Last year on April 1st, Ron Gilbert stunned the world with an announcement that was an anti-joke: the release of the sixth (third?) game in the Monkey Island series. For gamers of a particular vintage, this was an earth-shattering announcement. Did the game live up the hype?
NOTE: This review assumes familiarity with the previous games in the series. Characters, locations, and plot points from previous games will be assumed to be familiar to the audience.
Summary
By necessity, this review will be both long and personal. I’ve chewed on how to write up this article for a long time – interruptions in the form of Andor, turmoil at Disney, and other personal issues have delayed my final review of this game.
The Monkey Island series is special – for some reason, this series in particular captured lightning in a bottle for an entire generation of gamers. What was the secret sauce? Why does this game series still inspire gamers and creators 30 years after initial release? To discuss this and review the game properly, spoilers will have to be given. The game has been released for a little over 4 months now, so that’s likely a safe window – but if for some reason you’re interested in the game but still haven’t learned any of the details, know that for me – this game managed to transport me back to its world and delight me for hours without causing damage to the series. I love this game, and I hope you will too.
Spoilers Ahead!
“To S.L.O: AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN, IN ACCORDANCE WITH WHOSE CLASSIC TASTE THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE HAS BEEN DESIGNED, IT IS NOW, IN RETURN FOR NUMEROUS DELIGHTFUL HOURS, AND WITH THE KINDEST WISHES DEDICATED BY HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, THE AUTHOR.”
TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER:
If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons
And Buccaneers and buried Gold,
And all the old romance retold,
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me, they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of to-day:
-So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetite forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave;
So be it also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie.
So opens Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The Secret of Monkey Island was largely inspired by this, the novel “On Stranger Tides” by Tim Powers, and Ron Gilbert’s love of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.
Return to Monkey Island leans heavily upon the opening passages above – but why?
Who was S.L.O., the American Gentleman to whom Robert Louis Stevenson dedicated Treasure Island?
Meet S.L.O – Samuel Lloyd Osbourne
Samuel Lloyd Osbourne was the stepson of Robert Louis Stevenson. His mother married the author when he was 12 years old, and RLS loved the boy as his own. Together, they painted a map of an island, and crafted a tale together that for me is the greatest work of adventure fiction ever written. Lloyd (as he was known) requested a rollicking adventure tale centered on a young boy of his own age, pirates, and “no girls.” The story was published serially in a monthly periodical at the time, and only later collected into a novel. Unfortunately, RLS mailed the original map of the island to his publisher, who lost it. Stevenson was heartbroken – a new map was devised, but it never lived up to what he felt was the superior image. There were moments of writers block (and health issues related to RLS, who suffered due to a weak constitution and likely tuberculosis), but the story was eventually finished – with breadcrumbs in the text leading to many believing that a sequel was intended. Unfortunately, RLS died before any intended sequel could be launched. After his death, dozens of unofficial prequels, sequels, and spin-offs have been published.
The Announcement
I did not see the announcement for Return to Monkey Island until the following Monday. When the teaser trailer dropped, I shouted to my son “Come here! Quick!” At the time, my son was 12 years old. We’ve played the original Monkey Island games together, and he shares my love of them. I couldn’t wait to show him the trailer, and we were both very happy at the announcement.
But shortly – the dread set in.
Ron Gilbert was the original creator of Monkey Island, but left Lucasarts after the release of the 2nd game. That game ended on a cliffhanger that had left players debating the series for the 30 years that had passed since. Subsequent games had been published by Lucasarts – some attempting to explain the 2nd games ending, others gleefully ignoring or retconning it – but none of these explanations had come from the mind of Gilbert. Like the previously mentioned unofficial Treasure Island prequels and sequels, these were speculative stories not told by the original author.
Gilbert promised to begin the game picking up from the ending of the last entry he worked on – he also promised to address “The Secret”, but weirdly also incorporated at least one character (Murray the demonic skull) who had been created after his time working on the series.
Was this game to be an interquel? A true sequel to Monkey Island 2, discarding the later entries? Was it going to take place across multiple time periods?
During the intervening months, Ron and his writing partner Dave Grossman explained that they intended to take up portions of the sequels which they enjoyed, without being necessarily beholden to them. Their intent was not to invalidate The Curse of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island, or Tales of Monkey Island for those that had enjoyed those entries.
How in the world was this tall order going to work?
Worse – do we REALLY want to know the Secret?
The Beginning
On release day, I was filled with both anticipation and nerves. I installed the game and launched it with my son as soon as I got home from work on that day. True to his word, the opening of the game picks up at the end of LeChucks Revenge: Monkey Island 2 – with an amusement park employee discovering two boys playing where they shouldn’t, and being ushered out into the Big Whoop Amusement Park.
It soon becomes clear that things aren’t *exactly* the same – rather than leaving the park with their parents and “Chucky”s eyes sparking with demonic light during a fourth-wall break, the boys continue into another area of the park, getting some food and exploring a bit before coming to a park bench – where we find Guybrush Threepwood.
It’s revealed that the boys have been acting out tales that Guybrush has told to them, and he asks “Boybrush” how the story ended this time? Boybrush complains that his Dads stories often fall apart at the end, leaving them without resolution – so Guybrush offers to tell him about the time that he really DID find the Secret of Monkey Island – and the real story begins.
The Middle
What follows is a return to the world of Monkey Island that I know and love. Much ink was spilled regarding the new art style for this game. When I first saw artwork that was released, I was not a fan. What I wanted was something more akin to the original pixel art – but given the framing device given in the opening, a storybook style makes sense for this game. More than that, it looks gorgeous in animation that was not apparent in stills.
The greatest surprise was that Ron and Daves writing was as sharp as ever. One of my greatest fears in this game was that you might not be able to go home again – we tend to view the things we love through rose-colored glasses. That worry was soon laid to rest – the dialogue was snappy, funny, and on-point for the story being told.
The interface is quite different from the original Scumm games or later entries – the puzzles are also much simpler than in the classic graphic adventure days, and the inclusion of a hint system that will give you progressively more obvious hints should prevent anyone in the modern era from getting stuck. (If anything, this is my biggest complaint about the game – back in MY day, it took me over a year to figure out the Monkey Wrench puzzle from Monkey 2 – and we LIKED it that way!). This game won’t tax your mind too much, and you should be able to complete it within a day or two.
There are a couple of other middling complaints – there are some areas of the game that feel like they were intended to be longer, or related to cut content. (Cogg Island is a location that was cut for time, but which can be found after your first playthrough – there are no additional puzzles or story elements active, but you can at least catch a glimpse of the artwork and envinronments that were intended.) I do wonder if this cut island was related to some of these story elements that are left dangling in the main portion of the game.
None of this greatly mars the play experience, but it does leave a couple of areas feeling slightly perfunctory or incomplete.
The End
The most controversial element of Return to Monkey Island will undoubtedly be the ending. During your playthrough of the game, subtle (and not so subtle) hints are dropped about what you will find at the climax.
But I’d be lying to say that I was prepared for what happened.
After solving a series of puzzles beneath the Monkey Head on Money Island, Guybrush charges through a portal chasing LeChuck and the Secret and finds –
The Alleyway in Melee Island. But it’s – cheaper – a facade?
As he walks out, Stan admonishes him for taking so long, gives him the keys, and asks him to turn off the lights when he leaves. Animatronic characters from all your adventures are there, and Guybrush seems at times confused about what’s going on, but also remarks that he always looks forward to seeing how Stan has rearranged the puzzle. All of this appears to be an escape room challenge that Guybrush – a flooring inspector – regularly participates in.
The Secret is there, in a gaudy box – waiting to be opened, should the player choose to do so. Here, at the end – the decision is yours.
There are a number of endings triggered by your choices in this scene – most of which begin with cutting back to Guybrush and Boybrush on the park bench – Boybrush scewing up his face in confusion and yelling at his Dad that he’s screwed up the ending again, and that he cheated in his storytelling.
As Boybrush and Elaine go off to watch ships come in, Elaine leans into Guybrush and says that she’s found the location of a mysterious hidden island, and Guybrush tells her to go off with Boybrush – he’ll join them in a minute. He’s left on the bench, musing – just like us in the audience. (Note: This ending isn’t universal, but it’s present in most playthroughs.)
What does it all mean, and what’s my take?
When Guybrush walked through the final door into the Melee Island alleyway, I was prepared to be furious. Part of my trepidation with this entry in the series was revealing the Secret. I felt this was potentially a disaster of a decision for Ron Gilbert. My take is that people THINK they want to know the Secret, but they really don’t. Part of the reason we’re still talking about this series 30 years on is because of the ending of Monkey Island 2.
No “Secret” could possibly live up to what the audience has built it up to be. The lack of a resolution with LeChuck, Lyla, the Voodoo Lady, etc. feels a bit like a slap in the face.
I started to get mad – but then, a funny thing happened.
My son erupted beside me. “WHAAT?! WHAT DOES THIS…WHAT JUST HAPPENED? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!??!?!” He kept looking between me and the screen. He didn’t stop shouting questions at me for half an hour. And the whole time I just laughed and laughed. Mostly I just told him he’d get it when he was older.
This ending is no doubt polarizing. Ron Gilbert has become somewhat famous for controversial non-endings that stir up his audience. But isn’t there why these things stick in our minds? We keep coming back to them…thinking about them…playing “What if” games in our heads.
This game explicitly has an unreliable narrator. It allows the audience to decide what happens, and what it means – and technically, because this game takes place within the storytelling framing device, it’s possible that all of it is just a tall tale.
The entire series can be what you want it to be – it never tries to explain the anachronisms or fourth-wall breaking within. This is the strength of the series in my mind.
Is Guybrush really a pirate? He is if you want him to be. He could just be a flooring inspector at an amusement park.
My take?
Well…it’s complicated.
I would rather believe that Guybrush really is a pirate…I’d also prefer that he NOT discover the secret, because I don’t want to know.
But one thing about this game stuck in my mind during my second playthrough.
In Guybrushes story, someone put the secret in a multi-keyed vault. The voodoo lady refuses to explain who made her swear a blood oath to do so. Lyla utilizes Dark Magic to try to break open the chest that holds the secret, but it’s focused on the portal that Guybrush passes through to reach the Alleyway.
It’s already been implied that a curse was placed on Guybrush at the end of Monkey 2 – his sense of reality is distorted. Could passing through this portal have caused him to become twice-cursed? There’s still the question of Lyla and Dark Magic as well – her story is unresolved. The Voodoo Ladys part in this story has also always been mysterious, with Tales of Monkey Island implying she had a darker hand in the story than previously known.
Is Guybrush still trapped under Monkey Island, twice cursed and confused? Is Elaine still trying to pull him up? Is Stan really the Devil?
That’s the story I’m going with…I’m curious to hear what yours is.
Either way – I have to thank Ron Gilbert for giving us this story that we get to endlessly speculate on. Like RLS before him, he left just enough ambiguous to inspire people to create artwork, music, plays, video productions, and to fuel my sons imagination for another 30 years. If that’s not worth $25.00 for a computer game, I don’t know what is.
Further Reading:
Treasure Island:
NOTE: The below stories are VERY ADULT, containing a good deal of language, violence, and sex – but if you enjoy the inspirations for Monkey Island and/or Adult takes on further stories RE: Treasure Island, I highly recommend them!
On Stranger Tides:
Flint and Silver (Part 1 of a Prequel series to Treasure Island):
Pieces of Eight (Part 2 of a Prequel series to Treasure Island):
Skull and Bones (Part 3 of a Prequel series to Treasure Island):
The Traitor of Treasure Island (Part 4 in the series, and purported to be the TRUE story of Treasure Island):
Silver: My Own Tale as Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder
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I didn’t hate it as much as the ending to Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, but it robbed the player of any resolution. It was just a big middle finger for playing the game. I didn’t mind the secret being something stupid like a T shirt, that fits in with the humor. But I hate Gilbert’s “it wasn’t real” ending he keeps pulling. It puts it just above Escape in my personal rankings, only because Escape is so clunky an experience. Curse is still the best, ironically Gilbert free.
I know a lot of people feel this way, but I don’t have the same take.
I usually hate “subversive endings”, but at this point it’s sort of built into the series. One of the reasons I was worried about Ron returning for this game was because no ending that he could dream up would ever satisfy 30 years of built up tensions.
At first, when I saw the reveal, I was upset…but then my sons mind absolutely melted.
In that moment, I saw a memory being made that will last 30 years for him too.
Ron gave the player the agency to essentially choose their own ending – and also left it open-ended enough that a sequel is possible.
I’m holding onto the idea myself that Guybrush is still cursed – otherwise, Lylas (and Dark Magics) introduction doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I’m sorry it didn’t work as well for you as it did for me, but if you didn’t like the ending, I hope you at least enjoyed the journey up to that point?