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This thread has been linked to the game 'Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 1: Launch Of The Screaming Narwhal'.
It's good.
I'm genuinely quite surprised at Telltale, and it's hard to explain how that sort of feeling has come about.
The Sam and Max episodes were great fun. But there's something about the way it's done.. episodic gaming confused me somewhat, feeling like you're paying too much for too little, but for the point and click adventure it works quite well. There's no rush, the game isn't based on action and getting from A to B, the whole idea is just to relax and explore the game.
And basing this sort of relaxed gameplay upon a smallish (but interestingly, always larger than I expect) slice of fun, it can happily soak up time without fear of some epic game that stubbornly refuses to end when you really, really should be getting back to real life and rewarding yourself for finishing paperwork.
An unguilty pleasure then, perhaps! And instead of having some gigantic game and the almost non-event of an ending that makes you think "..what do I do now then?" and feel somewhat empty at the lack of reward for playing something so long.. ending Telltale's episodic games just feels like a long warm hug that makes you smile afterwards and free to get back on with whatever's more practical.
The first episode of their latest series feels very much so this way. The length gives you all the hug you need, with that tiny bit of a squeeze at the end just to set you off again.
After Escape from Monkey Island, which I found quite tiresome, I was hoping if there -was- to be a next entry in the series they'll return back to the whole point/click/walk system, instead of the style taken on by Grim Fandango of walking the character with the keyboard.
My wish wasn't met, but the mouse has been somewhat reintroduced alongside arrow key walking. By holding the mouse button down, and dragging away from Guybrush (Mighty Pirate), he walks. Oddly, I found myself finding the keyboard easier to control though, which is making me want to go back to Escape and find out if it really was as irritating as I remember.
There have so far been no arcade style puzzles or stupid stupid put in the right combo giant monkey robot puzzles. All nice piratey based puzzles which are of a good difficulty, no more challenging than previous Monkey Islands but may be a -tad- easier, although there was at least one lovely moment when I pulled back to the Guybrush walking around the island (I've missed that) and thought 'damnit.. what do I do now?'
Nicely absorbing, Dominic is back as the voice of Guybrush, and the humour feels slightly milder but definitely within the realms of where Monkey Island should be. The "save a little face" is still making me smile, though.
Basically, a positive review. If you reaaaally want negative things about it, but are honestly not worth getting bothered about, is more so that (most of) the characters you encounter don't really feel.. like characters, more so just there for a single encounter to get something done and then vanish again. Oh and it's a different voice for LeChuck which is a shame but hey.
If Sam and Max was their trial period, Tellgames have learnt a good deal and they're bringing it together well. Recommended, and it's great to be back with the characters. I have yet still to see a three headed monkey.
I'm genuinely quite surprised at Telltale, and it's hard to explain how that sort of feeling has come about.
The Sam and Max episodes were great fun. But there's something about the way it's done.. episodic gaming confused me somewhat, feeling like you're paying too much for too little, but for the point and click adventure it works quite well. There's no rush, the game isn't based on action and getting from A to B, the whole idea is just to relax and explore the game.
And basing this sort of relaxed gameplay upon a smallish (but interestingly, always larger than I expect) slice of fun, it can happily soak up time without fear of some epic game that stubbornly refuses to end when you really, really should be getting back to real life and rewarding yourself for finishing paperwork.
An unguilty pleasure then, perhaps! And instead of having some gigantic game and the almost non-event of an ending that makes you think "..what do I do now then?" and feel somewhat empty at the lack of reward for playing something so long.. ending Telltale's episodic games just feels like a long warm hug that makes you smile afterwards and free to get back on with whatever's more practical.
The first episode of their latest series feels very much so this way. The length gives you all the hug you need, with that tiny bit of a squeeze at the end just to set you off again.
After Escape from Monkey Island, which I found quite tiresome, I was hoping if there -was- to be a next entry in the series they'll return back to the whole point/click/walk system, instead of the style taken on by Grim Fandango of walking the character with the keyboard.
My wish wasn't met, but the mouse has been somewhat reintroduced alongside arrow key walking. By holding the mouse button down, and dragging away from Guybrush (Mighty Pirate), he walks. Oddly, I found myself finding the keyboard easier to control though, which is making me want to go back to Escape and find out if it really was as irritating as I remember.
There have so far been no arcade style puzzles or stupid stupid put in the right combo giant monkey robot puzzles. All nice piratey based puzzles which are of a good difficulty, no more challenging than previous Monkey Islands but may be a -tad- easier, although there was at least one lovely moment when I pulled back to the Guybrush walking around the island (I've missed that) and thought 'damnit.. what do I do now?'
Nicely absorbing, Dominic is back as the voice of Guybrush, and the humour feels slightly milder but definitely within the realms of where Monkey Island should be. The "save a little face" is still making me smile, though.
Basically, a positive review. If you reaaaally want negative things about it, but are honestly not worth getting bothered about, is more so that (most of) the characters you encounter don't really feel.. like characters, more so just there for a single encounter to get something done and then vanish again. Oh and it's a different voice for LeChuck which is a shame but hey.
If Sam and Max was their trial period, Tellgames have learnt a good deal and they're bringing it together well. Recommended, and it's great to be back with the characters. I have yet still to see a three headed monkey.
Ghost Killer wrote:
> Nice review Grix. I myself have never tried a Monkey Island game
> but was tempted by the remake on Xbox Live. The first season is
> on there too for 1600 points. Is that worth it?
If that's £13.99 (game.co.uk, I think) for 1600 points to buy the whole season? Yeah, I'd say so if the rest of the season is as good as the first episode. If you've not tried a Monkey Island game before though, I reckon you probably best ought to start at the beginning.
As for the remake, all I've heard is that the graphics (and from what I've seen too) appear to be more so of a flash game quality. It's quite weird to remake something and have the art quite.. unspectacular. Compare it to the graphical drawing styles of the third game (Curse of Monkey Island) and it seems a bit odd. But, it does have the voices for the characters and that can't be a bad thing.
It's not a continuing story to the point you need to be fully aware of previous games, but quite a lot of the humour may be lost without knowledge of them.
> Nice review Grix. I myself have never tried a Monkey Island game
> but was tempted by the remake on Xbox Live. The first season is
> on there too for 1600 points. Is that worth it?
If that's £13.99 (game.co.uk, I think) for 1600 points to buy the whole season? Yeah, I'd say so if the rest of the season is as good as the first episode. If you've not tried a Monkey Island game before though, I reckon you probably best ought to start at the beginning.
As for the remake, all I've heard is that the graphics (and from what I've seen too) appear to be more so of a flash game quality. It's quite weird to remake something and have the art quite.. unspectacular. Compare it to the graphical drawing styles of the third game (Curse of Monkey Island) and it seems a bit odd. But, it does have the voices for the characters and that can't be a bad thing.
It's not a continuing story to the point you need to be fully aware of previous games, but quite a lot of the humour may be lost without knowledge of them.
Nice review Grix. I myself have never tried a Monkey Island game but was tempted by the remake on Xbox Live. The first season is on there too for 1600 points. Is that worth it?
It's good.
I'm genuinely quite surprised at Telltale, and it's hard to explain how that sort of feeling has come about.
The Sam and Max episodes were great fun. But there's something about the way it's done.. episodic gaming confused me somewhat, feeling like you're paying too much for too little, but for the point and click adventure it works quite well. There's no rush, the game isn't based on action and getting from A to B, the whole idea is just to relax and explore the game.
And basing this sort of relaxed gameplay upon a smallish (but interestingly, always larger than I expect) slice of fun, it can happily soak up time without fear of some epic game that stubbornly refuses to end when you really, really should be getting back to real life and rewarding yourself for finishing paperwork.
An unguilty pleasure then, perhaps! And instead of having some gigantic game and the almost non-event of an ending that makes you think "..what do I do now then?" and feel somewhat empty at the lack of reward for playing something so long.. ending Telltale's episodic games just feels like a long warm hug that makes you smile afterwards and free to get back on with whatever's more practical.
The first episode of their latest series feels very much so this way. The length gives you all the hug you need, with that tiny bit of a squeeze at the end just to set you off again.
After Escape from Monkey Island, which I found quite tiresome, I was hoping if there -was- to be a next entry in the series they'll return back to the whole point/click/walk system, instead of the style taken on by Grim Fandango of walking the character with the keyboard.
My wish wasn't met, but the mouse has been somewhat reintroduced alongside arrow key walking. By holding the mouse button down, and dragging away from Guybrush (Mighty Pirate), he walks. Oddly, I found myself finding the keyboard easier to control though, which is making me want to go back to Escape and find out if it really was as irritating as I remember.
There have so far been no arcade style puzzles or stupid stupid put in the right combo giant monkey robot puzzles. All nice piratey based puzzles which are of a good difficulty, no more challenging than previous Monkey Islands but may be a -tad- easier, although there was at least one lovely moment when I pulled back to the Guybrush walking around the island (I've missed that) and thought 'damnit.. what do I do now?'
Nicely absorbing, Dominic is back as the voice of Guybrush, and the humour feels slightly milder but definitely within the realms of where Monkey Island should be. The "save a little face" is still making me smile, though.
Basically, a positive review. If you reaaaally want negative things about it, but are honestly not worth getting bothered about, is more so that (most of) the characters you encounter don't really feel.. like characters, more so just there for a single encounter to get something done and then vanish again. Oh and it's a different voice for LeChuck which is a shame but hey.
If Sam and Max was their trial period, Tellgames have learnt a good deal and they're bringing it together well. Recommended, and it's great to be back with the characters. I have yet still to see a three headed monkey.
I'm genuinely quite surprised at Telltale, and it's hard to explain how that sort of feeling has come about.
The Sam and Max episodes were great fun. But there's something about the way it's done.. episodic gaming confused me somewhat, feeling like you're paying too much for too little, but for the point and click adventure it works quite well. There's no rush, the game isn't based on action and getting from A to B, the whole idea is just to relax and explore the game.
And basing this sort of relaxed gameplay upon a smallish (but interestingly, always larger than I expect) slice of fun, it can happily soak up time without fear of some epic game that stubbornly refuses to end when you really, really should be getting back to real life and rewarding yourself for finishing paperwork.
An unguilty pleasure then, perhaps! And instead of having some gigantic game and the almost non-event of an ending that makes you think "..what do I do now then?" and feel somewhat empty at the lack of reward for playing something so long.. ending Telltale's episodic games just feels like a long warm hug that makes you smile afterwards and free to get back on with whatever's more practical.
The first episode of their latest series feels very much so this way. The length gives you all the hug you need, with that tiny bit of a squeeze at the end just to set you off again.
After Escape from Monkey Island, which I found quite tiresome, I was hoping if there -was- to be a next entry in the series they'll return back to the whole point/click/walk system, instead of the style taken on by Grim Fandango of walking the character with the keyboard.
My wish wasn't met, but the mouse has been somewhat reintroduced alongside arrow key walking. By holding the mouse button down, and dragging away from Guybrush (Mighty Pirate), he walks. Oddly, I found myself finding the keyboard easier to control though, which is making me want to go back to Escape and find out if it really was as irritating as I remember.
There have so far been no arcade style puzzles or stupid stupid put in the right combo giant monkey robot puzzles. All nice piratey based puzzles which are of a good difficulty, no more challenging than previous Monkey Islands but may be a -tad- easier, although there was at least one lovely moment when I pulled back to the Guybrush walking around the island (I've missed that) and thought 'damnit.. what do I do now?'
Nicely absorbing, Dominic is back as the voice of Guybrush, and the humour feels slightly milder but definitely within the realms of where Monkey Island should be. The "save a little face" is still making me smile, though.
Basically, a positive review. If you reaaaally want negative things about it, but are honestly not worth getting bothered about, is more so that (most of) the characters you encounter don't really feel.. like characters, more so just there for a single encounter to get something done and then vanish again. Oh and it's a different voice for LeChuck which is a shame but hey.
If Sam and Max was their trial period, Tellgames have learnt a good deal and they're bringing it together well. Recommended, and it's great to be back with the characters. I have yet still to see a three headed monkey.