Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay Review

If you haven’t noticed by now Monkey Island has come back with vengeance,  whether it’s the special edition or the tales of Monkey Island you have been playing - I’m sure, like me, you are welcoming the return of such a good game; which seem to have kick started the need for adventure games once more.  If you haven’t already played the first part of this five part adventure game then I suggest that you grab yourself a copy or even the demo and settle into the game and if you’re still unsure try reading our review of the first part right here.  So grab your pirate hat and practice your ARRG!! as we settle in for this part of Tales of Monkey Island.

To start off with; because this is episodic series you will soon notice that this part won’t take you long to complete. In fact it took me four hours to run through this part and probably even less if you look at the hints and walkthroughs that are on the internet if you do get stuck. In this new episode there are six new islands to explore as well as other areas which you can visit on the ocean at certain points throughout the game. The Flopsome Island from the first game is no longer available to go back to but there are cut-scenes that still showing that something maybe left to do on this island. The six new islands are great to walk around and there is plenty to do on most of them, with this episode there is now a lot of to and fro-ing between islands and many of the challenges require you to visit multiple islands even before you get close to solving the puzzle.

If you were sick with jungles last time round I doubt you will be fond of the new one either. Instead of having certain areas that once you have found you can revisit, you have to manually go back to the same spot every time. This is time consuming and sometimes damn right annoying, there is a puzzle later on in the game where you will need to utilise your knowledge of the jungle but, hey, at least there is no map puzzles this time around!

The graphics again are brilliant and really does show how good these game look now with 3D backgrounds and the some of the backdrops within this game are wonderfully detailed - which you should just take a minute to look at before you continue on your questing.

The storyline does pick off where we last left your hero, Guybrush Threepwood, but to avoid spoilers I won’t mention how the cliff hanger of the last episode is resolved or a lot of the main detail out of the story just to make sure you go and play it for yourselves. You may think this is a bit of a cop out as a review, but due to so many of the events and storyline twists that do happen in the game happen as a bit of a surprise I’d rather let you find out by yourself rather than give the game away. Elaine and LeChuck are back in this episode and the storyline continues from where we left them in the opening credits and, yes, we still have the nice and human LeChuck but your guess is as good as mine as to how long this will continue.

The story of the Pox of LeChuck carries on well and there are even more characters now that seem to be engulfed in this disease that is spreading its way around the Caribbean. Some of the characters involved are starting to appreciate the pox, enjoying the fierceness it invokes, while many other main characters are beginning to fall prey to the disease (I would tell you but I would have people sending me evil e-mails again!). Whilst we leave Guybrush heading for the cure of the Pox of LeChuck at the end of this chapter, I feel that there is going to be some definite twists and turns before this problem is resolved.

While I still have a few issues with the game, like the reuse of character models throughout the game, which in a sense feels lazy and does affect the immersion of the game. Also, the controls, which I know is in the current trend in adventure games, still feel as if they need some work as they do still feel clunky. I don’t understand the point of having a point and click game that needs a keyboard to be navigated well.

My final point, though, has to be about the humour in this game. While the first game had me quietly chuckling to myself, I have to admit that on more that on occasion this episode had me laughing out loud. The jokes have always been there in the first episode, it is the little things in this episode that make it so much better.

For a second chapter this does exactly what it needs to do, expanding on the storyline and keeping us interested to wait for the third one. This episode more than successfully keeps us hooked and I really am looking forward to the next chapter - which will be out next month.