Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge

[SITB]

I've recentaly played Monkey Island 3: The Curse Of Monkey Island on my laptop for the second time(I didn't remember ANY of it..) and got a reminder about what a great game it is. Snappy,witty action(less) fights, good plot and dialog packed togther in a megamonkey fun pack.

My laptop died in the middle of Blood Island.

Just before installing it on my PC I figured I should try playing the other games of the serie just to check em out and understand more of the plot and jokes in 3 & 4.

I started playing MI2, It's an old quest game, the kind where you have a panel with about 10~ commands you barely use. I struggled to play this game(Normal mode, not lite) and in the end(more like, the start), withdrew to a walkthrough.



How on earth did ANYONE finish this game ? The options are limitless. I would've never figured out how to get Largo's cloths in the hard mode(Mud on his head.) or framing Cptn.Kate or even how to find the coordinates of that ship with the monkeyhead figurine.

Too much commands and too much useless items, Giving Lechuk the Hankey in the end, How was I supposed to figure THAT out ?

The ending:
What the crap ?(Hehehe, so many Star Wars references..)

My brother(SITB, the one who owns this account and usually makes posts) explained to me that Lechuk cast an illusion spell on him after Guybrush took off his leg. Keeping him in the Carnivel of the Damned for five years,untill he escaped in the bouncing car(Can't translate that to English, I hope I did it right) to star in MI3:The Curse of Monkey Island.

So the treasure of Big Whoop is just a coverup for The Carnivel of the Damned ? Why did the Voodoo lady told you it'll save you from Lechuk ? Why did Elaine hate Guybrush at her party ? How did ANYONE finish this game without any use of walkthroughs and the like and how long did it take ?


In conclusion, MI2 is a very funny game, but I wouldn't be able to keep track of it's plot, or finish it without using a walkthrough. Sadly there's no speech sound as in MI3 and the graphics are old but I still give it a thumbs up for originality(Reading the wanted poster,pricesless.)

[Shikton]

Monkey Island 2 is probably THE adventure game of all time, at least in my opinion. It's just so whacky and crazy and silly it's nothing short of awesome! But yeah, unless you use a walkthrough it's pretty damn difficult to get through. Simply because nothing makes sense! Go play the first game. It's excellent as well.

[Hermit]

Yeah, there were times when MI2 got too difficult, but it's still the best of the MI series and one of the best point and click games, even this far on.

And its puzzles have nothing on the madness that was the first Discworld game. Eric Idle is fantastic as Rincewind's voice in it, but I've got his short, mocking "That doesn't work!" line permenantly burned into my mind. Still a good game though. :p

[Tom_Violence]

Ah, I'm so pleased that I was able to finish Monkey Island Uno et Dos pretty much all on my lonesome, with only scant help from my brother. Never finished Discworld cos for some reason it kept crashing right at the end.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the end of Monkey Island 2 a parody of some film? I have a distinctly vague memory of seeing a film and then thinking 'wow, that's just like Monkey Island 2...'

[The Great Skenardo]

Good game, good game. I preferred Curse of Monkey island, possibly because of the top-notch voice acting and music, but definitely appreciated MI 1 and 2.

[Inyssius Tor]

See, Ron Gilbert created the plot for the Monkey Island trilogy. Unfortunately, he quit LucasArts before the third game was made; apparently, they dropped his plot as soon as he left. That's probably why there's such an obvious disconnect between the second and third games.

And yeah, the third game was definitely the best of the series (in my opinion, of course).

[SITB]

Good game, good game. I preferred Curse of Monkey island, possibly because of the top-notch voice acting and music, but definitely appreciated MI 1 and 2.

My thoughts exactly. I missed the voice acting so bad..
My brother played The Discworld, I've read the books but I didn't play the game.
I've installed CMI and reached Blood Island in 20 minutes(I skipped all the chats, I've done this about two weeks ago so no point) and now I'm really starting to play.
CM2 was funny as heck at some parts, I just got really pissed because I couldn't do ANYTHING without the walkthrough. My biggest problem with it is that it's an oldstyle quest game, with that huge panel. I mean I've used Push twice and Pull once in the entire game.. At least Discworld isn't that old age.

I should get Discworld, I'll ask my brother to get it again and I'll play it if you recommend it so, I LOVE the books and 'Guards Guards !' was the first one I've read in english(Witchs Abroad was my first, translated very well I might add)

I'll start playing MI1 after I'll finish CMI.

[Kurald Galain]

MI2 is one of the best adventure games ever - and the humor is awesome!

"Lite" mode is quite playable without a walkthrough. "Mega Monkey", well, yes it's difficult, that's the whole point (most criticism of MI1 was that it was too easy). That said, most puzzles do make sense, for a certain twisted definition of "sense", including the infamous Monkey Wrench puzzle. Which admittedly I solved by random clicking, but it made me laugh once I realized the point.

[Hermit]

I also can't think of another series of games which contain as many in-jokes and bizzare cultural refrences as the MI games. Pretty much every book in the card catalogue is a refrence to something. One of them makes a Scientology joke too. They were doing it long before South Park made it cool :p

[Tom_Violence]

Wow, I never thought I'd see people actually proclaiming that the third game was the best of the bunch. As someone that's been playing them since the beginning the third one came as a dramatic departure from the comic genius that made the first two so great. Is a luxury like voice acting really valued so highly? Did the people who prefer the third one play the other two first or come into the series at that point?

[Hermit]

Wow, I never thought I'd see people actually proclaiming that the third game was the best of the bunch. As someone that's been playing them since the beginning the third one came as a dramatic departure from the comic genius that made the first two so great. Is a luxury like voice acting really valued so highly? Did the people who prefer the third one play the other two first or come into the series at that point?

I'm the same. I like the third a lot, and I think it's still a worthy sequal (Unlike MI4, which I wasn't a huge fan of, especially that ending), but since I began with MI1 way back on its release I have far fonder memories of the first two. I still break them out for a run through now and again too, they never get old. My only problem with MI3 really is that it basically does away with the ending of MI2. It still works, but it would have been nice to see where Ron's plotline was heading.

[SITB]

I've finished it.

Turns out I was only a few items short when my game stuck. I only needed the Death Certificate and the Hand Lotion at Blood Island and I was done. The ending was a blast, all those scenes from MI1/2 made me laugh out loud(Well, those from MI2 did, and I recognized that Rottentooth guy)

Lechuck explains all the plot holes in a very funny manner so it really wasn't that of a plothole, although how did Big Whoop and the carnivel moved to Monkey Island ? Weren't they on Dinky Island ? I loved all the MI2 refernces(Flying Welshmen going to be a chef at Scabb, Phelgem Tonic in the recepie book)

After peeking into that hole in the crypt I figuired I'll start playing MI1 soon enough.


"Do you expect me to talk ?"
"No Mr.Brush, I expect you to buy !"

[Hermit]

Lechuck explains all the plot holes in a very funny manner so it really wasn't that of a plothole, although how did Big Whoop and the carnivel moved to Monkey Island ? Weren't they on Dinky Island ? I loved all the MI2 refernces(Flying Welshmen going to be a chef at Scabb, Phelgem Tonic in the recepie book)

After peeking into that hole in the crypt I figuired I'll start playing MI1 soon enough.


"Do you expect me to talk ?"
"No Mr.Brush, I expect you to buy !"

As I recall Dinky Island, at least from the MI3 map onwards, is located not too far off of Monkey Island, and the tunnels from Dinky run to Monkey Island itself.

It's likely this wasn't Ron Gilbert's original intention though, but it still works.

[Psychonaut]

Minor spoilers for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th games.


Wow, I never thought I'd see people actually proclaiming that the third game was the best of the bunch. As someone that's been playing them since the beginning the third one came as a dramatic departure from the comic genius that made the first two so great. Is a luxury like voice acting really valued so highly? Did the people who prefer the third one play the other two first or come into the series at that point?

I'm not a big voice-acting person, and in fact feel that many games are taking a step in the wrong direction by emphasizing voice-acting and limiting dialogue as a result, but it's difficult to deny that CMI had some of the best in the industry. Dominic Armato fits Guybrush to a tee, and a lot of characters in the game were made more memorable due in part to their excellent or funny voice actors. Goodsoup, Rottingham, the Voodoo Lady, and of course Murray - who wouldn't have been half as funny without his voice - come to mind. So it's not quite that I value it highly in general so much as this is one of the few cases where I'd say it did add a lot to the game.

To the other question, I was playing MIs - and most of the other LA adventure games since then - since the first one came out and CMI is my favorite in the series, though I'm not sure exactly what dramatic departure you're talking about? The only dramatic departure for me was graphics-wise, and though I didn't like the new graphics when I first saw screenshots I found them marvelous once I actually started playing the game. I actually found the comedy of the series to be at its best in CMI, with both greater quality and greater quantity. (By quantity, I mean: You could get a good comment by using two odd items together or looking at items, instead of a generic "I don't see anything special about it." or "Nice ____." - which, admittedly, could be funny applied to certain objects, such as IIRC "Nice LeChuck's Voodoo Throne".) To be fair, I wasn't as familiar with American pop culture when I played the second as when I played the third, so I might have missed out on a lot there; I do think I got most of the library references, though.

My main beef with CMI was the ending - in fact, the entire last chapter felt bizarrely tacked on - but LeChuck's Revenge wasn't exactly stellar in the ending either (actually, I felt it started to degrade in quality as early as LeChuck's fortress, aside from a few good moments on Dinky Island).

I definitely noticed the departure in the humor from the third to the fourth (Guybrush went from funny foppish type to complete idiot, lots of recurring characters seemed to lose their great personalities - Herman Toothrot, Elaine, Murray - and new characters were often humorless even if it seemed like the designers meant them to be humorous - Ozzy Mandrill and the pink lady - etc.), but could you elaborate on what you mean? It's been a while since I've played, and it's probably something that just didn't stand out as much to me at the time but I might recognize if made more explicit.

[Hermit]

My main beef with CMI was the ending - in fact, the entire last chapter felt bizarrely tacked on - but LeChuck's Revenge wasn't exactly stellar in the ending either (actually, I felt it started to degrade in quality as early as LeChuck's fortress, aside from a few good moments on Dinky Island).

I definitely noticed the departure in the humor from the third to the fourth (Guybrush went from funny foppish type to complete idiot, lots of recurring characters seemed to lose their great personalities - Herman Toothrot, Elaine, Murray - and new characters were often humorless even if it seemed like the designers meant them to be humorous - Ozzy Mandrill and the pink lady - etc.), but could you elaborate on what you mean? It's been a while since I've played, and it's probably something that just didn't stand out as much to me at the time but I might recognize if made more explicit.

The end of CMI was a bit odd, I agree. Interestingly there was supposed to be a cutscene between entering the Roller Coaster and the actual level itself, which got cut due to time and/or budet constraints. (linkage (http://www.worldofmi.com/features/trivia/viewimage.php?id=60&type=trivia&trivia_id=16)). I always get the feeling the end of CMI was a little pressed for time, with that long exposition convo you have with LeChuck before the final few, very small scenes. Not that it isn't a brilliant game still.

The 'dramatic departure' which some are talking about isn't so much in terms of the comedy or the characters, which in CMI I thought were spot on, but more in terms of plot. The first two games have a thread running through which strongly hint at the world being unreal (The Voodoo Lady in MI1 makes a reference to this, moreso in MI2 with Big Whoop being a gateway to another world, and so on). The fact is that Ron Gilbert had a good idea where he was taking the series to set it up for his MI3, which when he left LucasArts was discarded in favour of the CMI explaination. I've always felt as well that it made sense to do this for Lucasarts, as MI3 was so long after MI2 that something of a break with the previous games meant people could easily jump in at the third game with no worries (As Guybrush's monologue at the start pretty much explains all you need to know).

In my opinion though, CMI is still a worthy third game. As I've said I still rank the second as the best, but CMI comes in a very close second, as while it may have altered some of the overarching story, it still fits well. For me, the real problem was MI4, which as you say, changed characters, and worst of all, in my opinion, totally ignored the previous games. Particularly stupid were (MI4 spoilers):
The whole Herman Toothrot is H T Marley thing. Nice idea in theory, but they made no attempt whatsoever to explain how that fitted with what was known about both these characters from MI 1 and 2. Marley crashed in the boat race, apparently caused by Ozzy, which works well enough, but this totally ignores the fact that there was a very real Herman Toothrot who also sailed to Monkey Island. While there's ways to speculate and explain this, I always felt this was some form of tacked on plotthread, and ingame they made no attempt to fill in the blanks.
Second was the Giant Mechanical Robot Monkey. Which makes so little sense it's untrue. Remember reading an interview with Gilbert once, who also played and loved CMI, but never got very far with MI4. The interviewer asked what he thought of the Giant Robot Monkey, and Gilbert thought he was joking.

Anti MI4 based rant over :p