Techtite Game Reviews ---

You really have to hand it to LucasArts. The company that brought us some cool adventure games in the past is still going strong, regardless of all of the adventure game companies that have gone under in past years: Trilobyte (7th Guest), Sierra Online (King's Quest, Space Quest), and far more than I can list on one page. With the release of Escape from Monkey Island --the fourth of the series-- LucasArts has not only shown that the adventure game genre is far from dead; they have released one of the best game in the entire series.

The story begins soon after the prior game (Curse of Monkey Island, which to the best of my knowledge was never translated for Macintosh, though you didn't miss much). Elaine and Guybrush are coming home from a long, 3 month honeymoon, only to find Melee island strangely dark and quiet. It turns out there are two forces at work against both them and their home. First, a shifty politician named Charles L. Charles has declared Elaine "lost at sea," and is running for Governor during her absence. Second, a pirate-hating land developer is buying all the land and running the poor pirate folk out of town. It's up to Elaine to run for Governor against Charles L. Charles, while Guybrush helps to defeat the land baron. As you might expect, these are the least of their problems.

The real calling card of any adventure is its puzzles, and Escape is filled with them. One of the best traits of these puzzles is how many of them have random elements, enhancing the fun. You can re-play the game over and over, and the majority of the puzzles will have different solutions. This also applies to the last puzzle of the game, which is a brilliant spoof of the type of brainless "fighter" games that helped make thought-provoking adventures an endangered species on the new release shelves. The point is, if you judge an adventure game by its puzzles, you'll truly love this game.

There's also the Monkey Island tradition, for humor and puns. For one thing, you must borrow Elaine's Governor ship, which has been painted a very un-pirate color of pink. Murray the Skull (the best new character from the prior game) makes a comeback...as a bodyguard (!). Best of all: the true Secret of Monkey Island is finally revealed, and it's a laugh-out-loud howl. Of course, Elaine and Guybrush are not beyond witty banter themselves, and their conversations are equally amusing. Near the start of their adventure, Elaine leaves in an angry huff after being declared "dead at sea," only to have Guybrush muse, "She was a lot nicer before she died..."

Some would say the graphics aren't as good as other games, though they're the best this game series has ever seen. Static backgrounds are still the norm, though the characters themselves are all fully rendered 3D accelerated polygons. In other words, all the power of your graphics card is devoted to the characters, and it shows. Each character has perfectly animated expressions and gestures, to go along with the equally superior voice acting. It's good enough to see Elaine and Guybrush in this new game engine; wait until you see classic characters in the series, like Herman Toothrot! Fans of the series should be very pleased. In fact, I was so pleased I see nothing else to report when it comes to the game engine itself. The interface, for example, may not be as rudimentary as other 3D games, though it's acceptable, and didn't detract from the great fun I had when playing.

It deserves mentioning that most LucasArts games seem to have trouble with their prologues and epilogues, no matter how good the "middle" is. The good news: the prologue is cute, funny, and much like Indiana Jones...Atlantis, it is even slightly interactive. The bad news: some fans might not like the very last joke of the game, although (thank heaven) the ending is not open, and resolves all plot branches nicely. However, as I said, it's the game itself which sells this game. With random puzzles, excellent artwork, superior voice acting, and intriguing story arcs, this is in my opinion the best game of the entire Monkey Island series. While it's probably the only major adventure game offering this year (especially on a Macintosh!), this game would be a must-buy even if it was on the shelf with dozens of adventure games. It might be too much to hope that this sequel revitalizes the adventure game genre, though it would be an honor well deserved.

	Final Rating : Deep Impact. Even if there weren't so appallingly few adventure game releases lately, it would still be one of the best adventure games on the shelf today.
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Techtite's Macintosh Game Reviews!

Escape from Monkey Island

A Techtite Review