The Curse of Monkey Island
My favorite game of all time, hands down. I play it every year or so since I first played it, probably in 2000 where I bought it at a store that sold used video games that came in CD cases (this was a 2-CD game). There is one significant problem with this game: I’ve been searching for its equal ever since, and I’ve never found it. The gentle mix of humor, of lightheartedness, challenging puzzles, voice acting by Dominic Armato, the beautiful graphics and amazing musical score… Nothing comes close. I don’t think that the folks who created this knew what they were making at the time, it was just another game from LucasArts. Bill Tiller did the graphics, and there is something so soothing about the visuals. I think most importantly is the intelligence of the puzzles, where each item you get will be put to use in some creative form later on in the game in a way that makes you think about what you’re doing and what is possible, but doesn’t go too far in difficulty nor is it too easy, either. The fact that all of this came together in one game is truly remarkable feat.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
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I never got the chance to play one Monkey Island game until now, and this is actually my first eventhough it’s the third xD. I’m clearly missing a lot of references to the first and second game, there are some characters that I can tell is not the first time “we” met so I’m clueless to most of the funny bits regarding these ones.
The humor is the best part of the game, at least to me. I had lots of fun with the dialogs and incredibly horrible dad jokes. Puzzles are sometimes hard to understand, there may be very very very little objects you thought you clicked on but you didn’t , maybe you thought you could solve the puzzle certain way because it’s the most logical to you but NOT and the solution is one of the silliest you could ever think of. So yeah, puzzles are not exactly unfair but rather… weird? You just gotta get used to the game’s logic, that’s all.
– Real player with 11.9 hrs in game
Tales of Monkey Island: Complete Season
I cannot really say 100% if this game was worth it or not. I’ve played all the other Monkey Islands in the past, and besides Monkey Island 4, I enjoyed all of them.
I will review this game from different points of view:
- CHARACTERS: Guybrush never gets boring, he is still able to make you laugh and give some funny commentaries on what is happening to him even if the situation seems hopeless. His wife Elaine is even more annoying than she ever was, and also this time she’s one of the main causes of Guybrush’s trouble. Le Chuck is seen for the first time as a human, and the Vodoo Lady has some nice corpse paint on her face. Even some old acquaintances have found their place in the game. There are a couple of good characters which worked well, like De Singe and Morgan, and the side characters also were well thought and hilarious (like the sailors belonging to De Cava’s troupe). All characters were well thought and well designed.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
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**(Review for all five chapters)
A game made by new developers and released almost a decade after the previous episode. Many people thought that “Tales of Monkey Island” wouldn’t be an authentic “Monkey Island” experience. Indeed, some things have changed but this game couldn’t be a better fit for the series. Cool 3d aesthetics, fresh cinematic approach and a new fantastic story meet the well known, awesome humor, imaginative puzzles, beloved characters (along with their original voices) and iconic music. “Tales of Monkey Island” not only met the expectations, but it is also one of the best episodes of this thrilling series. What else do you need to join Guybrush to his new adventures?**
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
Escape from Monkey Island™
They tried to take the pointing & clicking out of a point ‘n click…
Wew this is easily the worst Monkey Island. Which saddens me as it is the only one I played as a kid so I’m pretty nostalgic for it.
The game does not use the mouse at all despite being a point ‘n click..the way the controls work is you control Guybrush with the arrow keys by turning left & right & pressing up to walk forward, Resident Evil style. Instead of highlighting items it shows three options on screen you can select with Page Up/Down depending on Guybrush’s view, so you will have to wrestle with the horrible movement to try and get him to look at whatever thing you want.
– Real player with 18.7 hrs in game
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This game has certainly received a lot of negativity which i feel in many areas is highly warranted. Indeed the controls them self were so awkward compared to previous titles, that I was tempted to fall into the same camp as many before me and write this game off as the miss that sank the series. However persevere and you can uncover a rough gemstone of a game that has stepped its problem solving dilemma’s back up to a standard on par with the best of the series.
Pro’s
- Maintains theme and humour of previous games.
– Real player with 16.9 hrs in game
Monkey Island™ 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge™
|
AUDIO
| Great OST |
VISUAL
| Flexible Eyecandy |
|
DIFFICULTY
| Tough |
VIBE
| Devilish |
|
CRAVING
| Classic Point ‘n click |
ON SALE
| Sometimes |
PROS: Voice-acting is superb, environments are exceptional. iMUSE works beautifully in this, making the soundtrack feel alive. The game is completely unaltered, and concept art from the original development decades ago was used to fill in the blanks instead of simply extrapolating from what could be seen. The puzzles are just enough of a challenge, and the game is a fair length for a point n’ click adventure. Guybrush and all other sprites look fantastic.
– Real player with 34.5 hrs in game
“Monkey Island 2 - LeChuck’s Revenge” comes right from the golden era of point and click adventures games when Lucas Arts was releasing one masterpiece after another. It is easily one of the most hilarious games ever existed while it packs some nice hand drawn visuals, iconic characters, unforgettable music and many clever puzzles. Unfortunately it is also one of the most difficult adventures ever made, so that after many hours of unsuccessful searching you will feel too tired to laugh with its exceptional jokes. If you are a patient type of guy you should try it.
– Real player with 18.5 hrs in game
Blood and Gold: Caribbean!
Tl&dr: whatever you expect from this game (M&B battle style, trading), search for it somewhere else, it is not difficult to find something better.
Mount & Blade engine, extended trading system, naval combat, main story… sounds perfect, what could go wrong? These were my thoughts when I bought this game and I got my answer very quick.. too quick. Everything can go wrong.
Honestly, it feels like someone took Mount & Blade, Sid Meier’s Pirates and Port Royale, stripped all the good parts from all these games and then mashed them together.
– Real player with 130.7 hrs in game
Ok, so my review is basically a bug list that needs fixing from the devs:
Crashes when trying to retreat during special missions. Being able to see the battle play out is ok, but your maps often mess up the pathing, and then it can take forever. There’s no way back to the menu screen then.
Not being able to control your men during special missions. If you ask me to do a 31 v 31 skirmish with native gear against armed enemies, then letting me use the basic mount and blade commands would be nice
– Real player with 100.3 hrs in game
Sea Dogs: Caribbean Tales
I like the freedom to just do what ever you like in the game as far as pirating/trading/missions. And the open world aspect and the way you can capture ships to upgrade/sell or add to your own fleet.
– Real player with 123.4 hrs in game
a nice game, good game play. i really enjoyed it. I cannot confirm the bug reports. The game was stable at all times.
– Real player with 26.6 hrs in game
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
The classic of all classics.
It’s hard to imagine anyone who hasn’t played The Secret of Monkey Island or heard a name Guybrush Threepwood in adventure gaming. Following pirate wannabe on his quest to rescue governor Elaine Marley from the clutches of evil G.P. Le Chuck doesn’t get old even on the umpteenth re-play. Rediscovering old favorites became even easier with an ability to seamlessly switch from 1990s version to a remastered one in-game, at any moment it pleases you. Whether you prefer to look at updated visuals or nostalgically go through the original – you’re guaranteed hours of swashbuckling fun.
– Real player with 22.6 hrs in game
The Secret of Monkey Island is one of the finest games ever created. Impeccably designed, incredibly funny, wonderfully charming. While some areas have aged better than others, I still firmly believe that Ron Gilbert understood the adventure game genre better than anyone else.
I do have a few reservations about this Special Edition however - while I admire the effort put in to update all the art assets, the new style leaves a lot to be desired. It’s reminiscient of the art direction from the Curse of Monkey Island onwards, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but I don’t think it works as well for this game. After Ron Gilbert ceased to be the lead on the series, it took a slightly different approach, which warranted a cartoony style.
– Real player with 13.1 hrs in game
Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships
This is the perfect pirates game. i spent years trying to play this game but my computers never allowed me. now i have had the chance to fully play this game i have to say it has given me hour of fun. do you want to be a merchant and become the wealthiest man in the Caribbean and trade your way to power, or become a privateer and attack your nations foes and bring riches and glory to your nation or do you want to be a feared pirate who will attack anything on sight for wealth and reputation and be the most fearsome man in the Caribbean sea. THE CHOICE IS YOURS. I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!
– Real player with 125.3 hrs in game
This game is not “good.” It has an extremely high learning curve, no tutorial, a clunky interface, poorly laid out and unintuitive quest objectives, sub-par writing, semi-frequent crashes, and is heavily dependent on the community “Combined Mod” to smooth out its rough edges.
That said, it is the best pure Pirate RPG available. But that probably says more about the gaping hole that exists in the market and less about this game itself. Aside from the brief but very welcome tangent that the Assassin’s Creed franchise took with Black Flag we have not seen a good single player pirate RPG in a long time; probably since Sid Meier’s Pirates. So if you need your pirate fix and are willing to take the time to learn this game, then you will be satisfied. But I can’t help but wonder why we haven’t seen a better Pirate game made.
– Real player with 75.9 hrs in game