Game Details

Title: Tales of Monkey Island – The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
Developer: Telltale Games (Lucasarts)
Cost: £24.99 (Steam for all 5 episodes)
Released (UK): 30/10/2009
Age Rating: Everyone
Game Type: Point and Click Adventure
Multi-player: None
Length: Short (<5 hours)

My Impressions

Following on from the welcome return of Murray in Chapter 4, another well known character makes a return in the form of Stan, who is the prosecuter in Guybrush’s trial. For a change however it seems that Guybrush has been framed (or at least not as guilty as implied) and the first part of the game has you trying to clear the Mighty Pirate’s™ name.

It has to be said though that in many ways this is the darkest Monkey Island game I have ever played, with 1 moment in particular left me thinking that I cant believe that just happened, and the ending of the episode is also particularly bleak as well, though it does conclude with a variant of an insult sword fighting line fans of the series can see coming a mile off.

There is also good character development for Morgan, who gets given 30000 pieces of silver (I wonder what the analogy could be there?), and then spends a good portion of the chapter wallowing in guilt at betraying her hero. This is not made any easier by Guybrush’s understandable attitude towards her when he sees her next.

The chapter is not without it’s humour though, and there are numerous moments that will make you laugh. There are also several plot twists including one which people have been predicting since Chapter 2, but large questions are raised about the Voodoo lady as well, though the source of the questions is rather dubius.

While I did not enjoy Chapter 4 as much as Chapter 3, I still found it to be a highly enjoyable to play. In fact my main complaint about the game is Stans jacket which is painful on the eyes. The puzzles are the usual fare varying from quite easy to the only obvious when you read them in a walkthrough type.

All in all if you enjoy Point and Click adventure games and haven’t already bought Tales on Monkey Island, I dont know what you are waiting for

My Recommendation

Buy

Death, betrayal and an electromagnetic monkey. Tales of Monkey Island takes a walk on the darkside with big question marks hanging over the fate of several characters.

Screenshots

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Monkey 4