Tales of Monkey Island Episode One Review [PC]

So Telltale is doing Monkey Island now, and the first question that springs to mind is: Is this hubris? Monkey Island is a beloved franchise, with the first two at least being two of the single greatest point-and-click adventures ever. Telltale makes some of the best that come out these days, but I don't know many who would place, say, Sam and Max season two above the original LucasArts classic, or who'd put Wallace and Gromit on a pedestal next to Day of the Tentacle.

Monkey Island, then. Tales of Monkey Island Episode One: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is, bluntly put, exactly what you'd expect when you hear that Telltale is making a Monkey Island game. It's a fairly reverent sequel with a few returning characters and two or three familiar voice actors, but with puzzles that don't quite match up to the originals, and dialogue that doesn't come close.

For those who didn't play the original games – well, you'll get your chance to play the first next week, and you should. Monkey Island is a series charting the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, who, in the first game, was attempting to become a mighty pirate. Since then, we've seen him win and lose the heart of his love Elaine, and battle his nemesis, the Ghost/Zombie/Demon Pirate LeChuck. As you might expect, that's exactly what's going on here: the game opens with Elaine incapacitated and LeChuck about to unleash a dread secret on the high seas, with only Guybrush left to stop him. Inevitably, he balls it up, giving us the plot set-up for the series. Then the characters start talking and things fall apart a little.

Which is a shame, because Monkey Island's dialogue was one of the best things about it. The dialogue here isn't bad, but there's more than a hint of laziness about it. Exchanges that have the potential for hilarity frequently fall flat, with an obvious set-up ignored in favour of giving you another choice of conversation line. Equally, your choices in conversation are all too often meaningless – an option to introduce yourself in four different ways will more often than not simply result in Guybrush saying what he wants to say. To be fair, this was used in the original series but not five times in the course of one chapter, and usually with more of a sense of place than is seen here, often with Guybrush just getting quickly cut off. Other jokes are equally disappointing: choosing simply to reference YouTube rather than actually making a clever joke about it is just... well, disappointing. The dialogue of a quest-giver not changing when you actually complete one of his quests, again, smacks of laziness (“What ships can I seize around here?” “We've only got one ship on Flotsam...”)

I have to reiterate that it's not bad, exactly – one or two exchanges and situations had me in hysterics, particularly the aforementioned ship seizure, and there are some lovely nods to the past games hidden away in the subtitles and even in simpler things like movement on the island map. Hell, this is probably one of the better Telltale games. The episodic content is a fantastic idea for a game like Monkey Island which is divided into chapters anyway, and for once it doesn't feel like a standalone, self-contained adventure, but rather a genuine first part to a series, complete with cliffhanger ending and a sneaking suspicion that we won't be seeing many re-used locations in the remaining episodes. In that respect, it's pretty much exactly what I've always wanted from episodic content, anyway.

The voice acting, too, is pretty much top notch even if the dialogue isn't. Dominic Armato returns as Guybrush and does his usual bang-up job, and Elaine is voiced by the same actress who took on the role in Monkey Island 3. Barring one or two undeveloped souls, the new characters are superbly well acted, with the Marquis a completely overblown character who is voiced to suit, and pirate captain Van Winslow has a brilliant sense of comic timing during his sadly limited appearances. Graphically, I have equally few complaints - the cartoony faces and over-the-top expressions work well considering the events taking place, and Telltale has adopted the art style of previous Monkey Island games extremely well.

The puzzles aren't going to give experts a run for their money, which I suppose could be considered good or bad. If you've got any experience with point and click games, then you can probably get through this episode in about four hours with very, very few sticking points. There are a few very clever puzzles (which are designed well enough that the solutions don't feel random) but the game runs out of steam slightly towards the end. Expect the early map puzzle to re-appear for a second time, and the almost-final puzzle is marred slightly by game logic.

In the end, this isn't Monkey Island, and that's a huge, huge problem for a sequel to something that well-loved. It's an imitation of Monkey Island, and when the credits reveal that some of parts of the game that felt closest to the original series were devised by fans rather than Telltale, that nagging sense of disappointment comes back, despite the quality of certain sections. The overwhelming feeling is that this first part gives a taste of something that could be truly great if all of the problems are ironed out. I know that I, at least, have been saying this about Telltale since the early Sam and Max games, but... well, the games keep improving. As long as that holds true, I'll keep following this series.

It's just not Monkey Island, and that disappointment may be too much for some people to glean any satisfaction from what is otherwise a pretty damn good Telltale game. Here's hoping that the later episodes improve on things, as previous series have, because if so, this could quite possibly be the best of the bunch. If you like your Telltale products and you're not going to start frothing at the mouth because it's not as good as the first game, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this.