Well it’s here, the final chapter of the five part Tales of Monkey Island episodic adventure. If you’ve been following the story, you know that Guybrush Threepwood is going through hell and back, literally. I’d like to thank TellTale Games for providing me with a copy to play through this past weekend as it was just as much fun as the previous chapters and finally, you get to see what becomes of our hero, his wife, the zombie pirate LeChuck, and all of the rest of the Caribbean. So lets not waste anymore time, here’s a quick recap of the things you’re going to see when you play through Tales of Monkey Island: Rise of the Pirate God!
Recall from the previous episode, Guybrush found Morgan LaFlay dead in the home of the Marquis De Singe, and eventually, was killed by LeChuck. Rise of the Pirate God opens with Guybrush digging himself out of his own grave, as a spirit in the crossroads of the underworld. With the help of a few of the dead roaming the underworld and a reunited Morgan LaFlay, Guybrush finds that to return to the world of the living, he’s got to cast the spell that LeChuck used to do the same thing. Basically, you’ll end up going back and forth between the crossroads and the living world several times, controlling a spirit, zombie, and real life form of yourself, as you track down and attempt to put an end to all of the madness, climaxing in a somewhat difficult battle with the Zombie LeChuck.
Like the previous chapters, Rise of the Pirate God took me roughly 6 hours to complete, though I have to admit that 2 of those hours were spent stuck on a puzzle that I slapped myself in the face for after I realized how stupid I was for not solving it right away. That said, the puzzles’ difficulty level are perfect and the built-in hint system is just vague enough to lead you in the right direction without giving away the answers when you are stuck. As far as the levels are concerned, you’ll get to travel through a variety of places both that you’ve visited previously, as well as the crossroads of the underworld.
While nothing ever feels repetitious, you really don’t gain much new in terms of game-play in the final chapter. You will return to some previous game-play mechanics like the scary pirate face game, and traveling around the world with a map. You’ll also have to use your head during a sword fight to spout of the correct insults to a few pirates. Other than that, everything you’ve come to expect from the previous episodes are still intact.
Unfortunately, there was one thing that kind of annoyed me in this chapter. You’ll find that you have to run back and forth between the different areas of the living world and the crossroads quite often, and there is always a loading screen between the two, so as you try to solve a few of the puzzles, you’ll be sitting and waiting a bunch.
As usual, the graphics are stunning and the levels you’ll travel through are beautiful. But the best part is all of the hilarious dialog that you’ll take part in beginning right away with the ferryman who brings you to the crossroads. I was getting strange looks from across the room as I was laughing out loud playing through this. There is also a lot of returning characters, both dead and alive that you’ll get to deal with, and they are just as funny as they were in the previous episodes. I also greatly enjoyed the soundtrack throughout the entire series. It really brought me back to the days of playing the first Secret of Monkey Island at times, and it’s Caribbean essence just keeps you in the mood to pillage, plunder and search for booty!
If you haven’t picked it up from my reviews of the previous chapters, I absolutely loved playing through the entire Tales of Monkey Island. The ending is wonderfully fulfilling and makes all of that hard-spent time worth the effort. Right from the beginning, the story is great and things are fun to play; you just can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. I’ve never been a fan of episodic gaming, so if you’re like me, you can now pick up the entire story with a collectors edition dvd for the tiny price of 35 bucks! That’s a hell of a deal as far as I’m concerned, and I absolutely recommend the entire series to all of you adventure lovers out there! For a full write-up and screen shots, head on over to ZeitgeistGameReview.com. Let me know what you thought about the video by rating and leaving your questions and comments below!
