to the Monkey Island series, and have also managed to revive what for the last 10 years had been one of Lucas Arts' greatest, but most overlooked franchises. I think it's great that Lucas Arts gave a chance to something that wasn't a Star Wars game, and the end product is definitely appreciated. The only thing left to say is that I want more, and I hope Lucas Arts will give it to us. Even better than another episodic season of Tales of Monkey Island though, would be a full disc-based sequel with AAA production values and some fresh new gameplay evolutions. Telltale did a wonderful job of reviving Monkey Island and moving the story forward, and the next step in my opinion would be to further evolve the gameplay and give us a visual feast that lives up to Curse of Monkey Island.