Adventure Gamers - Forums

Okay, thanks.

Does anyone know if there will be an iOS version available and if so when will it be available.

I only see a Steam and Switch version for preorder atm, both not the platforms I’d like to play it on, want to play it with a good touch screen.

Agree, playing it on iPad pro would be ideal. Perfect device for point&clicks;.

St_Eddie - 14 September 2022 01:15 AM

@Vainamoinen - I’m so sorry, man but I did just go and pre-order Return to Monkey Island on Steam.

If I judged people just because they’re using Steam, the number of my friends would dwindle. So I really don’t.

My best friend pre-ordered on Steam as soon as the words “horse armor” were spoken, and she hasn’t pre-ordered a game in like a decade. I asked her to not tell me anything until the GOG release, and that’s something she will of course respect. She knows how much I was looking forward to this game, I’ve sent her all my sketches, she’s seen all the work in progress shots of my fan art, and I’ve sent her a link immediately even if it was just a half assed marketing fart of Dave’s and Ron’s. She knew I wouldn’t bite, but she still offered to let me use her Steam account. She knows how important this boycott or rather support is to me personally.

Well, now it seems like I’ll have to sever all ties to the internet Monday afternoon. That’s going to be a hard one especially since I don’t know how long I’ll have to keep it up.

But you have nothing to be sorry about. For folks like us, this will likely be the game of the decade. And I really, really, really wish that Return to Monkey Island is going to be everything you have hoped for, and more.

For now, it’s goodbye.

I’m being very strong. I didn’t watch the puzzle gameplay video. Just got to hold out for a few more days.

But yeah on Monday i’ll be going dark until i beat it.

Surprised how quiet it is on here since the game comes out tomorrow. (Depending on time zone)

My impressions thus far (I’m presently pretty much finished doing the quests in Melee Island…

THE GOOD POINTS…

* The art style still isn’t really my kind of thing (purely at a subjective level) but there’s no denying that when you see it all in motion and as a cohesive whole, it works very nicely. I particularly like the numerous close up shots of characters for dramatic or humorous emphasis/effect.

* The writing is on point, as is the voice acting.The music is sublime.

* I wasn’t totally sold on the opening at the carnival at first, but the more I reflect upon it and consider what the actual implications are, the more I appreciate it.  Basically, Guybrush’s kids are playing at the Big Whoop carnival and recreating their Father’s adventures, via make believe.  The opening of this game is not a continuation of the ending of MI2.  It’s two kids recreating those events.

The explanation for Big Whoop within The Curse of Monkey Island is still 100% canonical and Big Whoop was indeed a carnival built by LeChuck to turn guests into his skeletal crew of the damned, but in the years since, the carnival has been turned into a genuine vacation spot within the pirate Caribbean (this is actually supported by the post-credits ending to The Curse of Monkey Island, where a Father and Son are visiting the carvival and talking about the rumour of LeChuck being frozen somewhere below the park - a la Walt Disney in cyro).

This theory is further backed up by the kids going off script from the ending of MI2 in their recreation (by making the ripping off of LeChuck’s arm funny - which annoys Guybrush) and they are trying to find people to use as stand-ins for Guybrush’s real adventures (the two unsuspecting park guests being used as stand-in parents).  It’s also clearly still set within the pirate world, because the food is Scurvy Dogs and the seller takes payment in pieces of eight, demonstrating that is still the currency of the time and it’s not set in modern times.

THE BAD POINTS…

* The puzzles so far are way too easy.  I selected hard mode, yet it feels as though I’m playing on casual.  They barely feel like puzzles at all and more like busywork side-quests (take item A to person B).  Also, some of the design decisions on the puzzles are just plain… odd.  For example, the Frog of Forgiveness.  It comes across as cringey ‘lol random’ humour.  Why not have a frog and just have Guybrush apologise to Carla via speaking to her and selecting the appropriate dialogue options. The puzzle would be exactly the same, there just wouldn’t be this weird unnecessary step of writing your apology onto the back of a frog.

Another weird puzzle is the whole “jot down the serial number on the lock and get the locksmith to make a key”.  Having a serial number which can be used to replicate a key literally written on the lock itself makes zero sense.  It’s stupid.  Clearly the developers realised it was stupid, which is why they gave Guybrush a bunch of lines to address the implausibility of such a weak security system.  The locksmith’s explanation is not in the least bit convincing.  Instead of trying to write their way out of a patently absurd and nonsensical piece of puzzle logic, why didn’t the developer’s simply redesign the puzzle from the ground up?  It’s feels slapdash and ill thought out.

* Some of the jokes, whilst funny, feel very out of step with the sort of humour I associate with Monkey Island (Chef’s mop speech, I’m looking at you).  They feel like they belong in a different game/universe altogether.  On that note, I’m not getting any of that slightly creepy and unsettling atmosphere which oozed from the pores of the first two games.  This one feels very light and breezy, like a Saturday morning cartoon.

* The member berries, oh lord, the endless member berries.  I really hope the game starts to get original and creative once I leave Melee Island because as of right now this absolutely feels like it is to Monkey Island what The Force Awakens is to Star Wars (a shallow remake masquerading as a sequel and showering the audience with shameless, hollow fan-service).  So far, we’ve got the same basic setup as the original game - Guybrush arrives on Melee Island and needs to assemble a crew and find a ship. He also needs to free Otis, who has been arrested for stealing flowers, from jail.

The most egregious part of this nostalgia baiting is when Guybrush enters a museum of piracy and the whole place is devoted to items from the previous games, relating to Guybrush’s adventures.  It’s even worse than Planet Threepwood from Escape From Monkey Island.  Presumably as a player, the developers were hoping that I’d be squealing with fanboy delight at all of the “member this thing?” references crammed into a small space.  In actuality, I was rolling my eyes and sighing at the transparency of the appeal to cheap nostalgia.  There’s also Stan’s shipyard, which (aside from a single small item Guybrush picks up) appears to exist solely so that you can click on items and have Guybrush reminisce (the prompt literally says “reminisce about Stan’s).

———————————————————

Now, that may seem overly negative (and I guess it kinda is) but it’s also worth nothing that I feel compelled to keep playing the game.  It’s an adventure game where the hours fly by and you find yourself itching to jump back in after saving and quiting.  It’s also worth noting that these are nowt but early impressions of the opening to the game.  I am hopeful that things will get a lot more interesting and a lot less fan servicey in later chapters.

I have a friend who has already beat the game. He says remember berries are throughout. He liked the game but did not love it at all.

Jdawg445 - 19 September 2022 07:00 PM

He says remember berries are throughout.

*heavy sigh*

Sake.  I genuinely hate that sort of thing.  Nostalgia is nowt but morale masturbation of the mind and it’s horribly overdone within today’s entertainment.  Create new iconic moments and characters, don’t just coast off the goodwill and memories of preexisting iconography.

St_Eddie - 19 September 2022 07:03 PM

Jdawg445 - 19 September 2022 07:00 PM

He says remember berries are throughout.

*heavy sigh*

Sake.  I genuinely hate that sort of thing.  Nostalgia is nowt but morale masturbation of the mind and it’s horribly overdone within today’s entertainment.

Yes like i did enjoy broken sword 5 but if i had to sit through one more goat puzzle or pun my eyes would have rolled out my head.