Well, here we are again with the next episode of Tales of Monkey Island. Released this past Friday, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood continues right where episode 3 left off. Recall that Guybrush had just escaped from the stomach of a giant manatee and got a hold of La Esponja Grande when out of the blue; Morgan La’Flay betrayed and captured him to return him to the Marquis DeSinge. If you haven’t yet seen my reviews of episodes 1 through 3, you’ll want to check those out first, otherwise, here’s a quick run-through of what you’re going to experience in The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood.
The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood brings you back to Flotstam Island. After being handed over to the Marquis DeSinge, Guybrush is immediately taken into custody from various characters of the past episodes, and is arrested for all of his crazy hijinks that he was involved in. The majority of your time in this episode will be spent gathering evidence, questioning witnesses, and basically defending yourself in the pirate court. Along with all of the characters from the previous episodes, you’ll meet Stan, the energetic entrepreneurial pirate lawyer from Guybrushe’s past.
Later, Elaine returns to town and a cat fight breaks out between her and Morgan LaFlay. Throughout your journey, various other characters will be arrested and you’ll have to help them as well, but ultimately, your end-goal is still to try to stop the spreading of the voodoo pox, and stop the Marquis DeSinge from stirring up additional trouble. And let’s not forget of course about the huge cliff-hanger leading us into the final chapter of the story!
All of the same gameplay elements of the previous episodes are still intact, though this episode has a particular focus on item combining. But I won’t get into the specifics; I don’t want to spoil any of the puzzles for you. From start to finish this episode should take you again somewhere between 4 and 5 hours.
Lots of your time will be spent reading notes from your court cases to help you figure out how to solve the cases. Similar to the first episode, you’ll eventually receive a map that will help you solve 6 riddles to enhance the power of La Esponja Grande to ensure it is strong enough to cure the voodoo pox. While the puzzles aren’t extremely challenging, you’re still going to be scratching your head a few times.
Being that the entire episode takes place on Flotstam Island, there really isn’t anything new to comment on that hasn’t already been said in my previous episode reviews. The graphics are wonderful and it feels like you’re watching an animated movie the entire time you play through this wonderful episode. The only quirky thing I experienced was Stan’s Jacket had some kind of weird graphical glitch. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it really seemed out of place to me.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you haven’t been following and playing this great episodic game, you’re totally missing out. Now is a better time than ever to jump right in and download all 4 of the current episodes to get you ready for the final chapter next month. I really hope that TellTale Games makes another series of Monkey Island stories, because I’m not ready for this one to be done yet! I absolutely love Tales of Monkey Island!
