Review—Rise of the Pirate God

Finally, it is at an end.  Guybrush has defeated LaChuck, retrieving his Wife, and all the other good things that heroes do.  After this long sprawling journey on the seas and through the life of a pirate…what’s my consensus?  As always, I’m going to assume you’ve played the other games if you’re interested.  So…ARRR MATEY, thar be minor spoilers off the bow!  Hit the jump for more.

The last episode ended with LaChuck’s treachery, rather than him being the reformed villain as thought.  He slew Guybrush where he stood, bringing about the end of anyone that could possibly stop him.  Guybrush’s spirit descends to the Afterlife, where he’ll travel on the Cross Roads, the source of Voodoo energy.  Yet not everything is fully as it seems, and Guybrush will see an old face to greet him.

The gameplay formula still stays unchanged, though this game seemed a bit harder than the last.  It seemed like the clues were just…never hinted at in the least to give you an idea on what to do.  Not to mention the fact that players have to run across the full length of the areas you have access to for story purposes.  I liked the unique idea of Guybrush being a ghost and having to repossess his body, but I could have done without the cross country trips every time I wanted to do so.

Instead of brains, he wants “Ggggrrrrrooooooooggggg…”

Sound and visuals were more of an issue here than in the other games.  There were several times where the sound didn’t match up to the action on screen, just plain didn’t play.  The last half of the episode went without sound effects for the large part of it, and even the music was missing from the climax of the story.  An email claimed that these scenes were going to be sent to me for a download, however they never arrived, and the sound and ending is still an issue.

Visuals had a collision detection issue, mostly noticeable for Guybrush.  His body still has the hook equipped on it, and just passes through frames as you pass them.  This annoyed me to no end to see his hook just clip through a wall or the portals that were used.  Nothing like having Guybrush walk through it and then seeing his hook on the other side.

This cute dog is going to be sacrificed later.  Let that be on your conscience!

The wit, known for these games, was still apparent, though understandable why not as much.  This was the finale of the game; I can forgive it for not being that funny.  I did enjoy when a certain character says “Hey, don’t smash those clay pots!  That’s just rude.”  Characters that were killed by LaChuck were the most memorable ones, more so the master thief who lacks hands.

I’ve since read online what happens for the ending of the game (considering the missing scenes), though it doesn’t change the fact that the game ends rather abruptly.  LaChuck is just destroyed, Guybrush comes up with an idea out of nowhere, and the credits roll.  What?  That’s it?  Well alrighty then.  Now that I’ve read about the missing epilogue, it makes sense but not coherent enough for my liking.

All in all, I truly didn’t like the last episode as much as the other.  I found myself not having as much fun with it as I did the other episodes, more a task than some fun to be had.  The sound and ending left a little more to be desired, however at least the sound may have been fixed in the Retail Build of the game.  The final Chapter of Tales of Monkey Island gets three stars out of five.

However, before you close this tab, let me mention that I rather enjoyed the series as a whole.  This was my first experience with Monkey Island and not one that I’m likely to forget.  Tales of Monkey Island, THE SERIES, gets four stars out of five on the whole.

Tags: adventure Monkey Island PC Tyler R.