This light and humorous adventure is definitely one worth trying out. A review by a newcomer to the series.
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition puts players into the shoes of Guybrush Threepwood, a young man who dreams of being a pirate. He winds up on a place called Mêlée Island which is located somewhere in the Caribbean. There he ends up finding pirates who set him out on some trials to prove himself to be a pirate and from there, the game turns into one big adventure.
The game's story and plot is presented and done very well. Let me just get it out of the way that if you're expecting a something deep and philosophical with an emotionally gripping story, then you're looking at the wrong game. The Secret of Monkey Island is more of a fun cartoon-like type of adventure which relies more on witty and amusing dialogue with some well thought out puzzles and it thankfully accomplishes this very well. Sure, the original version game was made back in 1990 and if you were to play that game as a newcomer to the series, the dated graphics would surely drive you away but the writing is one of the things that holds up well even today. The game manages to be genuinely funny and humorous and its cast of wacky and interesting characters really helps lighten up the mood. There's simply no doubt about it, the writing, characters, and story execution is the best part of this game.
In terms of gameplay, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition works like most other point-and-click adventures. You have a set of verbs such as "use", "talk to", "give" and the like which you can use on different items and things in the environment. It's all rather simple stuff when it comes to the controls but the interface between the classic mode and the new mode do differ slightly. For example, in the classic mode all the verbs and the items are located on a bar on the lower side of the screen while the newer mode has a separate pop-up screen for these things. One can also use the right mouse button to automatically perform a commonly used action on something. The controls are all very simple and accessible which works to the game's advantage and newcomers to the adventure genre will have no problem getting used to the game's interface.
Puzzles on the other hand are a bit more complex and inventive. I hardly ever found them ridiculously taxing but they are far from light which was a really nice way to make them. This is good too because the game starts throwing lots of items and interesting situations at you very quickly and it's very satisfying finding out how to use them to your advantage. It's still possible to get stuck and have no idea what to do though, especially if the clues aren't presented too revealingly but there's a reason why I recommend this game as one of the more accessible adventure games in recent memory. The game has a very useful hint system in which a single press of a button can give you some info on what you have to do. Bring up the hint once and it might seem cryptic but it still helps lead you in the right direction. If the hint system is brought up two or three times then the solution to a puzzle might be revealed in its entirety to you and the game might even lead you to the next destination. This makes The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition an interesting adventure game because in that way, it's almost as if the game has a difficulty modifier so that those who have the free time on their hands can ignore the hint system completely and figure out the puzzles on their own (which is ultimately more satisfying) while others who want to get the puzzles over with can do so and proceed with the story. Overall, the gameplay of this game can be summed up as being simple, accessible, and fun.
The graphics of this game are done interestingly to say the least. Like I've mentioned before, neat feature that this Special Edition introduces is the option to switch between a classic mode (which is pretty much the old game from 1990) and a newer updated version of the game. As such, some limitations were made for the newer version of the game which may or may not bother you. Since the developers wanted to allow you to switch between either one whenever you want, the animations of the new models are still very bumpy to mimic the old game instead of smooth which some people may not really like. It was also a bit difficult to find areas in the world map of the latter half of the game (in which you travel to a huge island) because of how there are areas hidden by forests and you have to bring the cursor over them to see that they're actually there which is probably once again because of the attempt to mimic the older game faithfully while creating a newer look. Once again, these are minor trifles but still something that I noticed. Regardless of those issues however, I found the game to be pretty solid for in terms of its graphical style. The new updated look is very clean and smooth which I really liked and if you ever want to experience the old game again (or you don't like the new character designs compared to the ones in the original version) then it's easy to simply press a button and switch back to the classic mode. In the end, I have mixed reactions about the direction they took with the visuals. I honestly like how they allow you to switch between old and new visuals with a press of a button and I'm sure fans of the original game will love seeing the same old animations together with the new visuals but at the same time, it feels a bit dated because of it and a few issues with area and item identification come up.
Audio design is one thing that I found truly excellent in this game. The music was very fitting and it's definitely something I would expect from a pirate-themed adventure. It was also really cool how the quality of the music changes when switching between the classic and new modes which shows that the development team did boost up the sound quality quite a bit for this remake. By far, what I liked the best about the audio was the voice acting. I really enjoyed hearing the characters' voices and together with the wacky dialogue, it reminded me of watching an old cartoon. The characters really benefited from this new addition and rarely did a voice ever seem out of place. The only real complaint I had was that there wasn't an option to turn on voices while playing in classic mode which I wanted to do since there was a part of me that liked the old character designs but other than that, I'd say the audio is perfect.
All things considered, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is a remake that is very well done. The developers did a great job sticking true to the original game and at the same time gave it a new coat of paint. I'm sure that people who played the original game back in the 90's will be delighted with this game and newcomers (such as me) will enjoy it as well. The game is quite short lasting around ten hours or so but it's still a lot of fun and it goes for only $10. I highly recommend it and hope that LucasArts decides to do a Special Edition of the next Monkey Island game as well.
Good Points:
+ Pretty much superb as far as remakes of nearly 20-year old games go
+ Very accessible (even to newcomers to the genre) and a very lighthearted adventure
+ Hint system can be a lifesaver
+ New graphics look very smooth and sleek
+ Music is very fitting and updated sound quality isn't bad
+ Voice acting is done very well
+ Switching between the classic and new versions is a really cool feature
+ Dialogue and writing is very witty and sharp
+ $10 price is perfect for this sort of game
Bad Points:
- Character animations aren't very smooth because of the classic/modern switch feature
- An option to have voice acting with the classic version would've been nice
- Some people may not like the new character art
- The fact that it's a remake of a game from almost 20 years ago kind of gives a dated and lacking feel