Great graphical improvements might make this more playable to those who hate VGA... and that's pretty much it.
Two days ago (yup) I reviewed the first Special Edition in this series, i.e. "The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition", which was abysmal compared to the original game it tried to remake. Today I might surprise you though.
Once again, Monkey Island 2 SE is basically a "spruced up" version of the original game. Gameplay, puzzles, dialogue and storyline have been completely untouched, so this is in fact Monkey Island 2 as it always was. Changes were only made to the graphics, music, interface, and of course the new voice acting. Lucasarts have certainly done a far better job with these improvements than they did with Monkey Island 1 SE, but there are still issues related to the very act of "upgrading" what was already one of the best games ever made.
The primary advantage of this special edition, (I personally would say the only advantage), is that it appeals to younger players who've grown used to high-def graphics and would simply shun old-school VGA adventure games; If they wouldn't play the original because of how it looked, it's good that they at least play this version, and thus learn why the 1990's were called the "Golden Age of Adventure Games". With literally everything being redrawn in HD 32-bit color for this edition, you can bet that the game is stunning and should not turn off any prospective players. Both backgrounds and animations were handled much better this time than they were in MI1SE. The characters, in particular, are much more similar to their originals, much less cartoony, and the animations are far less clunky - especially with the two main characters (Guybrush and LeChuck) who look stunning.
Unfortunately other characters did not receive the same attention as Guybrush and LeChuck, and are still almost as jittery as they were back in the 8-bit days. As I said in the previous review, 8-bit could get away with these, while HD simply cannot afford it. It's too glaring and obvious. Just a little more effort would've helped a lot. Also, with Guybrush's new look and animation style, he stands out even more compared to the other characters, making their inferior animations even more noticeable.
With regards to the music, I really have to praise it because it does a great job of sticking to the original soundtrack while at the same time improving it and making it feel more alive.
The interface, fortunately, bears little resemblance to the mess we saw in MI1SE, and it is actually very workable and unobtrusive. There's no need to use the keyboard aside from things like opening the main menu, which is grand. In some ways it could be said to be superior to the original's interface, and that's no small praise.
Finally we get to the voices, and these are still the weakest part of the Special Edition, though they really aren't that bad. For the most part, the voice actors have done a good job this time, particularly compared to the absolutely horrible voice work in MI1SE. Even Dominic Armato, who struggled with many of Guybrush's lines in the first Special Edition, does good work delivering his lines here. Other characters have much better voices now too, and are far more distinguishable from each other by voice alone, which is swell. They also "ham it up" much less in this game, with some of the voice acting actually being _subtle_, which is mind-blowing compared to MI1SE where every character chewed the scenery with each line.
Armato's biggest remaining problem now is that he's still just not the right person to play the Guybrush of Monkey Island 1 and 2. This character is very different from the one appearing in Armato's first work, Monkey Island 3, and perhaps a different voice actor should've been considered altogether. Barring that though, he does what he can, and at least manages not to mess up the puns. He actually does show some ability to capture the character's intended speech patterns here and there, it's just... not enough.
Overall I'm rather pleased with this version, and although it makes me sad that a Special Edition was required at all (the original was and still is perfect, at least in my opinion), I'm glad the people at Lucasarts have put in the required amount of effort to keep this from being a tombstone for the original. You won't catch me dead recommending this to friends or young cousins, but that's just me - and I feel good knowing that this is how MI2 was treated when compared to some of the awful remakes we get these days (MI1SE being a dismal failure in that respect).
So while I cannot give this game too much of a high score - with some visual annoyances and only "adequate" voice acting by Armato - it's still a terrific game. 9.0 should suit it just fine... though for comparison, the original is still a perfect 10.0 in my book.
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As an added note I would like to comment on a special feature of this edition - the "Developers' Commentary" by Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer - the people who created this game back in 1992 (and many other of the awesome Lucasarts adventures of the golden age). The commentary is played alongside the game during specific scenes, and only on command from the player. It offers some interesting background information which I never knew before. I don't know if this commentary track exists in all versions of the Special Edition, but if you are a fan of the series or of these men's work, I would recommend getting a version that does contain it. There isn't a lot of commentary to be heard, but it's worth it.