NEWS 2009 : Tales of Monkey Island: Episode One Impressions

NEWS INFO : The first episode of Telltale Games' new episodic game series, Tales of Monkey Island, is available today, though not quite in the way you might imagine. For the one-time purchase price of $34.95, you get all five of the episodes delivered monthly as they are released. So, to play the first episode, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, you'll have to purchase every other episode in advance. This structure precludes us from being able to evaluate the game according to our ratings system because we can't assess whether the purchase price is worth it without playing every episode. We have, however, played Launch of the Screaming Narwhal to completion, and the following are our impressions of the first episode in the new Tales of Monkey Island adventure series.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal begins where you might expect an adventure game to end. The hero (Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate) is about to rescue the girl (his wife, Elaine) and defeat the nefarious villain (LeChuck, evil poxed pirate). These characters, as well as a few more you'll meet along the way, are carried through from the first four games in the Monkey Island series, and fans of those games will find references to those and other LucasArts adventures peppered throughout the new episode. Fortunately, Narwhal's humor doesn't rely too much on the past, and most of the jokes are accessible to first-time Islanders. While the game is rarely laugh-out-loud funny, it maintains a fairly constant level of cleverness that is sure to elicit some chuckles, more than a few groans, and plenty of wry smiles--a style reminiscent of LucasArts' adventure classics.

After his villain-vanquishing efforts go awry, Guybrush finds himself stranded on Flotsam Island. It's here that your adventuring really begins, and you set about exploring the town and surrounding jungle, chatting up locals, and picking up anything that isn't nailed down. You can walk around using the keyboard or the mouse. The movement controls aren't quite point-and-click: You hold down the left mouse button and slide the mouse gently to determine the direction in which you want to walk. It's a bit finicky at first, but it works well once you get the hang of it, though you might want to switch to the keyboard occasionally to avoid index-finger fatigue. You can also hold the right mouse button or the Shift key to run, which is a welcome feature when you're traversing familiar territory yet again.

Though Flotsam Island isn't very big, there are a good number of puzzles to solve and intrigues to unravel. Speaking with the locals will get you started, and though there are an oddly limited number of character models (fat or skinny, and that's about it), each one is distinctly garbed and has his own weird personality. Your early adventures establish you as a pirate of distinction on this tiny backwater as you start a bar fight, discover buried treasure, and commandeer a ship. Of course, you accomplish these tasks in goofy roundabout ways that provide plenty of opportunities for clever item use and general silliness. Usually, it won't be too hard to puzzle out what to do next, but if you get really stuck, you can ratchet up the hint frequency and Guybrush will chime in with helpful observations to steer you in the right direction.

Your later adventures includ two characters that are bound to recur throughout the Tales of Monkey Island series, and dealing with them is appreciably more entertaining. They have more robustly eccentric personalities and help set the course for not only your escape from Flotsam Island, but also future episodes. The presence of multiple episode-spanning intrigues bodes well for the future of the series, and you'll likely be looking forward to the next one (The Siege of Spinner Cay) when you finish Launch of the Screaming Narwhal.

While it doesn't quite herald a new golden age of adventure gaming, the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island is funny and engaging enough to entertain for the few hours that it lasts. Fans of the Monkey Island series will get a kick out of the old references and familiar characters, while newcomers will find a clever adventure that kicks off the episodic run with style.