So here we are the end of the Monkey Island season and the gang at Telltale have really outdone themselves with an engaging story and entertaining jokes that pull from the events of the entire season. Spinner Cay, face contests and a reversal of some powerful Voodoo magic all come into play in this enjoyable finale. If only the puzzles had been a bit more challenging, the whole experience would have been just perfect.
Spoiler Alert: If you haven't played through Chapter 4 yet the next paragraph gives away some of the major plot points, for a spoiler-free experience, skip on down past the next paragraph.
Okay, now that the folks who haven't played the last episode are gone, we can tell you that this episode opens up with Guybrush climbing out of his grave and finding himself stuck in the afterlife. Starting with only a Shred of Life and some grave dirt, Guybrush must work with some of LeChuck's other victims in his search for a way back to the land of the living and rescue his wife.
One of the most striking elements of this episode is the fantastic art direction. The starting area is wonderfully cool and gloomy with plenty of humorous character designs. The levels all benefit from great color choices and fantastic lighting effects that really support the mood. After this the game transitions to a dark and fiery setting that's just as impressive.
The characters are also much more defined this time around and there's more to grab onto, particularly with Guybrush. In fact, this is the best performance, in terms of writing, animations and voice acting that Guybrush has had for the entire series. Though there are fewer tender moments here than there were last episode, there's a real substance to the interactions that helps to pull players deeper into caring about the story.
In terms of the puzzles, it's a tough balance between giving newcomers an easy point of entry to the genre while also increasing the challenges for those of us who have been playing since the original Sam and Max. The whole first half of the game basically solves itself, with only a couple of tricky combinations and one basic conversation puzzle to break up the monotony of simply grabbing everything that isn't nailed down.
Things finally get more challenging once you hit the Spirit Gum sequence and players will have to manage multiple elements to get things setup for the solution. This was the first real difficult and satisfying puzzle in the episode, so it's a shame that it comes so late. Things soon settle back into a series of simple collection tasks.
Download Code:
http://hotfile.com/dl/19989697/e59bf2e/tomie105.rar.html
