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In this edition of While I've written all of these reviews under the assumption that everyone has played the games, note that I go into detail about Monkey Island 2's ending, if that is something you don't want to read about. It's rare that a sequel surpasses its predecessor, especially when that predecessor is a universally beloved classic. Yet Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge remains one of these improbable cases. Darker, bolder, lengthier, funnier, and more complex, the game is more than a worthy follow-up – it's essentially the first Monkey Island squared. It delivers on everything that made the original great and ascends the series to a new, stratospheric level, managing to surpass every lofty expectation you could have for a sequel to The Secret of Monkey Island, a game which itself seems untouchable. The result is, if it is indeed possible for me to measure these things, my favorite video game of all time, and my high praise for the game is no anomaly.
The game marked the beginning of a new era for LucasArts in more than it being the first game to sport the more independent brand name (ending the term of
That's not to say that the game attempts to fix things that aren't broken, either. Everything you loved from Secret is present here, and in general what worked the first go round is either carried over or slightly improved. The humor, undeniably one of the most necessary elements to nail, is fully intact, only the writing is even sharper and funnier than it was before. Now comfortable with the Monkey Island world as a playing field, one can sense that the writers had become experts of the craft and yet at the same time challenged themselves to top their previous effort. Much like in Secret, the biggest joy of the game is to simply talk to the characters, and as much for the unimportant stuff as otherwise. And the jokes don't end at the dialogue trees, which are more jam-packed with quality banter than ever – one need only to repeatedly try to The interface is largely the same, even identical if you're coming off of the CD version of the original game. It must be said that, despite the several improvements that the game does make, it does play more or less exactly like Monkey Island 1 in the ways you'd want it to, which is to say most. The cosmetic changes between the games are all natural and un-dramatic, which is no criticism, especially considering how right the place that the original game brought point ‘n click adventure mechanics felt. The real improvements, which will be explored in the subsequent paragraphs, have little affect on the basic of the original's tried and true gameplay, which makes sense in a game where storytelling is the star. When considering as a whole how this game elects to continue the series, it's hard to find a sequel that achieves the balance of giving you enough familiarity and at the same time introducing something new as expertly as LeChuck's Revenge does.
The first thing that stands out upon booting this game is the remarkable artwork. Monkey Island 2 retains the basic style of Secret, and draws from the same inspirations (with Disneyland serving as a constant source of reference), but builds on it by taking it in a direction that consciously darkens and matures things to a noticeable but not excessive degree. While the style remains mostly unchanged, the detail and beauty of the backgrounds are not just significant improvements over Secret - they're jaw-dropping. The mindblowing nature of the artwork is of course a credit to the efforts of the supremely talented artists (including Peter Chan and Steve Purcell), but advancements in technology were also factors in realizing the game's stunning images. During the time Monkey Island 2 was in development, the notion of being able to scan paper-drawn illustrations, as opposed to rendering them solely on a computer, was open to the team. While the primitive state of this technique results in a slight blow to the original detail in the form of pixilation type artifacts, the absolutely gorgeous hand drawn illustrations truly bring the game's diverse settings to life, and hold up remarkably well. While one can't help but wonder what a version of the game with high resolution backgrounds would look like, as-is Monkey Island 2 is a game that you'll find yourself stopping to gawk at in order to savor the glorious, picture-book backgrounds. The ante has upped in the animation department as well. It is first off more prevalent, with Guybrush (now a full-fledged rapscallion with attire reflective of his wealthier status) armed with an array of reactions, ranging from head/beard scratching to sweat wiping. While the close-up character portraits from the original have been forfeited, the game has a number of centerpiece moments (the temporary resurrection of Rapp Scallion and the explosive end of LeChuck's Fortress standing out in my mind) that, like any other example of quality animation, will make you go "Wow" without the age of the game ever entering your thoughts as relevant. The character designs (some work in this department was done by future Monkey Island project leader Larry Ahern) are memorable and match the visual style well. Some of the recurring characters, such as Guybrush and his nemesis have undergone makeovers reflective of the game's tone and of the characters' individual growth (such as from a pirate wannabe to a pirate, or from a ghost to a rotting zombie). On the whole the characters look and perform better than they did in the first game, where the cast was of a more modest size. Rounding out the art side of the game are the smaller, subtle effects, the products of gradually improving tech - a lightning flash in a cemetery or the glow of light sources contribute greatly to the overall effect without calling attention to themselves. Every piece, large and small, that the artists craft all play a part in forming a fantastic style. LeChuck's Revenge is, to put it bluntly, one of the most gorgeous games ever.
What's also noteworthy about the island hopping is the fact that this game has every right to be an overbearing and overwhelming experience, and certainly at times it can be, but the design does not just serve to give the game an epic scale, but also makes one feel more in control of the puzzle solving. If you get stuck on one of this game's puzzles, there is more often than not something else you could try doing while you're thinking things through. While sometimes the effect is that it's difficult to know what you're supposed to be doing at a particular moment, Monkey Island 2 is one of the best examples of an adventure game that manages despite its size to be extremely nonlinear without sacrificing the coherency or appeal of the storyline. In addition to being a game of bigger scope and greater complexity, Monkey Island 2's puzzles are on the whole a bit trickier than those of its predecessor. This is partly a natural artifact of the game being less linear than the original, but there also seems to be a slight, conscious "up" in the challenge, which is either a good or bad thing depending on how you like your adventure games served. Fortunately, the game still mostly stays on the right side of logical, even in some of its most fiendishly difficult puzzles (the solution to the spit contest springing to mind). Although this doesn't account for the use of a literal monkey wrench or a certain situation in which Guybrush effortless stuffs a large animal in his coat pocket, the game's puzzle design in general is based in some kind of logic and serves to move the story forward. Most importantly, the solutions are invariably satisfying and sheer fun.
In what seems almost a response to stuffer challenge, the game presents a difficulty selection screen upon startup. Offering two options, dubbed
Now what can I say about flaws, when my feelings on the subject are so similar to those on Monkey Island 1? Well, I know there's one thing you can't fail to bring up when discussing LeChuck's Revenge. This game is somewhat infamous for its rather bizarre ending. It occurs somewhat abruptly and depicts Guybrush as a child who had been lost in an amusement park, imagining his adventures. While the game vaguely implies that this revelation is merely the result of a curse LeChuck has placed on Guybrush (an explanation that the future games depended on to exist), it's abundantly clear that there's a bit more going on with the game's unusual denouement. The meaning of this ending has been interminably debated by fans to an insane degree, and many of the theories tie into the discovery of the titular Secret. Be sure to read some of the later sections of this article for more fun on that topic. Aside from the controversy over the ending's interpretation, some people have criticized its strangeness as an anticlimactic way of wrapping up an otherwise excellent and competently paced game. While I can sympathize with such an opinion I've never really agreed with it – I've always found the sheer craziness of the ending to be a delight. And no matter how you feel about it, the final moments can hardly succeed in rendering the game unsatisfying as a whole what with everything that has preceded it. The ending of Monkey Island 2 may be one of the wackiest in video game history, and for me at least it works exactly for that reason, though everyone's mileage varies. The Secret of Monkey Island is as important for its impact on the genre as it was for being a great game. As a direct sequel, it might be rationally assumed that LeChuck's Revenge isn't as influential a game as its predecessor. While it's true that it can't have that groundbreaking, "Break of Fresh Air" quality that Monkey 1 did, LeChuck's Revenge nonetheless manages to be even more inventive than the original, and that's saying something. Its quality is so high, in fact, that one would have stable ground to argue that this game (Yes, the bearer of this web site's namesake!) has made a greater impact on fans of the series than the original did. This is a game full of memorable scenes, and contains some of the best moments of a series with no shortage of great moments. While Secret may have been the game that introduced us to this endearing version of the Caribbean, LeChuck's Revenge is the game that transformed greatness into brilliance. The Secret of Monkey Island was the first, and therefore it's in a way impossible to dethrone in the minds of many fans, but LeChuck's Revenge is often the game that comes to people's minds when thinking about when the series was at its best. I've said that this is my favorite video game of all time, and it is, but when looking at all the LucasArts graphic adventures it's somewhat pointless to even try to determine a favorite. A problem I've had with all of this reviews so far is one that's only going to get worse as I go on: these games are amazing. That might not seem like such a problem, but it's hard to gush about so many video games without it getting repetitive and therefore making it difficult to convey just how successful these games are as individual masterpieces. Since I feel so strongly about these games, I don't consider rounding up their numerable virtues to be an arduous task, but it is perhaps one that will accomplish little except prompting people who have been long sold on these works to chant, "Right on!" And so what? Monkey Island 2 is top shelf entertainment, and pure fun. It is the best. Play it, love it, and cherish it, because it's not the kind of game that comes along more than once. - By Jason, whose Mom still only allows him to drink near-grog |
Production on Monkey Island 2 began immediately after The Secret of Monkey Island wrapped, and included much of the same team, and by extension much of the same feel. (Designer/writer Dave Grossman spent a few months working with Noah Falstein on the first attempt at The Dig before joining the project.) In many ways, the game feels like a seamless continuation of the first, and the sense is surely due in no small part to the back-to-back nature of their development. Fortunately, while the game carries over everything from the original that it should, it doesn't make the mistake of being a rehash. There's a whole new slew of characters (accompanied by a few familiar ones), a completely new (and at least as compelling) story, and over twice as many new locations as there were in Monkey Island 1. In fact, unless you consider a single screen that serves as a gag, Guybrush does not revisit any of the islands from The Secret of Monkey Island – the game only covers new ground, and while it works splendidly as a companion piece to the first game it stands firmly on its own two feet as a reasonably self-contained experience.
Within a frame narrative in which Guybrush is regaling his grandest adventure to Governor Elaine Marley while the two are hanging around, the story of Monkey Island 2 begins on the gloomy, pirate inhabited Scabb Island, seeing an older, but no less clueless Guybrush Threepwood, now an experienced pirate with a coat full of loot to fund his latest and greatest treasure hunting expedition. No longer able to impress his fellow buccaneers with exaggerated stories of his victory against the Ghost Pirate LeChuck, Guybrush intends to secure his name permanently into pirate lore by finding the legendary Big Whoop, a mythical treasure of unparalleled value and mystery. After thwarting Scabb's resident bully Largo (who just happens to have been LeChuck's right hand man while the infamous captain was still alive), Guybrush travels throughout the Tri-Island Area (Scabb Island, Phatt Island, and Booty Island), recovering the four scattered map pieces to the fabled isle where Big Whoop lay hidden. Meanwhile, Guybrush is being pursued by a reanimated LeChuck, who in his zombie form intends to capture our newly bearded hero and exact torturous revenge on him. Since Big Whoop serves as a portal to a dimension where LeChuck cannot cross, Guybrush must race to the famous treasure before LeChuck catches up with him. Along the way, Guybrush meets up with a number of new acquaintances and has some run-ins with a few former ones (like Stan, the obnoxious salesman), and learns some of the greatest secrets of the Caribbean. He also proves that he can still hold his breath for ten minutes.
I've made the observation that this game is everything its predecessor was, except better. This holds true under the hood as well as for what's displayed on screen. There is little more for me to say about the technical aspects – it's the impressively complicated and clever design of this sprawling game that deserves special mention. The game's second section, entitled The Four Map Pieces, constitutes the bulk of the game (which, by the way, is a good deal longer than Secret, and probably one of the longer adventure games out there), and it is a huge and pretty nonlinear segment in which Guybrush sails back and forth among the aforementioned Tri-Island area (Scabb Island, Phatt Island, and Booty Island). Guybrush locates the four scattered Big Whoop map pieces by tracking down the original members of the crew (or their successors, such as Guybrush's old flame Elaine Marley), who divided the map in an effort to keep the treasure hidden. This area of the game isn't just impressive for its complexity, but for its innovation - one can see a little bit of GTA and other modern games in the "choose your own path" nature of the adventure. It's hard not to appreciate how complicated the puzzle design is here, especially since walking the tightrope between linear and nonlinear is an issue that adventure games in general still struggle to do in a satisfying way.
The music in this game deserves far more than a passing mention not only because the compositions are excellent but because of how they're implemented. Monkey Island 2 ushered in a brand new technology that changed the way the relationship between gameplay and soundtrack could work. iMUSE (Interactive MUsic Streaming Engine) is the name of that technology, an engine (the labor of Peter McConnell and Michael Land) developed with the goal of the music dynamically responding to the actions of the characters that transitions gracefully, as opposed to simply a static, looping track that plays for a given setting with a start and a cut. Armed with this, yes, revolutionary development, Monkey Island 2 introduced gamers to the possibility that music could be not merely be a disposable background element , but an active contribution to the immersion aspect of a game, adding to the atmosphere, mood, and tone in a way that was never possible before. iMUSE is not merely some technical advancement, it's an invaluable enhancement to the game's presentation.
As for the tunes themselves, they play much like all other aspects of the game – reminiscent enough that it can't be confused for anything but a Monkey Island soundtrack (the main theme, LeChuck's theme, and even the ditty for the Part title cards are reprised), but original enough that it's hugely enjoyable as a standalone work.
The creation of Land, McConnell, and Clint Bajakin (generally considered the holy trinity of LEC composers), the music is always appropriate, memorable, and plain great. When fifteen year old MIDI music is so good that you still want to listen to it in a non-nostalgic way, it speaks for itself. Another thing to note is that in this game music is always playing, excepting a few moments where its absence is called for as an intentional effect. But aside from being more prevalent than was the case with Monkey 1 (which has many scenes of silence), the music here is also generally more impressive. While the tunes in Monkey 1 were charming and suited to the environments, the music in Monkey 2 has such an integral role in the game's overall effect that it's truly a inseparable component. I'll sometimes run the game just to get a fix of the Woodtick themes, which is a combination of great music and arguably the greatest use of iMUSE (despite being the first). Simply put, the game is gifted with a ridiculously good soundtrack.
