The Secret of Monkey Island Review

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The Secret of Monkey Island

Review by Jen

Here I sit, still waiting for my copy of Grim Fandango to arrive. Meanwhile, I had ordered the LucasArts Classic Adventures, too, and got them already, so I thought I would pop them in and see what was what. Out of the five games included on the diskettes (yes, it’s true—diskettes!), I had only played Loom before and so had a pretty good selection. I chose to start with The Secret of Monkey Island because I had enjoyed Monkey Island 3 (The Curse of Monkey Island) so thoroughly. (It seems as if I am always playing more recent games in series first and then going back to the older ones.)

You are Guybrush Threepwood, pirate wannabe. As the game opens, you find yourself at the lookout point of Mêlée IslandTM.  You talk to the lookout to find out where to go to learn how to be a pirate. He directs you to the SCUMM bar, where you get three missions to complete from three disreputable, grog-drinking, “important looking pirates.” You also learn that the pirates are unable to ply their trade because the ghost pirate LeChuck has been patrolling the nearby waters, hoping to make off with the toothsome Governor Elaine Marley. In the course of completing your pirate training, you meet and fall in love with Governor Marley, and as you have just finished your last quest, LeChuck kidnaps her and makes off to Monkey Island. You vow to rescue her, assemble a crew, and set off for Monkey Island. There, you must befriend a castaway, a monkey, and some cannibals to further your mission; when you have obtained what you need, you descend into the bowels of hell to destroy LeChuck and reunite with your sweet Elaine. LucasArts has never skimped on plot, even if it is not deeply philosophical stuff, and this game had a lot of laughs.

The interface is one of those where you get a list of verbs at the bottom of the screen next to the list of your inventory. When you move your cursor over an object that you can interact with, an appropriate verb is highlighted, so at least you don’t have to try all of the verbs on everything. Sometimes the highlighted verb is not the most appropriate, but you still don’t have to try them all; it’s pretty intuitive as to which one to choose.  The game plays like every other LucasArts game I’ve ever played; you mainly learn things from conversing with characters, pick up inventory items, and use the inventory items either with other items or at other locations to accomplish given tasks. What I like second-best about LucasArts games is that you can’t get stuck; if you neglected to do something and then move past it, you can always go back again, and the program won’t let you progress to the next phase if you haven’t completed the earlier phase. (What I like the best is that you can’t die.)

This is a cartoon game that was released in 1990. (In fact, the credits on the game referred to one of the developers finally getting a 286—that brings back memories to us geezerly types.) The graphics by today’s standards have some mighty big pixels, but I could tell what everything was, unlike in some other older games with big pixels. In extended conversations, LucasArts employed the very-little-or-no-movement kind of closeups of the characters, but there were only about five instances of that. The backgrounds were very well-drawn in inimitable LucasArts style, and integration of the character movement on top of them was seamless.

There is no voice acting; you have to actually read the words.  The music has a Caribbean feel; lots of instruments that sound like kettle drums with a reggae flavor. I really like it, but there is not enough of it, due to the limitations of floppies, I guess. There were also not very many sound effects, and what there were sounded like they had not completely made the transition from being designed for those tinny built-in PC speakers. (I’m kind of surprised at the quality of the music, in fact; I don’t remember sound cards and speakers being available in 1990—they must have been, though, or else why would LucasArts bother with music?)

I got a lot of pleasure out of playing this game, but it was quick. I have played quite a few LucasArts games and have a good feel for how they work, so I probably spent about six hours total on this game with no hints. Actually, that’s pretty good, considering that all five of the Classic Adventures only took up seven floppies. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the humor. I also believe it holds up quite well in these Pentium II, 24X CD, 16-million-color-monitor days. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys LucasArts games, or for that matter, anyone who has never played a LucasArts game. I know some folks take their gaming pretty seriously and play only serious games—they probably don’t like LucasArts games much—but I say gaming is supposed to be fun, and this is a fun game.

P.S. As I was writing this, the UPS truck drove up, bearing my Grim Fandango, so I’ve gotta go now. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: LucasArts Publisher: LucasArts Release Date: 1990

Available for: DOSMacintosh

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Screenshots

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System Requirements

PC: 10 MHz 80286 and higher 256-color VGA/MCGA 640K memory Keyboard, mouse, or joystick Soundblaster, Adlib, or PC speaker

Where to Find It

Check the Game TZ

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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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