Monkey Island Remake & New Episodes Confirmed!

So it's well into the 7th, why can't I download it yet? Earlier today it was "It's almost here, pre-order now!" Now The entire site is down.

I used to be all for the digital future, but now....

Get it now.

Already did, everyone can go back to what they were doing.

And??
I'm sitting here with a $34 item in my Steam cart, wondering just how much potential disappointment is worth to me... Tell me it sucks! Tell me that it will rape my childhood!!!

It's by far Telltale's best game, plus the humor and feel are Monkey Island through and through.

So yeah, it sucks.

Rezzy wrote:

And??
I'm sitting here with a $34 item in my Steam cart, wondering just how much potential disappointment is worth to me... Tell me it sucks! Tell me that it will rape my childhood!!!

Hold out!!! Wait with me until it's all out and discounted. It's a lose lose. Either it is good and then you have to wait each time to get more, or it is bad in which case you could have spent less. Together we can be strong.

Just finished the first episode of the new game. Well worth it. So glad I pre-ordered the season.

Just a quick review:

Monkey Island, more than the other Telltale franchise revivals, feels more like the original game than a 'Telltale game'. The wry humor is there, and the puzzles (obvious in retrospect) give you that old Lucasarts feeling. It also helps that there is about 50% more content in this game than in your standard Sam & Max episode -- and plenty of 'rooms'. You aren't wandering between the same 4 rooms all the time. Let's hope that the Super Sized eppie isn't a one-off thing. The voice acting is solid as usual, with great delivery and some laugh-out-loud moments.

The controls will feel a little strange at first. You have to hold down the mouse button, then move the mouse in the direction you want to walk. Double clicking on an object makes you run, but otherwise I haven't found a way to make him move faster, unfortunately. They seemed to realize this, and the overworld map gets more prominent throughout the episode to minimize backtracking.

I'd been put off by the declining puzzle quality of the Sam & Max episodes (even the one I got free for pre-ordering Monkey). Thankfully this reverses the trend. If you have any fond memories of the original, and I have many, this won't let you down. I would absolutely recommend it.

My favorite quote so far:
"A U-Tube? Why not a A,E,I,O, or even Y tube?"
"We're sold out of everything else. Besides, everything seems to be about U-tubes these days..."

I was about to moan about the price of the episode (£24.99 here), which would be extortionate...but then I realised that this is the price for ALL the episodes, which is...actually pretty good.

So, er... SOLD and downloading now

I liked the first episode quite a lot, one of Telltale's best efforts. Some of the Sam and Max episodes might be better but I'm hoping that the episodes will build steam as they go like they usually do. It's definitely Telltale's best first episode in a new series. The puzzles are definitely old school in how they use inventive objects and object combinations, in fact I think this is the first Telltale game that lets you inspect inventory objects and combine them, but they're actually not so hard that you can't solve them without a walk through.

I don't think the episode is actually any longer than an episode of the other five episode series, but it seems to break away from the Telltale formula. It starts with the usual single introductory puzzle followed by a set of three related puzzles but after that you're fairly free to explore solving several small puzzles that progress you through the game in the Monkey Island tradition. Of course there's a final set of 3-4 puzzles and a final end game puzzle in the Telltale tradition, but I found those to actually be easier than they usually are, especially the last one.

The mouse controls are terrible, click and drag for simple movement is a terrible idea. Fortunately you can use WASD to move, Shift to run, Tab or I to open inventory, and E to examine inventory objects. I hear Telltale has a policy of not doing point and click movement starting with the Wallace and Grommit games because of development issues, probably doing pathfinding was too much work for episodic games or something, although if you click on an object Guybrush will still automatically walk to it. Fortunately due to fan outcry they included keyboard controls in Monkey Island, and these are fine to me although I found myself taking my hand off the keyboard during dialog because I kept forgetting I would need to use it to move around.

Warning: I did find one major bug in the game that lets you receive an item for a puzzle you haven't solved. However if you haven't solved that puzzle it makes a puzzle later on unsolvable since you won't have the other item needed. There's no need to reload, you can go back and solve the first puzzle, but it can confuse you if you think you've solved everything else.

mild spoiler wrote:

[color=white]You need to get the unbreakable bottle breaker into your inventory. Using it without doing that is a glitch.[/color]

Just played a little so far...all good apart from the controls as previously mentioned.
Didn't realise you could use the WASD though, that might help things out considerably.

I'll consider allowing myself to buy this once I play through all of the classic LucasArts adventures that I missed the first time around.

If this has been asked & answered somewhere in the forums, then accept my apology. Anyways, my question is: Has there been any info whether or not the individual episodes will become available for purchase and if so, when? I'm only asking because I'm a poor ass student and I would not mind paying a little more in the end as long as I can keep the individual payments small.

Thanks!

The main complaint seems to be about controls. Since TellTale often improves things based on customer feedback, do you think they'll change them a bit for the next episodes? And if so, will they go back and apply these changes to the first one?

Ocelot wrote:

I'm only asking because I'm a poor ass-student and I would not mind paying a little more in the end as long as I can keep the individual payments small. Thanks!

I didn't know you could go to school for this. Are you a proctologist? Also, students often have the perception that they are poor even when they are not.

PandaEskimo wrote:
Ocelot wrote:

I'm only asking because I'm a poor ass-student and I would not mind paying a little more in the end as long as I can keep the individual payments small. Thanks!

I didn't know you could go to school for this. Are you a proctologist? Also, students often have the perception that they are poor even when they are not.

Hey, that's a sweet ass-car!

Schmutzli wrote:

My favorite quote so far:
"A U-Tube? Why not a A,E,I,O, or even Y tube?"
"We're sold out of everything else. Besides, everything seems to be about U-tubes these days..."

That was actually my least favorite, but it was just one of two that fell flat for me.

The Ass Man is in the house!

I played it a bit and I liked the puzzles. Less infuriating, a lot more intuitive and kinda pop-culturey (menthos in root beer? hehe)

stevenmack wrote:

I was about to moan about the price of the episode (£24.99 here), which would be extortionate...but then I realised that this is the price for ALL the episodes, which is...actually pretty good.

It is a good price, but it begs the question - why Episodic then?

I mean, one of the main points of episodic games is you get small bits, at reduced individual costs, over time. I'm happy to pay them earlier to keep development going, but it seems rather silly to not sell the episodes individually as well as in a bundle.

PandaEskimo wrote:

The main complaint seems to be about controls. Since TellTale often improves things based on customer feedback, do you think they'll change them a bit for the next episodes? And if so, will they go back and apply these changes to the first one?

They used the same control scheme for Wallace & Gromit I believe and got a lot of complaints about that too. Based on those they changed it to allow you to use the WASD keys to move so they are obviously listening.

Apparently the reason they are doing this is to do with the effort involved in creating accurate pathfinding and the fact that this control scheme is quicker/cheaper for them. If the feedback is bad enough I'm sure they'll consider changing back though.

I'm sure the fact that it would also fit an analogue stick like a glove doesn't hurt either.

Also i noticed you can hold shift to run as well btw. Which is nice.

ahrezmendi wrote:

It is a good price, but it begs the question - why Episodic then?

I mean, one of the main points of episodic games is you get small bits, at reduced individual costs, over time. I'm happy to pay them earlier to keep development going, but it seems rather silly to not sell the episodes individually as well as in a bundle.

Yeah, is a bit odd, but maybe it worked out that the majority people ended up just buying the compilations vs individual episodes so they figured they'd put that out first then worry about episodic releases later? I dunno.

I think it's because they were offering the $35 as a preorder pack with some extra goodies(Steve Prucell art thingy and a free episode of your choice, IIRC).

They probably just haven't turned on the single episode purchase. I have a feeling that it'll be available next week, which is probably another way they're trying to give more incentive to get the full bundle.

ahrezmendi wrote:

It is a good price, but it begs the question - why Episodic then?

Episodic content is brillant. It brings the spotlight monthly for all of the episodes. What I mean to say is, every time a new episode is released, it has free publicity from the news sites whereas a new game will only be talked about once.

This is a superb way for developers of Adventure games to promote their games.

I'm impressed so far, although I'm only part way into the episode. The most important thing is that it feels like a Monkey Island game to me with the look, the humour, the music, the characters etc.

My only real annoyance so far is when it gives you multiple dialogue options and then completely ignores what you selected and Guybrush speaks a generic response. I know it's because they don't want to record 3 lines of dialogue when the options are just there for comedy but it still really throws me off each time I select something and end up saying something different. No idea if this is common with other Telltale games as although I own the Sam & Max games I haven't actually played past episode 1 yet.

I don't actually mind the controls that much using WASD. It seems a bit pointless not to just be able to click but the movement is just as easy using the keys, it's just the fact that I keep forgetting and taking my hand of the keyboard that's annoying.

the only control that frustrates me right now is the escape key. I open the inventory and when I want to close it, I hit escape, but escape brings up the main menu. I don't know if I will ever learn to hit the right mouse button to close it.

Haha, I need to choose my words more carefully next time. Anyways if it's only sold as a bundle, I guess just need to wait for better financial times to get my copy. Oh well, at least I can play some MI:SE before I get my hands on the new adventure.

LucasArts has released the pricing of Monkey Island: Special Edition:

LucasArts on Twitter wrote:

Monkey Island: Special Edition: 800 MS points on XBLA, and $9.99 on Steam for PC. Not shabby, eh?

Tannhauser wrote:

LucasArts has released the pricing of Monkey Island: Special Edition:

LucasArts on Twitter wrote:

Monkey Island: Special Edition: 800 MS points on XBLA, and $9.99 on Steam for PC. Not shabby, eh?

Sold!

...

It was sold at 20$ too, so shame on me and my impossibly weak will

Great price. Really impressed with Lucasarts for the pricing of this and the old adventure games they've just released on Steam. They could easily have cashed in so it's nice they realise that more sales at a lower price point is probably in their benefit as well as the customers.

Isn't that about the same price they had for the Bionic Command remake? I do hope I sense a trend for the gaming industry at large.

Not really on topic with the remake but the reason Monkey Island 4 sucked was that Guybrush got married to Elaine, what the hell, pirates don't get married ever u_u