A classic repainted
Although the gameplay is highly outdated, the game is still incredibly fun to relive. This is pure sentimental value for me and for that alone the game deserves my sympathy. But this release is more than just that. It's a great history lesson for anyone who is interested in the leap of technology in gaming over the past two decades.
If you have no sentimental value for the game whatsoever and are a first time player, you might be a little surprised by the animation cycles of the characters. Since you can switch between the original version and the special edition with the press of a button, the walk cycles are directly layered on top of the old ones. This results in highly enhanced background art combined with clunky animations in the enhanced version. To me, this is not a problem as I understand where it's coming from, but it is debatable whether this was a good idea or not. It makes the special edition feel like a hybrid and I'm not sure that was the right way to go. It's nice to be able to compare the games, but combining them wasn't really necessary.
The artwork in the game is really great. They decided to go with the classic Monkey Island "look and feel" and that takes care of a great atmosphere. The environments are beautifully drawn and show great dedication from the art department. It's seems they knew what they were doing and actually played the series themselves.
The voice acting gave me some mixed feelings. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's not. I like the original voice of Guybrush by Dominic Armato, but it would have been better if some actors called in sick that day. The voice of the narrator was the most irritating for me; I found it way to jolly and they went a little over the top with it. The joke where love is written all over Guybrush's face is one example of this but also reading aloud certain popup messages was a little too much.
The music is a nice overhaul of the original soundtrack, nothing fancy but it does the job.
There really is only one real downside to this remake which is the interface. It does not feel intuitive because the keyboard plays an important role in controlling your character. An old-school point and click adventure shouldn't need to rely on the keyboard whatsoever; this is just bad interface design from the developers. They totally neglected the feel of the original controls. The game sure is very well playable, but the controls feel stiff and strange if you consider this could all be done just by using the mouse.
So whether you a are point and click lover but completely new to the series or a die hard veteran from the old days, you probably should pick up Monkey Island SE. After all those years it still is extremely fun to play!