Hot off the success of their original point-and-click adventure, LucasArts released Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge over twenty years ago. There are no three-headed monkeys this time around but I do happen to be selling these fine leather jackets…
ROUND-UP:
REVIEW-UP:
The development team for the second instalment in the humorous adventure series was largely the same as for The Secret of Monkey Island, and Ron Gilbert was once again joined by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert parted ways with LucasArts after Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge was completed and has since been quoted as saying: “All the games after Monkey Island 2 don’t exist in my Monkey Island universe.” Although he’s adamant that he’s not picking up where he left off and making a Monkey Island 3a sequel, it’s something that us fans have been clamouring for for a while now.
Following the release of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition in 2008, a remastering of the second game was made available in July 2010. This includes updated graphics and high-quality audio engine, new voice-overs for the characters, concept art and an in-game hint system. The ‘lite’ mode from the original title in which most of the puzzles were absent, and was jokingly referred to as being ‘for game reviewers’ on the back of the packaging, was omitted.
Monkey Island is a series known for its quirky characters, strange situations, bizarre puzzles and inventive humour and it’s still a standout twenty years on. As I’ve said before, it was the first title I played on my Amiga as a kid and it has since been one of my all-time-favourite games. After completing it back in 1990 I couldn’t wait for the sequel and made my dad take me out so I could buy it with my pocket-money as soon as it was released. I remember loving every second of it, but when it came to the ending I was slightly disappointed; would I still feel the same way now being a grown woman?
This review is based on the original Monkey Island 2, but we’ve thrown in some comments about the Special Edition for good measure. Anyone who doesn’t like that will be left to dangle over an acid pit in LeChuck’s torture chamber.
The story takes place several months after The Secret of Monkey Island, and our previously fresh-faced protagonist has now turned into a self-assured swashbuckler with a fancy new coat (and dodgy beard, but we’ll get to that later). After besting the ghost pirate LeChuck and winning over the beautiful Governor Elaine Marley, Guybrush Threepwood has fallen out of her good books and so decides to head to Scabb Island to seek out the fabled treasure of Big Whoop. Unfortunately however, his nemesis isn’t as obliterated as Guybrush thinks; LeChuck was already dead when defeated the first time, so he’s now a zombie and not any more pleasant to deal with.
Monkey Island 2 was the only game in LucasArts’ original series that never actually took place on its namesake. However, it’s revealed in The Curse of Monkey Island that the Carnival of the Damned seen in the title’s conclusion is actually part of Monkey Island. As stated above, Gilbert left the studio after completing the game; and he has stated on his blog that he had a clear vision about what its ending meant, how the story would have developed from there, and that the plot that LucasArts came up with wasn’t even close to his ideas.
This instalment in the series plays very much like its predecessor and makes use of the SCUMM interface with verbs such as ‘look at’, ‘use’ and ‘talk to’. This has been streamlined in the Special Edition through use of the right mouse button; right-clicking on something will launch a wheel of the most appropriate actions for that item or person, and this works a lot better than the interface used in The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (see our review of the classic version for details). Getting the ‘pick up’ option may seem like a strange choice in certain situations but you’ll be rewarded with a witty comeback – unfortunately for him, not many characters in the game seem to be Guybrush’s type.
While I remembered a lot of the puzzles from my first play years ago, some of them still had me stumped and provided a pleasant challenge. However, as with most Monkey Island titles, nothing is as straight forward as it first seems and one particularly obscure brainteaser with a quirky solution involving a pun is a bit hit-and-miss. There’s a fair amount of random wandering involved too and lots of places to explore, which obviously slows the game’s pacing; this may not be to the taste of all players but you kind of know that’s what you’re going to get if you pick up a classic adventure title.
It took me around five hours to complete The Secret of Monkey Island a couple of weeks ago but I found myself playing the sequel for considerably longer, despite puzzle solutions coming back to me. The hint system from the original Special Edition returns in the second remastering for players who need a bit of guidance, although sometimes the clues aren’t entirely helpful; and a new object highlight system has been introduced so pressing a key will reveal all interactive items on a screen. While I understand that these are things that today’s gamers are growing to expect, I can’t say that they’re things that I’m particularly fond of and feel that they kind of detract from the spirit of the original titles.
Monkey Island 2 was one of the few adventures that offered players a choice of puzzle difficulty levels but as mentioned above, the lite mode has been removed from the Special Edition. Sadly the cuts don’t end there either and the original opening featuring the naughty monkeys has been omitted. Previously, the end credits were worth watching as they included a list of fifty constructive things you could do now that you’d finished playing the game – my particular favourite being having a yelling contest with the neighbour’s dog – but these have now gone too.
Saying that though, Monkey Island 2 still provides a lot of laugh-out-loud moments despite being over two decades old and humorously picks up where The Secret of Monkey Island left off. Who could fail to laugh when reading the entries in the card catalogue at the Phatt Island library (C: Cannibalism; See also: Self-Help), or when there’s a re-enactment of a scene from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back towards the end of the game. Guybrush’s new-found cockiness results in a lot of jokes at his expense and it’s still the go-to series whenever you’re in need of a bit of a giggle.
I actually preferred the original graphics to the modern ones when playing the first Special Edition but this time around I’m afraid to say they haven’t aged very well. For me, Monkey Island 2’s visuals are just not as good as the less-complex ones from the first game and some scenes look like a flurry of randomly-coloured pixels. I found that being able to go from retro to modern via a single key press was a good thing; switching between old and new is a treat and it’s fascinating to see the graphics being rotoscoped onto the original animations.
Before we go any further however, there’s one point we simply must talk about here: Guybrush’s beard. What the hell?! Just when we thought we’d escaped from the bad toupee he sported in The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, he returns with dodgy facial hair that makes him look more like a hipster than a pirate. I say we should bring back the tousle-haired buccaneer from LucasArts’ original (even if it’s just so I can relive my childhood crush all over again).
Monkey Island 2 was the first title to use the iMUSE audio sequencing MIDI engine, and this enabled compositions within the game to change interactively depending on the current environment or situation. Sound is used wonderfully and characters are given more personality through individual themes; for example, each person the player visits in the first location of Woodtick produces variations on the town’s main melody, introducing new arrangements or instruments. For me as a kid, sound was an integral part of the game and along with many other fans I can recall the theme tune without any effort at all.
Speaking of sound, the Special Edition includes about an hours’ worth of commentary from Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman that can be brought up in a number of locations within the game. Although this is an insight I really appreciated, it would have been great if the scene paused while the track played; it’s a shame that players may miss out on some vital in-game information or a funny act whilst listening to the developers talk over the top.
When Guybrush’s final confrontation with LeChuck occurs, it’s a difficult battle – more so than in the first game – and it leads to one of the most controversial video game endings in my opinion. As mentioned above, I remember being quite disappointed by it as a child and I’m afraid to say that I still feel this way as an adult; for me, it doesn’t provide enough of an explanation although it does leave space to make way for the third instalment in the Monkey Island series.
Having said that however, it’s a bit unfair to judge Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge only in relation to its prequel and on its own it’s actually a very entertaining game. If you’re looking for an adventure title worth adding to your inventory, no matter how stuffed it is already with hubcaps, voodoo dolls and cheese squigglies, you can’t go wrong with a bit of classic Guybrush.
RATING-UP:
How did we reach these scores? Click here for a guide to our ratings.
