A pirate's tale if me ever heard one!
While it's not my first adventure game, Tales of Monkey Island is probably the first one that I've actually begun getting into. Kind of a shame too since I always prefer a good story yet I ignore one of the main genres that focuses heavily on story. With pretty simple gameplay, adventures are mainly known for the storytelling so I figured "alright that does it, time to get into one". So missing the Steam sale but one day, I bought and begun playing Tales of Monkey Island with the first entry being Chapter I: Launch of the Screaming Narwal. How is it? It's pretty good look at what's to come and is enjoyable in its own right.
We're placed "in medias res" with Guybrush attempting to stop Pirate LeChuck from doing...something with monkeys with captive Elaine on his ship. Goofing up the method to get rid of LeChuck, Guybrush gets washed ashore on Floatsam Island: one with a mysterious curse with all the winds going directly inland, making ships unable to leave the island. Guybrush himself also has a curse in that his hand is possessed by the "Pox of LeChuck", causing his hand to have a mind of its own. With the help of the local populace, a monkey and more, Guybrush needs to escape the island so he can rescue Elaine.
Most adventure games that I've played tended to have a really simple interface and visual presentation and playing Chapter 1 was quite cool seeing a more impressive look. Game has a really exaggerated and colorful vibe, characters are incredibly expressive and the music and voice acting is superb. The lip sync is spotty at times though but my biggest gripe is the controls. Granted it's a simple point-and-click game but I found it slightly awkward using the WASD setup, especially to make him run while using the mouse felt really finicky. Granted it's not exactly big concerns but it was somewhat of a pain. Least the puzzles weren't as bad as I thought, not having so much of those "adventure-isms" where the solutions were somewhat obtuse and prompts a "obviously I would've thought of that" in a sarcastic tone. It's also pretty short too. According to Steam, I've spent 3 hours playing it but since there's 5 episodes, it ain't all that bad.
As the first entry in this 5-part series, it certainly does wet the appetite for future installments. While the cliffhanger and its identity is slightly obvious when you consider what names were mentioned in the whole episode, it does build excitement for Chapter 2.
