PC Review: Tales of Monkey Island – Ch2

When we last saw our hero Guybrush Threepwood, he had found himself at the wrong end of a Sword and at the mercy of the mighty pirate huntress, Morgan LaFlay. We soon learn that it’s the Marquis de Singe who is not about to let Guybrush get away with that infected hand of his. Guybrush’s plans to save his wife Elaine from the evil clutches of LeChuck will have to wait at least a bit for now.

Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Lucas Arts
Genre: 3D Graphic Adventure
Price: $34.95 (Complete Series)

Telltale Games doesn’t waste any time in slipping right back into all the witty banter and swashbuckler fun with the release of Chapter 2, the Siege of Spinner Cay. Before Guybrush knows what he’s really up against, its off with his hand and only to be replaced by a cliche hook of course. I’m not about to sum up the battle between Threepwood and LeFlay for you now, but I’ll tell you that Guybrush will soon be setting course for none other than the Jerkbait Islands to locate Elaine.

What I will say is that this Adventure game has a wonderful story line once again, great graphics to support that, excellent voice acting and a large cast of new characters to bring it all together. If you loved Chapter 1 of this series, then you’ve been dying like the rest of us to get back into this tale of high seas laughs & adventure and to learn what will happen next to our Pirate Hero.

If you’ve happened to skip out on Chapter 1, then your more and likely going to be lost at sea with all that is going on here, not to mention you’ve missed out on a very entertaining introduction to the whole Monkey Island series. Hopefully you’ve purchased the full set of the Tales of Monkey Island and you’re simply waiting for each chapter to finally release.

What your in store for is a fun adventure this time around and you’ll be introduced to the mysterious Merfolk of the Jerkbait Islands and a new band of Pirates that have come down with a case of the Sickly Pox. Its now up to you to solve the various puzzles in this set of adventures and to reach the conclusion for Chapter 2. 

The games controls are pretty much the same as before and you will use the mouse to point and click your way around the screen or the keyboard if you prefer that perhaps. As you meet characters in the story you simply click the available dialogs to interact with them. You have the same inventory storage space as before and may carry a number of objects around with you just like last time.

This chapter is just a little over two hours in length for the most part and every minute of that is entertainment at its best. Funny dialog and great voice acting makes this game a real hit I think. As the game draws to a close, it will be like those old movies from way back in the day and finish with another cliff hanger of an ending; setting us up nicely for the release of Chapter 3 next month. If you loved the first chapter, then your going to love Siege of the Spinner Cay as well.

I’m still new to all of these adventure games and so far I’m loving these interactive stories here. Telltale Games has some very talented staff working on these stories and with two out of the five chapters complete, I can only imagine what they will do with the remaining three chapters next. (A+)

Robert Owens