Escape from Monkey Island Review

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Escape from Monkey Island

Review by Jen

I love it when I get to play an adventure game on a console. I get to stretch out on my big comfortable couch and play on my big comfortable TV instead of using my dinky computer screen (well, not so dinky, I guess, but I sure do get sick of looking at it all day every day) and pile-engendering office chair.  And best yet, I don’t have to worry about downloading patches and maybe even having to start over sans saved games. It’s a rare thing, though, that a true, for lack of a better term, point-and-click game comes along on any console.

I had attempted to play Escape from Monkey Island on my PC and just couldn’t muster up very much interest. With liberal use of the walkthrough, I got as far as the Monkey Kombat and then gave up, not so much out of frustration as lack of impetus.  I said to myself, I said, “Why do I want to suffer so mightily?  Surely an ending cutscene is not worth all this grief.” So I must confess when I got the PS2 version, I did not have a whole lot of desire to play it. But I had to. So I could write this stinkin’ review.

I was pleasantly surprised by a number of things. First, the graphics made the transition to TV very well. I was expecting huge pixels but they were actually pretty small.

Second, Guybrush was much easier to control (and I was using a gamepad for the PC version, so I expected it to be much the same). There was one particular puzzle involving throwing boulders at certain times that I had a Hades of a time with on the PC version.  I was filled with dread at the prospect of doing that again, but it was a piece of cake on the PS2. Go figure.

Well, that’s it, I guess, two things. Now that I think about it, maybe one more thing, and it’s a biggie: No glitches. The game ran flawlessly throughout.

Now for the downside. First, there are the long load times between each game area, which is understandable given the limitations of the console system. But still, when running back and forth between two areas, this gets a little old.

While some of the puzzles are well thought-out and fair, many others are too difficult and nonsensical.

My TV has stereo speakers built into the base. The stereo effect would drop out sometimes, frequently in fact. A minor complaint to be sure, but worth mentioning here because it was jarring.  A person playing on a regular TV might not even notice, but I have one of those big-screen monstrosities.

The load game screen shows four slots, but the save game seems to take up the whole memory card.

The jokes are stale. The bulk of them are recycled from the previous three Monkey Island games, and while they were funny once, maybe twice, three times is pushing it, they fall flat the fourth time around. Some of the new material made me crack a smile, but this game just does not live up to the LucasArts legacy in the humor department.

And Monkey Kombat still sucks. I did it this time but I did not love it. That was an understatement. I meant to say I really, really did not love it. Whoever thought that up is a sadist and should be forced to do some hard time in a sliding tile puzzle chain gang. I would have rather done three mazes, or even, perish the thought, an arcade sequence, than Monkey Kombat. To be fair, I guess it probably looked good on paper in the design process: a giant logic puzzle—adventure gamers love those, right?  The concept failed in the execution, though, because it was not fun. I don’t know about the rest of you but I play these games for fun. In fact, I would go so far as to say the word “fun” is implied by the word “game.”

Rereading the above, I notice I do not sound very positive about EMI. It has lots of good points: Lovely graphics, great music, good voice acting, and LeChuck—LeChuck, especially the flaming version, is magnificent in his evil majesty. It’s a good, meaty game. Even following a walkthrough, it will still take 10 to 15 hours to complete, and probably three or four times that with no walkthrough, if ever … I defy anyone to figure out some of those puzzles without outside help.

EMI is not a bad game but it will never join its brethren in the panoply of gods of the genre. I for one would like to see LucasArts get out of the sequel to sequel to sequel business altogether and focus solely on new ideas. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: LucasArts Publisher: LucasArts Release Date: 2000 (PC), 2001 (PS2 and Macintosh)

Available for: Macintosh PlayStation 2 Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

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Screenshots

(Note: These are not really screenshots, just pictures of my TV. As such, they lose something in clarity and color.)

Click to enlarge Click to enlarge  Click to enlarge   Click to enlarge Click to enlarge

System Requirements

PC: Win 95/98 266 MHz CPU 32 MB RAM 3D accelerator Quad speed CD-ROM Keyboard or gamepad Direct X 7.0 or higher

Macintosh: System 8.1 or later G3 processor at 233MHz or faster (333 MHz recommended) 64 MB RAM (96 MB recommended) 8X CD-ROM drive (16X recommended) 200 MB free dard drive space 3D Graphics hardware (i.e. ATI RagePro, 128, or Radeon; 3Dfx Voodoo3 or better) 4 MB VRAM (8 MB recommended) OpenGL 1.2.1 (included) QuickTime 4.1.2 (included)

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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