Tales of Monkey Island Chapter One Demo Released, Game Officially Launches

Couldn't stop playing until I finished the chapter, I've been a fan of the series since the first game and I had a nagging feeling it was going to be horrible but I was very surprised. It seemed to recapture the feel of the older games for me, the puzzles were logical/fun/interesting - maybe a little too easy but it's the first game so that can be forgiven. The humour was so much better than I expected, from what I've read and seen from trailers I was expected this to be what let it down, but (for me) it turned out to be one of the most endearing factors of the game. Also the music/voice acting was great.

The controls were a bit strange for the first section but they actually work quite well after getting used to them, the only (minor) control-based issue I have is regarding how cumbersome it feels to interact with objects in the inventory if you're trying multiple things out, but it's possible there's a shortcut key I didn't notice which handles it easier (I noticed late in the game that middle mouse button opened inventory for example, not sure if there's individual mappings for choosing to look/set objects to combine etc.)

Really looking forward to the next one.

Is the demo not available on steam?

Not a fan of the controls. To control guybrush you have a few options, each suck in their own way.

Mouse: You can't point and click to move Guybrush, you have to click and drag to move him. Very hard to move around the screen this way. You can point and click on anything on the screen and this is the easiest way to interact with the inventory.

Keyboard: It seems easy at first but moving around and getting hung on edges gets annoying quickly.

360 Gamepad: The best way to move Guybrush. He moves natually across the screen and is easy to control. However interacting with anything else is a complete pain. in the game your first task is to click on a piece of paper, the voodoo recipe, on your ship's mast. The problem is you can't get your character anywhere near it to click on it. You are selecting the hatch no mater where you are. You have to go off screen, look at Elaine and then you can select the voodoo recipe.

I'll work with the mouse controls but man, this shouldn't be an issue with this genre.

So, is this the entire first episode or just the first part of the first episode?

Ok, demo reaction:

Well, that's nice...

Alright well.. thanks for making a demo available. It definitely shows that a lot of effort went into animation, voice acting and the interface. I like it and it has the charm of the older Monkey Island games.

Isnt it today when the remake of Monkey Island is launched? I am not interested in those chapters for the 3D look of it, but I will love to play MI again on the XBOX with the wife and the girls :)

Quick Impressions

The graphics and art style are actually very well done. I was worried when seeing the screens, but in motion it looks wonderful, the motion blur and depth of field effects are really well done. Its not often that we get to play games this colourful and it plays very well on my aging rig with a Geforce 6800GT 256MB. The supporting character designs are a bit weak, with two characters on Flotsam being identical except one is black with a moustasche and the other is white without one. Its like they simply used the same model and changed it a bit, dissapointing but nothing that affects the game itself. The character designs for Guybrush, Elaine, LeChuck took no time to get used to, and really look great when compared to Escape. The environments are also very detailed, and while not as detailed as the hand drawn environments of Curse, they come damn close. I didn't mind the controls, the WSAD for movement along with the point and click for picking up items/talking/etc. works very well. The other movement controls using the mouse by dragging the edges of the screen seems idiotic, luckily the WSAD alternative is there or else it would have been a deal breaker. The sound is great, giving me goosebumps hearing those classic Monkey Island tunes again. The original composer is back as well with new tracks which makes me happy. The voice acting is top notch with the original actors back for the main characters.

The story so far has me intrigued, especially given what happens in the first 10 minutes of gameplay. I won't talk much else about the story to avoid spoilers, but its giving me the same feelings of adventure and intrigue that all those classic Lucasarts games of old provided, even the latest Sam and Max games failed to do that with me, so I am glad that Grossman was able to pull it off again being one of the original writers returning. The dialogue is great, I've laughed and chuckled throughout, its great to have a funny game to play. The puzzles have varied between difficult and easy at a good pace, not making you smack you head over and over.

Overall, its great to have Monkey island back and the same great things are here, funny characters, great puzzles, oozing atmosphere and an intriguing story. I cannot wait to finish this episode up, and its been a fact that Telltale's work gets better with each episode utilizing community feedback and the like, so I can only expect things to be get better from my $35 purchase. If you played the originals and enjoyed them there's no reason not to pick this up, if you're on the fence just try out the demo.

So I'm playing it and I don't know WTF to do already. Its during the intro, 5 minutes in...

Right at the beginning, my root beer dropped and I am on LeChuck's ship trying to find a replacement, I put the mints in the Grog Lite and dipped the Cutlass in it, but it does nothing and LeChuck fucks me up every time I try to use the cutlass on him through the inventory. Bug or am I missing something?

TellTale, please have our preorder keys work with steam <3

that would be swell!

Looks like it is up on Steam as well

isnt this supposed to be on the wii too? i dont see it on there

managed to play it for very few minutes, the controls are a bit odd, the game looks fun so far, the visuals are not as disappointing or bad as they look in screenshots, it definitely looks much better in motion.
Now i have to sleep, its 3:30 PM over here and i have to wake up for work at 8 PM :( damn you telltale for making me stay awake like this ;)