Tales of Monkey Island: Rise of the Pirate God Review

LeChuck looks like he dropped a triple word score

Waking up after being buried alive in a coffin is certainly one of those iconic nightmares that can make even capsule hotel guests shiver with claustrophobic disgust.  The very idea is enough to trigger a one-inch punch training montage in most people.

Spare a thought then for poor Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate, because this is exactly where you’ll begin Rise of the Pirate God, the final episode in Telltale Games’ Tales of Monkey Island.  It’s a little unsettling for long-term Guybrush fans, as up until his betrayal at the hands of LeChuck (again), he’s always had something of an unkillable complex.  And sure enough, true to form, you’ll soon discover that just because he’s been stabbed through the heart is no reason he can’t make his way back to the land of the living.

Pirate afterlife isn’t so bad.  There’s a treasure under every X, and you’re free to fight and steal to your heart’s content.  Guybrush, however, can only concentrate of Elaine.  So after a little exploration, meeting up with some old friends and making some new ones, you’ll discover that making your way back from the land of the dead isn’t as hard as it might sound.  After all, LeChuck treats the place a revolving door.  So after a little voodoo that you do (that you do do so well), Guybrush manages to tear a hole in the Crossroads that allows his ghost passage back into the land of the living.

Unfortunately, the newly ripped portal delivers LeChuck everything he’s ever wanted on a silver platter, as he can now use Esponge Grande to draw voodoo straight out of the afterlife.  Sponge thoroughly wedged, LeChuck gains almost infinite power, and so begins his rule as the Pirate God.  And an undead Guybrush is the last obstacle between LeChuck and world domination.

Sound familiar? Well it should, because it’s essentially the same end-game plot from Monkey Island 1 through 4, except this time you’ll spend most of your time as a ghost.  LeChuck will come and randomly (but non-fatally) beat you up while you search for the ingredients to reverse his spell.  I guess there isn’t much choice when it comes to the end of adventure games in regards to plot, but let’s just say that if you don’t catch the nostalgic angle in this episode, then you’ll at least be struck several times by deja-vu.  I’m almost surprised there wasn’t a voodoo doll involved.

Ever console a woman and spar at the same time? Guybrush has.

Initially the puzzles are quite clever.  While in his ghostly form, Guybrush can’t actually touch anything in the real world, leading to some quite clever conversation and context puzzles.  I particularly enjoyed the combination of puzzles back at the manatee mating grounds, where Guybrush is once again playing the role of cupid’s arrow for his own personal gain.  It also means that quite a few areas could be used once, and then reused once Guybrush regains his body.  Unfortunately for the player, as soon as Guybrush permanently regains his physical form the puzzles take a bit of a dive.  They’re either spelled out in large letters, or degenerate into lengthy trial-and-error affairs.

For example, in the final battle with LeChuck, I spent somewhere in the realm of half-an-hour just being punched about the ship with no clear idea what the game expected of me.  The game seems to constantly bludgeon you over the head with the solution, without providing any meaningful direction with how you should progress towards it.  Add to this the short time frame the player is given in each area, and you’ll probably feel like banging your head on the computer desk a few times.

This being the last episode, character development seems to have finished up.  Guybrush is the same as he’s always been, so is Elaine, as is LeChuck now that he’s returned to his undead old self.  It’s kind of bizarre, but to my mind it actually felt like the pirate-hunter Morgan LeFlay had the most fleshed out (ironically now fleshless) character in the entire series.  The entire love-triangle situation is given an attempt at closure in this episode, although only Morgan’s charater manages to portray anything nearing actual emotion.  I actually ended up feeling a little sorry for her situation, as she’s obviously romantically inclined towards Guybrush, but knows that he’ll never think of anyone other than Elaine.  This was a little irritating in the end, however, as it seemed that Telltale managed to set up this more mature theme, then left simply abandoned it at the game’s conclusion.

There’s nothing spectacular to add in the game’s visual department.  People have become familiar with what the Telltale Tool has to offer, although being able to see Guybrush’s ribcage through his ghostly transparent skin was a nice touch (and almost certainly a nod to LeChuck’s appearance in the original Monkey Island).  Earl Boen is back behind the mic to voice the evil LeChuck, and does so with the high quality we’ve come to expect from him.

Just once I'd like to meet a friendly demon pirate.

So what of the series as a whole?  As much as it might pain me to admit it, I’ve come to realise that I enjoy spending time with Guybrush in Tales of Monkey Island because it reminds me of when I was a kid and I’d play the original Monkey Island games.  And when you get right down to it, the series could use a little fresh direction, as all Guybrush has done for five incarnations now has been to battle LeChuck over some scheme to steal Elaine from him.  And despite trying to alter the Guybrush/LeChuck dynamic over the course of the season, Rise of the Pirate God suffers from the same reset-syndrome as your typical episode of Star Trek.  Kill some minor characters we haven’t met before now, play out the emotion in the main character’s lives, then reset your characters into the same place they were at the beginning of the episode only a little wiser.

I guess Tales of Monkey Island isn’t particularly bad, per se, it’s just I’d like to see something new out of the characters which have been in existence for almost twenty years now.  Good or bad, it wouldn’t matter.  Even the so-called “golden age” of Carribean piracy only lasted thirty years, so when are we going to see Guybrush tackle a new adventure?  Because while I’ll play anything new with the Monkey Island name on it, it will only be in respect to the original game until someone with the guts gives us something new for the series.

The Verdict:

Pros: There’s lots of fun dialogue to be had this episode, along with some decent puzzling during Guybrush’s stint as a ghost.  Humourous as always.

Cons: The obvious requirement to have a self-contained story arc sticks out like a sore thumb this episode, and even though attempts are made there is close to nothing in regards to character development.  Puzzles in the game’s climax have the ability to become easily frustrating as you can see what needs to be done, but lack the clear method to get there.

Overall: As this is the final episode in the series, I’d like this score to reflect upon the game as a whole.  And for that reason, I’m giving Tales of Monkey Island 3 out of 5, with a thumbs up attached to keep things friendly.  Although there were some genuinely funny moments in the game, plenty of nostalgic references and it’s fair share of challenging, original puzzles, I’m afraid the game lacks depth.  To my mind it would have been preferable for LeChuck to remain a human until the next series (and you just know there’s going to be a next series), just to add a solid sense of continuity to the game.  Instead, there isn’t much character development overall, which left me feeling like I’d been on a treadmill.  I’d run a long way, but travelled nowhere.  Once you’ve finished the game, you probably won’t be revisiting it any time soon, and although you’ll enjoy the experience Telltale provides, it will probably be more for the rememberance of the earlier games than the story that plays out before you.  Still one to get your hands on, just don’t build yourself up for it beforehand.