izigame.me

TLDR: Sorry I really didn't like it.
I've had lasting affection for The Secret of Monkey Island like perhaps no other work of fiction - be it a game, book or film. I was 13 when TSOMI came out in 1990, playing one year later as my first game purchase on my new Amiga 500. There was an alchemy at work: the Caribbean pirate setting, the irreverent humour, the characters, the plot, the SCUMM gameplay and the ATMOSPHERE that was applied with a trowel via the beautiful artwork and midi calypso. Did I mention the humour? I played it multiple times, and then vicariously, introducing it to friends and family who I'd then watch play. Happy days.
I enjoyed MI2 Le Chuck's Revenge almost as much, as pretty much more of the same except bigger and with even better artwork and animation, marred only for me as an Amiga user having to swap between ELEVEN floppy discs (worth it for the spitting contest alone).
The belated MI3 left me lukewarm - it was obvious to me the creative mind behind the original wasn't involved - and tellingly I remember little about it (other than it being on just TWO CDs!).
MI4 I recall being even less taken with except oo 3D!
SCUMM VM came out in 2001... a gift to us LucasArts fans. I got to experience MI1 & 2 again, a decade after playing them first time around, which helped establish it wasn't just a case of rose-tinted glasses.
The next gift was Ron Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer blog which brought it all flooding back, giving us extra insight to Monkey Island and more than anything showed I wasn't alone nor weird for having this obsession with Guybrush, LeChuck and co.
I didn't bother with the subsequent Telltale MI releases as I knew they'd be missing that Ron Gilbert magic. For me, only Ron's creations were canon.
So when Ron announced on Twitter out of the blue there was going to be a new Monkey Island game I, like many others, were stunned (I'd assumed he couldn't get the IP). At the age of 45 it takes a lot to get me excited but this announcement got me all giddy... and then I watched the teaser... Oh... Is that what it's going to look like? And is the skull from MI3 going to be in it? I could see I wasn't alone - there was (from some) a very vocal knee-jerk to the artwork, which was met with an even more vocal defence. I thought I'd hold further judgement until it was released and judge it when I play it. So I did...
So onto the elephant in the room. Unfortunately, unlike how it seemed to happen for some, the artwork just did not grow on me. The style is such a massive departure from the originals, it's much more stylised with exaggerated proportions, almost naive in parts, and ironically appears to lack the detail and texture of the pixel art originals. The style is compounded by the rudimentary animation which is clearly a puppetry technique rather than the hand drawn animation of the originals. The effect this new artwork has is that the palpable atmosphere of the originals is just. not. there.
The straw man defence of the artwork by many is that pixel art was of its time, and this shouldn't be a retro game. As much as I'd have preferred the pixel art style of the originals to what we got, pixel art or not isn't the issue. If there were lessons to be learned from MI2, 3 and 4 it's that they pushed the tech available at the time to advance the visuals on from their predecessors. RTMI however has a dated Flash animation feel. Whatever the reasons for the style... budget, timeframe, or just a creative choice, for me it's an existential misfire. No atmosphere, no transportation into another time and place, no joy in exploring the locations.
Now onto the game itself. I understand the motivation to make the gameplay more accessible than the originals, however I feel they went too far the other way. It was all a bit easy and you get less of a sense of achievement from most of the puzzles.
Guybrush... It was clear the story contrives him to be a bit of a d*ck in order to manufacture a moralistic ending (don't get me started on the tree) - whereas the originals had a mischievous sense of cynicism and anarchy... the beauty of a game is you can fulfil that role without the consequences or moralising. Maybe maturity and the world 30 years later influenced the change of direction but for me it was a disappointing tonal shift. Ultimately I wonder about the purpose of Ron taking back the helm of Monkey Island... surely the point should be to give us more of what we loved from the original two as that's what we've been missing and obsessing over these past 30 years?
The new villains suck. That's all I have to say about that.
The humour... what happened?? It just didn't land for me, it warranted a couple of smirks but that's unfortunately about it.
** spoilers **
And the ending. Yes there were meta and pop culture references dotted throughout both originals but they were little jokes, I felt (even aged 15) the transportation to the fun fair was maybe a leap too far from the pirate setting - but there was more than a hint it was just some kind of Le Chuck hex. The same mistake but with bells on was made with RTMI - trying to be too clever maybe? Reducing Mêlée Island to a theme park was actually quite depressing, rendering my experiences there in MI1 moot.
The one thing I think they did get right was commissioning the excellent Michael Land to reprise his role as composer of the score - managing to provide some atmosphere in spite of the visuals is something to be lauded (I especially liked the tension he created with Terror Island).
I'll wrap up by saying I was reluctant to write anything critical of the game because to large swathes of the fanbase, Ron is beyond reproach (and for the straight up masterpieces of MI1 & 2 he'll have my eternal thanks). I only feel comfortable (and a little compelled) to write a critical review because the game has been received so well... the glowing reviews, the awards and it's now the most commercially successful entry in the franchise... which makes me wonder whether the vast cache of goodwill people have towards Ron and Monkey Island has impacted upon honest critique... either that or maybe I've just out-grumped Ron... if it's the latter then I'm happy for those who've been able to have one last big whoop with Threepweed and LeChuck. It was just more of a trial for me.

PS - I've just noticed MI3 is on sale for just £1.81... so I'm going to give it another shot. That artwork is looking gorgeous from here.
UPDATE: Just finished MI3 - it's not perfect but frankly it was a far more enjoyable playing experience than RTMI. Glad I revisited it - here's my review.