Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 5, Rise of the Pirate God Review
Taken as a whole, the Tales of Monkey Island series can be a little schizophrenic. It’s equal parts homage and new content. wonderfully crafted puzzles and dodgy logic, hillarious joke factory and sort of lame faux-serious plot expansion. It is, in a way, fitting that the game never really takes shape until the final episode.
Rise of the Pirate God brings Guybrush back to the land of the living to right the wrongs of the series and save the woman he loves. If you stop thinking of it as a Monkey Island game, there’s a genuinely interesting and sort of touching story that plays out here, which sort of reminds me of the final hour or so of Loom, if you can believe that. Sans all those music puzzles, of course.
Sort of like Sam and Max Season 2, it feels like they saved up as much ammo as they possibly could for the grand finale, and for the most part it pays off. Everything from the opening to the final puzzle to the epilogue feels suitably epic, and more like a proper ending to this series, even if the door is open for future seasons.
It’s a matter of personal taste, of course, but I’m still not a fan of this game as a “season,” if for no other reason than because this episode seems so disjointed from the first. Plot points from a game that came out months ago are finally wrapped up here, long after I stopped thinking about them. Unlike Sam & Max, which can be easily cut up into cases, or Wallace and Grommit, each episode being it’s own “movie,” I don’t think cutting up Monkey Island fits quite right in this model.
Extra Features:
The usual Easter Egg hunt here, but other than that, nothing to speak of.
Technical:
I’ll give TellTale credit, they were upfront with the issues with the initial build of the game. Guybrush has some serious clipping issues, and there’s problems throughout with audio and music sync, and the review copy was missing the entire epilogue. But, presumably, this has all been fixed by the TellTale team.
Graphics:
The graphics are among the best in the series, apart from Curse’s lovely cartoon graphics. The colors seem more vibrant, and the characters are carefully polished and animated this time around. It’s clear a lot of care was given to making this game look as good as possible.
There are, of course, a few new places to visit, and they all fit in very well. You’ll see a couple of familiar scenes as well, and it’s a treat to see how they’re animated differently (sometimes subtly), making them a treat to visit as you progress through the game.
Sound:
The voice acting is really ahead of the game here, and Dominic Armato gives his best performance as Guybrush to date. The dialog is equal parts comic relief and serious plot exposition, and the characters all transition between the two perfectly, and much more smoothly than they did last month.
Once again, I’m happy with the music, though I think it could’ve been used to greater effect. The finale theme is well done though, and probably appropriately hangs in the background for most of the episode.
Replay Value:
It’s probably worth playing through again after you’ve finished, just to hit all of the episodes in a row to see how the series played out over the last several months.
Final Score: 9/10
This is the ending that Monkey Island should’ve had in “Escape,” as everything from the opening to the final credits feels appropriately epic and a satisfying end to the Tales of Monkey Island. Hopefully the series isn’t over, and TellTale doesn’t exactly slam the door shut or anything, but if it is, it’s a very high note for things to go out on.
This is the rare episode in TellTale’s “Season Adventure Games” that I enjoyed both as a game unto itself, and as a sum of everything that came before it. If you enjoyed Monkey Island at all in its previous iterations, you owe it to yourself to check this series out and stick through it until the end.
If you’re interested in taking a look at the game, you can download a copy of the PC Demo at the TellTale Website.
December 20th, 2009 at 11:26 am
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