User Reviews (1 - 11 of 40)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

This is Boorringg

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: March 24, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is horrible! Who the heck wrote that this game is so darn good if you can't go to sleep this will put you to sleep! First of all, this ain't an action/adventure game. All you do is just walk around and talk to people. Where the hecks the action?

TEEEEEERRRRRRRRIIIIIIIBBBBBBBLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: May 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm the kid who wrote the "this is boooorrrriiinnnggg" article on this dumb game, allow me to be more specific on my thoughts on monkey island. When I got the PS2 I decided to rent a game. So I went to Video Vault and saw Monkey Island. The cover said "pirates, Adventure, and monkeys!" Under that I read "We need more games like this" I thought "cool" and rented it. When I got home I started to play, it when I started the game I saw that the character's name was Guybrush Thweepwood[man what a dumb name]. I found myself tied up and didn't know what to do. When I figured it out I found myself trying to stop this guy from destroying my house. I walked around and went to this "Scumm Bar building" and talked to people. Now I looove Rpg's so I liked talking to people but I had to ask questions? BOORINNNG! I couldn't get "grog" so he got Kudu jerky pretzels[yuck]! Let me put it this way, this game is 100% stupid, but I DO have a pro on it, the graphics are nice.

TEEEEEERRRRRRRRIIIIIIIBBBBBBBLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: May 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'm the kid who wrote the "this is boooorrrriiinnnggg" article on this dumb game, allow me to be more specific on my thoughts on monkey island. When I got the PS2 I decided to rent a game. So I went to Video[store] and saw Monkey Island. The cover said "pirates, Adventure, and monkeys!" Under that I read "We need more games like this" I thought "cool" and rented it. When I got home I started to play, it when I started the game I saw that the character's name was Guybrush Thweepwood... I found myself tied up and didn't know what to do. When I figured it out I found myself trying to stop this guy from destroying my house. I walked around and went to this "Scumm Bar building" and talked to people. Now I looove Rpg's so I liked talking to people but I had to ask questions? BOORINNNG! I couldn't get "grog" so he got Kudu jerky pretzels[yuck]! Let me put it this way, this game is 100% [bad], but I DO have a pro on it, the graphics are nice.

THE WORST GAME EVER!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 22
Date: October 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the worst game ever! I rented it thinking it was going to be a pirate fighting action game but I was wrong! You don't even get to move around. All you get to do is choose what action you want to do and most of the time it doesn't even work. What ever you do don't buy or rent this game. SAVE YOUR MONEY!

boo!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: July 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

this game just is'nt the same. it gets very boring SOON, and the puzzles and controls can get frusterating.

i don't recomend it

a mixed bag

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: August 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a game that will have a huge following with some gamers, but most with hate it just for it's genre and not give it a chance. There are many great things about this game, but to me there are just too many bad things.

In the good catagory monkey island has great graphics. To me it kinda looks like toy story or such. Cool cgi animation. There is a lot of humor as you control the sometimes very ignorant hero on his many adventure (or complacated trips for his wife). There is also a TON of exploring to do and at every turn there is another puzzle to keep the story moving, and to me this is one of the main problems with this game.

The puzzles are sometimes things you would never think of. Some of his escapes from various traps etc. are very much like mcgyver, and took me a long time to piece them together, but that may just be me. For most people including me a guide may be a needed, not option thing. I'm far from stupid but some of the puzzles just aren't at all obvious. The controls at times can also be a problem, it takes alot of time to move around many areas and can be a real pain running back and forth. The almost constant loading times are also a problem, whenever dialogue is going on the game is jerky, same with movies, and sometimes the smallest little scene needs a load time.

To me this game shows why this genre of games will never be as popular as the gran turismo's and resident evils. If you have alot of patience and a lot of time this game may be for you, but for me i'll stick to gt 3 for now. At least rent before you buy.

Just wasnt my cup of tea.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I think if you have the patience to figure out senseless puzzles, then this is for you.. but i really dont see the point of a game that you MUST, and believe me you MUST, but the guide to get through. A yawner for me.

A noble attempt, but my least favorite MI game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Escape From Monkey Island is the 4th entry in a series of adventure games starring our favorite wannabe pirate, Guybrush Threepwood. I grew up on these games, developed by the LucasArts gaming company and consider myself a pretty good adventure gamer. However, being well versed in all things Monkey Island, I can confidently say that this is the weakest game in the series thus far. I'm not implying that it's unplayable by any means, but it just didn't quite have the spirit of the previous 3.

So once again, Guybrush finds himself on Melee Island, the first island you visit from the original MI. The game picks up pretty much where the last one left off, with Guybrush and Governor Elaine Marley newly wed and returning from their honey moon. Elaine has been pronounced dead and must run for re-election against Charles L. Charles, a mysterious newcomer. There's also a new villain introduced, the pirate hating Ozzie Mandrill from Australia, and what MI game would be complete without the ghost pirate Captain LeChuck. Or the demon from heck pirate as he's now referred to. Just like previous games, you're after one goal. In EFMI, that goal is to discover The Ultimate Insult before Ozzie Mandrill can.

Just like any MI game, there are familiar characters from previous games to interact with. The only problem is the project leaders on this one are new to the world of Monkey Island and instead of really creating anything new or original, they spend most of the story rehashing old jokes. In fact there are so many inside jokes for fans of the old games, it starts to become a little tedious after a while. I found myself rolling my eyes more often than laughing. It feels like they tried so hard to please former fans that they ignored the fact that most of these jokes would go right over the heads of newcomers, but I guess they figured the target audience would only be fans of the previous games.

So once you leave Melee Island you explore a couple other islands before ending up on Monkey Island. If I'm not mistaken, this installment features the fewest islands to explore out of any other game, which is a shame because it makes it feel a lot shorter. When sailing around on your ship, you can see Phatt Island and Booty Island, previous islands from Monkey Island 2, but to my disappointment, you never get to revisit them. Insult sword fighting is replaced by Monkey Kombat, which I found to be quite challenging. I believe it took me a whole night to solve this part of the game. Overall the puzzles were pretty challenging and sometimes I don't know how an average gamer could solve them without the help of a walkthrough. Unlike previous MI games, there isn't an option for easy or difficult puzzles.

Escape From Monkey Island runs on the GrimE engine that was developed for the superior Grim Fandango. That makes it the second LucasArts adventure game not to run on the SCUMM engine, and the first MI game to feature 3D graphics and atmospheres. That's not necessarily a problem, it is necessary for games to take advantage of advancing technology, but unfortunately the 3D graphics in this game just don't look that great. The only time they look acceptable is when the game pauses for a cut scene to further the plot. Other than that, they look rather primitive by today's standards and even by the standard set by Grim Fandango which was released only a year prior. I prefer the look of Curse of Monkey Island which featured beautiful 2D graphics and backgrounds.

I was delighted that Dominic Armato and Earl Boen reprised their roles as Guybrush and LeChuck from Curse of Monkey Island, the first "talkie" MI. They do a great job voicing those characters and hopefully will continue to do so should a 5th MI go into production. The rest of the voice actors however were average to bad. Every time Otis opened his mouth I usually found myself hitting the button to skip his dialogue. I know this is only a computer game but I expect a little better voice acting. The music was decent but not as good as the music in Curse. It usually got a little repetitive in some areas and there weren't any new character themes or motifs introduced that stuck in my head.

Overall, it's a decent adventure game if you look at it from a stand-alone point of view, but in comparison to the rest of the MI series, it doesn't stand up to its predecessors. If you're a fan of MI, I would recommend playing it just for nostalgia's sake, but don't expect it to blow you away. For newcomers to the series who still enjoy adventure games, I would recommend playing the other games first or any of the other adventure games developed by LucasArts.

Very funny but nothing new

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Being a huge fan of point-and-click adventuresback in my early days of gaming, this game got me really excited when I saw the port from PC to PS2. At the time, I didn't have a PC powerful enoug to play the PC version, being mainly a console gamer. So I picked up the game after reading some rave reviews.

First of all, if you have never played games like Sierra's King's Quest, Space Quest, or any of the Monkey Island series, then go purchase this game. It is hilarious, if in a cheesy kind of way, and contains joke after pun after slapstick. It is extremely well written and a good, involving story.

The graphics are impressive with cartoon-style characters and painted backdrops. Everything is fluid and load times aren't bad at all. All characters seem like they are out of a Disney movie, and many are re-appearing from the previous installments of the series on the PC. Speaking of which, your really do not need to have played the other games to understand what is going on.

This game is good as a way to tell a story, with a couple mini-games thrown in. Overall, you WILL need a hint book or cheat site, because as with most games of this type, the puzzles are completely ludicrous. There are things you have to do that someone would never normally think of, and with tons of items and characters to interact with, it is next to impossible to merely stumble into doing the correct thing. There are many many hours of speech that has been put into the game for each character that you come accross, keeping it not too tedious, and the humor definitely helps.

The gameplay is strong, tried, and true, and the humor. But overall, if you have played this type from when it first started, it gets very old very quickly. The jokes carry it still, even after boredom, so only play it a couple hours at a time, and it won't become too tiring.

So, in closing, if you have never played any point and click adventures, pick this up and get a quick few laughs. Very well done graphics and sound. Go pick it up if you can.

Can be fun, but patchy humour and illogical puzzles...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: October 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

...prevent this game from being truly enjoyable.

The type of humour in Monkey Island is better in theory than in practice.

It is not as funny or as clever as it thinks it is, and if you can last for more than an hour without wanting to murder the annoying main character than you are a better gamer than I.

I LOVED the original Sierra games of this nature, and played the first Monkey Island game on the PC. I remember liking it more...

As has been noted in other reviews, some of the puzzles involve leaps of logic which only a hint guide can provide. I find this alienating. I always hate being put in the position where I HAVE to look up a hint. I don't have the time to attempt EVERY SINGLE variation on EVERY SINGLE item in my inventory on EVERY SINGLE character in EVERY SINGLE environment.

There is no reason why a person should need help for a game like this...

Also very annoying are the constant 'in-jokes' which the writers and programmers indulge in.
Fine...it's a light-hearted, un-serious romp through pirate land, but I really got sick of hearing litte rants put into the game about the videogame industry and references towards the LucasArts company. I wanted to be sucked into this game, and these indulgences on the part of the makers succeeded in yanking me out the environment they had worked so hard to create.

Annoying but generally fun game. I would give it an even lower rating, although the sorry state of the videogame industry these days requires sympathy.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions