Escape From Monkey Island

“Escape from Monkey Island” came out during the darkest time of 3D graphics, and it shows. Not only do the locations and characters look awful, but the control system also has to be one of the most user-unfriendly in the history of graphic adventures. Moving around the maps and interacting with objects can get incredibly frustrating, and it’s very easy to miss interactive areas of the screen without a mouse.

That aside, it’s hard to deny that this was the series’ first serious attempt at telling a story with a fleshed-out plot. A bad attempt, but at least they tried. Things like the infamous Toothrot retcon are an insult to the players, but at the same time, we can’t deny that the spirit of the original games was built around self-deprecation and continuous betrayal of the fans’ expectations. I think the problem is that the franchise has adopted a more childish and cartoony approach as it progressed over the years. “Escape” started along the same lines as “Curse”, but it really gets worse and worse as it progresses.

The puzzles also get incredibly tedious and frustrating for no particular reason, with the parrot one winning the crown for the most annoying activity to engage in a video game. Monkey Kombat has been mentioned by most players as their biggest turn-off, but I thought it was a decent alternative to the insult battles. At least it made me use my brain, unlike the other puzzles. Most of the second half just had me try all objects on everything without even knowing what I was doing, most of the time not even sure about what my objective was supposed to be. It’s not that the puzzles are built around a pun or absurd ways to get to a relatively straightforward outcome, they are just random item combinations to troll the player. There were bits like that in the previous games too, but here it felt like they really jumped the shark in all possible ways.

There are also a million bugs waiting for you, including game-breaking ones waiting for you. I would recommend not playing altogether, but if you do, make sure to save often and keep multiple saves. I also needed to download a separate launcher to play my Steam copy.