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Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan

Score: 92%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
Media: Download/1
Players: 1
Genre: Adventure

Graphics & Sound:

So far, I've enjoyed the Resurrection of Monkey Island that is seen in the Tales of Monkey Island series, but I hadn't quite realized that the previous two episodes were really just a slow start. When compared to this third chapter, Lair of the Leviathan, it is obvious that the overall package of this episode is leaps and bounds over the past ones.

Like the past episodes, Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan is a truly gorgeous game. Even the dark and dreary deep sea and manatee belly-interior settings of this episode are full of life and color in the game's unique visual style. And, of course, alongside the backdrops of the game, the characters (both old and new) look great.

But quite frankly, what has been one of the greatest aspects of this series has been the voice acting and dialogue, and like the visuals, Guybrush's Pinocchio-esque adventure (and you can expect a few references to this in the game), is just solid. All of the previous games' actors return to their roles (though Elaine and LeChuck don't appear in this episode), and even the new characters do a great job of delivering their often humorous lines.


Gameplay:

While the presentation of the game is outstanding, it is pretty much the same across the other past episodes; what makes Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan a truly strong (and better) experience is the rest of the package.

Between the episode's great dialogue trees, amusing characters and a much more focused story, it just feels like a better game all the way around. Of course, since this is an episodic game and it is really meant to be a part of the whole Tales of Monkey Island story, the strength of the game's mid-point (this is chapter 3 of 5 after all) really helps the title as a whole.

When we last left Guybrush, he had been reunited with his wife Elaine, as well as the now-human LeChuck. But before continuing his search for La Esponja Grande, he finds that his path is not with her as she helps the former zombie-ghost-pirate bring all of his slave monkeys back to their homes. So, Guybrush and his crewman, Winslow, once again board the Screaming Narwhal and search for the creature that will lead them to the magical sea sponge and hopefully cure the Caribbean of the evil Pirate Pox. As the last chapter closes, the pirate hunter, Morgan LeFlay, shows up. Guybrush's duel with the female bounty hunter is only stopped when a massive sea pig (... err... I mean sea cow) swallows the boat and takes them deep under the sea.

Needless to say, Guybrush's new task is to break free of the mammalian behemoth and hopefully get a little closer to La Esponja Grande and the cure for the disease he unwittingly released upon the pirating community.

This new adventure will have him meeting several new characters, but best of all is the return of a classic Monkey Islander who has only been mentioned in past chapters, but plays a prominent and hilarious role here. In fact, it is partially the inclusion of this character (I don't want to mention him and ruin the fun) that adds a lot to Lair of the Leviathan. One of the new characters is Captain Coronado De Cava, who has been mentioned before and suspects a relationship between Guybrush and his former love, The Voodoo Lady. It seems he has been shipwrecked in this manatee for quite some time and his entire crew has left him. Also in the belly of the beast is a group of long lost pirates who refer to themselves as The Brotherhood and events surrounding this particular group have parallels to Guybrush's first adventure when he tries to actually become a pirate. Most notably among these similarities is Guybrush's need to prove himself to the group in order to join. Only this time, instead of Insult Sword Fighting (something he is now renowned for), he has to duel with scary faces in the Pirate Face-Off. Long-time fans of the series should love this as it bears more than a passing resemblance to the insult fighting and is just as enjoyable.


Difficulty:

Unfortunately, I feel like there is one area where Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan falls short, at least when compared to the past two chapters, and that's in the difficulty of the puzzles. I found pretty much every one of them to be easy and only a couple required any real time to actually get through. Of course, this means that I was able to experience the game's story and get to the many funny moments that much quicker, but I do really enjoy a challenging puzzle, and this particular game was lacking in that department. As it is, it only took me a couple of hours to run through the whole game (where the past chapters lasted 3 or 4). Then again, the shorter gameplay time could also be the result of a much more straightforward experience overall and a much lesser degree of backtracking. Either way, the puzzles just weren't as tough has they had been in the past (like trying to figure out how to make a fake golden-sea-turtle idol in The Siege of Spinner Cay).

Game Mechanics:

Like I mentioned above, Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan has far less backtracking than the other Tales games. In fact, it has quite a bit less than most adventure games. This is probably due to the limited number of locations in this particular chapter, but it was a welcomed change and kept the game from even approaching tedium. Because let's face it, there is nothing more annoying than realizing that an item you need to pick up for a current puzzle is not just several screens away, but several screens away that involves jumping on a little boat and traveling between islands (also from The Siege of Spinner Cay). This change to reduce the amount of backtracking really helps and is one of the reasons why I enjoyed this particular episode so much.

While early episodic series that have come from Telltale had very isolated adventures making up a season and only really tying them together in the game's finale, Tales of Monkey island has proven that the company can make a normal (or even slightly larger) adventure game, but broken up into bite-sized segments, and still retain a cohesive story and overall positive gameplay experience. But because this game is designed to be one story told over several chapters, it is hard for a player to just jump right in and start playing here in Lair of the Leviathan. It might have been possible in the second chapter since The Voodoo Lady's recap did a good job of covering Launch of the Screaming Narwhal's short story, but at this point, many of the details would be lost and the experience just wouldn't be as good. So for adventure fans out there, definitely buy this game, but it all but requires purchasing the first two as well in order to know exactly what's going on. For those of you out there who only picked up and played the first chapter, stick with it. This episode more than makes up for anything you felt was lacking in the first two.


-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

Minimum System Requirements:



Windows XP / Vista, 2.0 GHz+ (3 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent recommended) Processor, 512MB RAM (1GB recommended), DirectX 8.1 sound device, 64MB DirectX 8 Video Card
 

Test System:



Windows Vista Ultimate, AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.20 GHz, 4 GB Ram, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Graphics Card, DirectX 9.0c

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