We're at the second-to-last chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, so it's time for the series to start kicking it into high gear for a big finale. After discovering La Esponja Grande, the cure to the Pox of Le Chuck plaguing pirates everywhere, Guybrush is betrayed and brought back to Flotsam Island by pirate hunter, Morgan. Her benefactor is the Maquis de Singe, who is after the 'Jus de Vie', or secret to immortality, which he believes Guybrush's pox possesses. However, before he can get his well-manicured hands on him, Guybrush is given voodoo summons to appear in pirate court (also pretty heavily infected by the pox). The charges are mostly trumped up minor catastrophes he caused in previous episodes, and the first half of the game centers around Guybrush's defence in the trial.
The episode has more twists and turns than you'd imagine, and the trial is only something of a diversion for the rest of the episode, which has some cool surprises concerning the larger story of the series. Fan-favourite Stan, the wildly gesticulating salesman, appears as the prosecuting attorney on Guybrush's case, and like Murray last episode, he's the funniest thing here with the best lines. You're never quite sure if he's Guybrush's friend, has a seething hatred for Guybrush for all the horrible things he's done to him in the series, or just doesn't care as long as he's getting paid.
The jacket that has defined a generation.
Unfortunately, Stan aside, this episode really doesn't have a lot else that's funny, which of course is subjective. For us, some of this stems from the game thinking the pox is funnier than it is, which is to say that it isn't really at all. And this is a pox-heavy episode. Essentially, the pox makes infected characters intermittently glow green and act like LeChuck - so pretty much, a mean pirate stereotype. It gets old fairly quickly, although Elaine's perpetual pox-ridden state fares somewhat better, as she becomes obsessed with pillaging, looting and killing any woman Guybrush has conversed with.
However, the actual game itself provides a lot of content. This episode stands at about four to five hours long, and although you're back at Flotsam Island, there's enough new things for you to do to keep the location from being a simple re-tread. You can now enter Club 41 and the pirate court, and you'll even be able to search through the entire island again, in search of an entirely new set of seemingly-useless-but-later-useful inventory items. The puzzles are very reminiscent of older Monkey Island games, particularly one towards the end, and we mean that in a good way. One requires you to warp your mind as well as reality, and is pulled off pretty nicely. However, a couple of puzzles are frustrating for the wrong reasons, including one that has to be solved while Guybrush is, shall we say, in a certain state. While he's in that state, if you click on anything other than exactly what you have to do to solve the puzzle, he'll lose that state, which means you'll have to do a lot of back-tracking. And when the puzzle in question is very particular about what order you click things in (for no apparant reason), it just doesn't seem fair.
Hot.
The art style for the series hasn't changed in-between episodes, so The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood looks much the same as all the others, particularly the first episode as its set in the exact same location. Of course, the town and island are cast in moonlight now, so everything looks a bit different. The lighting on display is basic but fits the cartoony atmosphere of the rest of the game, and there are some cool special effects towards the end. The voicework is once again pretty fantastic. Special mention goes to Stan (of course), and the Judge, who goes from a hideously demonic force to a friendly and likeable bartender in the drop of a hat.
The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood may not be the series' strongest episode, or even its funniest, but it provides some interesting twists and turns in the lead-up to the finale, Rise of the Pirate God. The adventure gameplay is very good, even if a couple of puzzles' particularity serves to frustrate, and Stan's appearance, and major role, lifts the episode too. The episode builds up nicely until you reach the admittedly very cool finale, and we can't wait to see how the series ties everything off with the last episode.
Loading...
