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[twillight]

Ugh. Quicktime events, pixel-hunt, quicktime-event-pixelhunt to the brim, missing clues, deliberately trollin the player not giving them the necessary clue to continue, or just utter random guessing (those 4-liners are a nightmare).


There's also a puzzle where you should use the key item/action not on the target you think - rmeinds me of Prisoners of Ice, tzhat one.


There's also a part where repeated same action is needed, Because Why Not.


There are also unnecessarily complicated puzzles, including inventory-puzzles.


So this is a hardcore game, not the shareware thing it looks like to be from its first location.
I still think this is far from the worst, but definitely the gatekeeper to hardcore adventure games.

[twillight]

This game is front-loaded with difficulty. Logic puzzles, and all that. If you are not good solving the rubik's Cube, or that pesky "here is a jumble of symbols, here is the alphabet, go and solve this", you'll be toast.


But that aside, only a couple of puzzles are very challanging. A lot of times it helps you are confined to a certain area, so don't get confused.


I accidently solve the goat-puzzle by clicking the doorway by instinct, than clicking the only other thing on the screen, so dunno what to say about that, but we do get some other unfair puzzles, like the "find the Bible passages" puzzle where the letters do not allign verticaly so you don't look for it, and even when you do the puzzle breakes its own rules, and the double-coloumn all the sudden is not part of the puzzle anymore.
Also, the priest cleans the chalice literaly forever. And despite your character insists you should lok around INSIDE the church, you shouldn't.
But while inside, it took me forever to look through the statue's scroll, and I'm not sure what achueved that in the end.


The good thing is, the interavtive parts (items to pick up, elements to mess with) are all highlighted in an obvious way very much like Day of the Tentacles, and on top of it there's not even word-choice puzzle here, it either works or not.
Tbh, with oh-so-many conversations, this game is a bit boring even.


I'd rate it "easy" after you pass the "tutorial level" Darkside Detective. Easy for an adventure game I mean.
Seems to be rules of adventure games:
- talk with everyone about everything
- try everything on everything
- do it again if you ran out of options. Maybe something changed or an option got activated.
- there will be a puzzle with Unusual Mechanic. In every single adventuregame.
- there'll be also a strange goldberg-machine you have no reason to boggle down with, but is actualy mandatory. I mean what was that with the cat, the ring and the ball? It's so random!

[twillight]

Oh, man. I had to describe this one with one word, it's tedious.
You rly don't get much more than the prvious, but the logiuc-puzzles are mostly missing, and replaced with tedious manual labour.


The game is shorter, but does not feel that much shorter, actualy it still feels longer than the first one.


And yes, you can get stuck on unreasonable puzzles. It's one thing when you stuck in a situation your character has no actual reason to bother with the place - thinking of the priest-hermit, but when it comes to getting into the museum while the goldberg-machine's parts are obvious (give fish to cat, use ball to crash don marker, steal plans, get in), the actual execution is nonsense. I don't think any human would come to that conclusion.
Even worse is when you walk into the jungle on Skull Island. The film-crew is horrendous, but not the worst part. Thought the "maze" will be that one, but nah, it's a straight line (and I even stack the reed into the hole! I'm proud). The problem is, there's no indicator when you achieve something, so the player constantly questions if should try more, or what.
Seriously, you put down the tesodolite, then for no appearant reason go back, fight the boar and put on the marker. Than use the teodolite when there's no indication that a new unique mechanique just got implemented to move the bugger around, then there's no indication a new pathway just got unlocked. WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE? This part is just pure bad design if you ask me.

[twillight]

Oh, pal.
Don't start with this one, although most of the conent is solveable with some experience. Even the occasional quicktime events.
I wonder if the troll would eat you though...


Anyway, there are some dialogue-options that'd warant some replayability, but on the other hand there are some points that can yout your adventure short.
Before that though, I will complain for the placement of the sword-trainer. I'd switch his location with Meathook, so the flow of the story does not get an abrupt halt.
Now the first real problem is getting that fish. The solution: repeated action.
Repeated action gets real horrible though with Monkey Island's monkey. 5 bananas for no reason. There's no marker that that's enough. No indication what to do with it now.
I could complain about the cannibals, but with some adventure-game instinct you'll realise you just have to try everything on them to get through with them, so I don't.
But I complain for the monkey.


Herman's cannon's location could also have had a better marker. Definitely in the Remastered version, I just played for the first time. Aside for the voices, it's inferior to the classic interface and graphic.

[twillight]

By time progressing, I grew kinda appreciativ to this game, though I'll probably never like it either.
But tbh the ending makes sense, especialy if you binged the two games, and the puzzles' difficulty is kinda perfect.
With a couple of exceptions.


the spit-contest is very hard to figure out with wind, and the drink being necessary component for the otherwise trivial event.
and the elevator at the end for some reason did not close the first time I tried it? I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for that.
come to think of it, the code to win prize on the fortune wheel is another thing i just brute-forve it via save-scamm every time.


Now the real problems are two:
- the monkey. Why any of that part of the puzzle happens is beyond me. Sure, it makes sense when you have the solution, but otherwise... Nonsense.
- and LeChuck's piece of clothing. Now THAT goes against everything adventure-game. There's just no way a player would not just pick up that coin and move on. That you are pressured with that random quicktime event is horrendous too. That room absolutely needed LeChuck only showing up there if you put the coin into the machine! And react to the bloody coin! I once threw the coin into the coke-maton during the brief pause after he enters the room, and that has no effect! I call BS.


PS: there's also a new adventure-game trope in this one which wasn't in the previous titles listed here: the scummbag protagonist. You deliberately have to do nasty things, to which only the killing the rubber clown in Day of the Tentacles come close if anything. Here you steal a blind man's glasses, and saw off a pegleg of a disabled person. Not even close to the Deponia-series, but still something you have to account for.
Darn, I hate deponia for it's protagonist's attitude to the world!

[twillight]

You know, this is what I would consider adventure game standard should be.
Sure, the interface is pretty straightforward, very similar to Day of the Tentacles Remastered (but this one doesn't offer you the action you shall use), and the puzzles are far from easy, but that's what adventuregame-players wish for, right? Wonky, makes you think lateraly hard puzzles, but not to the point of moon-logic.
So making the guy chew on jawbreaker to make his gold tooth fall out, put it in a gum, inhale helium and thus make it flow through the window is a pretty good puzzle if you ask me. Not obvious for the normal mind, but you can figure out if you've played some adventure-games already I'd say.


And it has good graphic, a clever storyline, connections to the previous installments and so on.
I do wonder what would have been the original idea for MI3, but pretty much guaranteed it'd've been a financial bomb, unlike this one everybody adores.

[twillight]

Oooh. I hate this one. I didn't remember how tedious this was. And hard. I remembered it felt empty, and was about lawyers, and paperwork, but all the combinations of this three factor just makes it insufferable.


And it gets worse by progress!
First there is such nonsense you have to win 3 times in a row AGAINST THE RANDOM to hire the navigator. Ok, brute force it with save-scamming.
Then there is the prohestetic shop, and its code-decyphering... Those always manage to be tedious. I'd just buy a puzzle-magazine if I would want that nonsense!
Than quicktime-events which require ultimate precision in a clunky controllled game take over, and finaly Monkey Kombat (yes, it is some Mortal Kombat reference). And it's not funny. Just pure tediousness. The tediousness start with the boulder-puzzle about the bronze hat. Just nah. Too much.


Btw, have to re-play the first game to figure out WTH was that with the Journey of the Sea Monkey. What dd the game say, who was the other guy with "Herman"? I don't remember everything. Which rmeinds me, Escape... is full of puzzles where the clues get only once, in a conversation, where there is no pause, and the clue is just some throwaway line.
It's nonsense. Too much. Watch a playthrough on youtube if you need to know what happens in this one, it just does not worth your energy. This game is an energy-vampire.

[twillight]

I knew from first hand experience this is not the game it was hyped to, still a disappointment.


For the first half of this thing the lack of a map is a real issue for the player, as they don't have the knowledge of their character, what stinks. The worse thing is, the game is trolling you, teasing with a solution, while executing another. Still, this part is survivable if you make some notes what your goals are.
Then comes the pixelhunting, quicktime events, and straight out BS. And the incosistent lore, like it's a big deal skellyies don't drown because no lungs - but then how are they smoking? This gets a real problem when you get in HL's casino, and the game straight out tells you, Manny won't change clothes, because the previous set stinks. Because you walked through the sewers this makes sense. What does NOT makes sense, that you have to go back to the sewers. And the new cloth somehow won't get stinky. My arse. This is just bad design.
For the puzzles the really bad designs start with opening the door to Meche. There is just no way anyone guessed it out without a walkthrough. And the puzzle-design rly gets worse from there. Puzzles for puzzles sake, Sierra-style. And that method killed Sierra when it because so obvious it hit everyone on the nose in Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria. It was bad there, it is bad when Lucasarts did it too.


The whole story could have been a great animated movie. But as a game - it's annyoing, frustrating, disappointing, tedious, and overal not fun to play. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel about this mess.


Lastly: where are the people from this thing? Very Escape from Monkey Island syndrome.

[twillight]

Well, this game is definitely "easy" when it comes to adventure games. Not baby-easy, you understand, you have to be pretty patient and stuff, but MOST of it is not a real obstacle.
I said MOST of it.
Oh, and the controls are clunky AF, so move around with keyboard, and click on stuff with mouse, and get used to the still clunky interface.

Part 1
This chapter trolls you quite a bit, posing artificail barriers in your exploration, and I dun care more times than not turned out my original idea was a miss. I should have been able to try it out!

Part 2
Now here are 2 puzzles which are "call our hotline" BSs.
- when on the shore with the two pirates I figured out I have to mark the friggin treasure-chest to be able to find it. With a bit of head-scratching and going around everywhere in case i missed some hotspots, I figured out the right item to do it. The problem was, even though I distracted them, they noticed me.
The solution was to dig into some obscure dialogue-tree which offered 2 other method of distraction beside just the plain distraction. Nof this is just dleiberately making life of the player miserable.
- the other was changing your main mass to a rubber tree. When that cannon-ball hit me it was totaly obvious from MI3, and I saw a rubber tree in this game... So I went to the merchant - and the option never came up. The solutuion was, that instead you should have sailed to the place with broken ship, I think, meet two pirates there, make them dig out the tree, and THEN go back to the shop. But I had no reason to think like this, so I had to go thriugh the thing with repeaired mass, make it broken again, go back to the shop, where finaly THE OPTION CAME UP. This is utter BS, bad design, deliberate sabotage of progress.

Part 3
This is hindered again by 2.5 puzzles:
- to "get to Flotsam Island" is full of red herrings. Like why is that other ship there? Why is the hint we get inside the game is to bargain with the dude at the shore from the ship? The whole intermezzo of course would be a bit easier the very least if a key item (photo of Guybrush) wouldn't be hidden behind a PIXELHUNT in a game where pixelhunting is practicaly impossibe? Well, if I had a week to figure things out, I'd PROBABLY found that pesky little thing which was ON ANOTHER LEVEL comapred to where I was looking for it, because of course it was, and you can't look back the video that has the clue, obviously.
- the conversation between the manatees is Galador level BS. Not that terrible, but pretty much the "guess the 4 line magic spell" puzzle transfered here. It's just tedious. AND you can not save when you are doing conversation, so yeah, bloody tedious.

Part 4
Now this WOULD BE a very satisfying chapter IF Telltale hadn't turned lazy AF, and fixed the gamebreaking bugs. They had the time to release a patch for F sake.
there are 2 major bugs you can't play around:
- the game crashes when you finaly allowed to enter the jungle, and you do so
- at the end of the chapter you SHOULD BE ABLE to talk with De Singe, but you can not.
To solve these GAMEBREAKING bugs go to the game's folder\Pack, and DELETE EVERY SINGLE FILES beside the X_ chapter-files and the WAV file. Dunno when those broken files get there, maybe there's an auto-delition issue or something, but it is definitely bloody annoying!!!
Bugs aside, there is one hardcore level puzzle here with the map. Nothing warns or hints you that, and there are aplenty of red herrings, which makes you think it has to do either with Stan's Voodoo Lady doll, or the calendar in the jungle. Because, you know: everyone is telling you "FUTURE!", and not "unknown". So F your "call our hintline instead" ingame clues, Telltale!


Part 5
If anything, this chapter looks epic. Seriously. This game in whole is for me as Grim Fandango to other people. Il ove the characters, the story, and most of the puzzles. The controls are clunky, and some things are annyoing, but still.
Now the crash-bug also exists here - again just delete everythin that's not x_ chapter-file.
The most annoying part here is getting those Obvious Keys during the final confrontation, which is made of quicktime-events a'la MI3, but here you have to set up a bunch of inventory-puzzles, modifying the sorroundings, finding shortcuts - and include a series of obscrure dialoge-tree puzzles. Now that was a mistake. Totaly breaks the flow, and you are just stading around to get punched, and finaly land on the screen you want something to try next. Annoying. Tedious. An action-filled ending to the waste.
And what was that ending? totaly anti-climactic to an epic saga. Were more episodes planned? I have no idea. Feels like some kind of fanfic. Making the Voodoo Lady causing the Mysterious Storm that crushed LeChuck's ship, making him ghost - obvious. But they've done nothing with it. Was this written by JarJar Abrams? Feels like one of his "Mystery Box"-es.

[twillight]

One: you are not playing the rabbit.
Two: the game does not take place in one night, or any number of nights.
Three: this game is ludicrously slow. There's a whole sentence worth of space between every sentence said, and there are a lot of sentences told.
Four: it has a tutorial that sees you a moron. Takes forever, and after passing some intro-area where you click on stuff to move, converse and stuff, explains that you can click on things. I mean what?
Five: the first puzzle is a stupid force-railroaded nonsense, which requires a very-very high level of understanding of english. That's in obvious direct contrast to the tutorial you just've done. I mean couldn't you allow to mix the ingredients at least in whatever order, like any other adventure-game? And don't even start me with the symbol drawn on that random frog-rock. What was even that?


All in all I'm not against this, but I only suggest picking it up when you have waaay too much time not having anything remotely interresting in reach. I mean classical paintings are neat, but if there is an action-movie in the cinema - the film-theatre will always win.