Return to Monkey Island is like hanging out with an old friend
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Loading... - Ivanka Dimova
- 30 Sep 2022
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Playing Return to Monkey Island felt like picking things up with an old friend. Return is the newest game in the iconic Monkey Island series of point-and-click adventure games and the first in quite some time. The original, released more than 30 years ago, is beloved for its silly story about protagonist Guybrush Threepwood on a quest to become a pirate. This new title captures the joy and playfulness that the series is known for — which is no surprise, given that series creator Ron Gilbert is back and Dave Grossman has returned to co-write — and the developers at Terrible Toybox have streamlined the experience to make it feel right at home in 2022.
In my opinion, you don’t need to have played any other games in the series to have fun with Return to Monkey Island. For newbies or people who haven’t played a Monkey Island game in a while, there’s an in-game scrapbook that succinctly summarizes key plot points from other games. It’s been at least a decade since I played through the first two Monkey Island games, but the scrapbook had more than enough information for me to enjoy Return to Monkey Island’s story. I’m not going to spoil the game’s plot, but rest assured that there are jokes, cameos, and references that I think longtime fans will appreciate.
Return to Monkey Island is still a point-and-click adventure game, so you’ll be spending most of your time exploring, investigating objects, and having conversations with the many ridiculous characters you’ll run into. My favorite was a bored and bookish ghost that was always hanging upside down. Unlike in older games, you won’t have to select prompts like “Open” or “Pick Up” to interact with an object in a certain way. Instead, when you hover over something you can investigate or use, you’ll be presented with one or two options of what you can do. You don’t have to use a mouse and keyboard, as there’s also a really good controller scheme that worked well on my Steam Deck. It quickly became my preferred way to play. Read More...
