Return to Monkey Island

Just replayed Curse of Monkey Island a few months ago so that game, and this franchise, was fresh in my memory for my playthrough of this game.
Coming from CMI, I loved all the quality-of-life improvements here - from an in-game hint book (that ensures you'll never need to alt+tab out to visit a walkthrough), to fast traversal through maps, to no pixel hunting, to relatively logical puzzles - this is a great update of the classic point-and-click style. The game engine works great and I'd be happy to play more games in this style.
I have a lot of love for the Monkey Island franchise and I was eager to see what Ron Gilbert would do here. He did a good job... but not a *great* job. It's hard to articulate why the game wasn't a home run, it does everything fine, but the story, the jokes, the environments, they didn't feel as imaginative and charming as in previous games. Re-playing CMI decades after I first played it I was reminded how creative and special it is, and that "something special" isn't present here. If you're a fan of the franchise, or adventure games in general, you'll have a fun time here, but a couple hours in you'll be eager to just get it over with and end.
Lastly, regarding the art style, my first impression wasn't great, as with everyone else, it seems. But I'm pleased to report it looks and feels much better when you see it in action. I went from finding it unsightly to thinking it was a strong choice once I'd got into the game. I think people aren't being open-minded enough and are being too cruel to this artistic choice. This works just fine - give it a chance. It's a distinctive and fun way of viewing this world and I welcome the attempt at trying something fresh.
As for the ending of the game, it's nothing TOO crazy, and it's very in-line with the way Gilbert ended Monkey Island 2. I appreciate the nostalgic / reflective tone he takes here, and if anything, I wish he'd pushed it harder. If he really wanted to say something about what it's like to grow old with a character/world, then have at it - let's really see your heart in this thing, let's see your blood, Ron. As it stands we get a sweet, melancholic conclusion without a strong exploration of the feelings he was trying to comment on.
If you like this franchise and want to return to this world, play this game - you'll have a fun time!

What can I say... it's a Monkey Island game! Tall tales, and hilarious puzzles to solve.

Graphics are remastered into today's glory. But one can resort to the original graphics and interface with a toggle of the keyboard.

If you like puzzle and a great story, then I recommend this game highly.

I just completed Return to Monkey Island; i've played all the other games and were very excited to get back into this universe. I did like it but there were A LOT of things I, unfortunately, didn't like. To start off positively, the art style and voice acting was great as usual. The story had a lot of great elements and the fast travel worked really well. The controls were okay but definitely felt like it was made for controllers in mind. Now for my critique: I really didn't like the fact that the game told me what combinations I could and could not try; in a point n' click game that's a big part of the genre so that kinda sucked. I really liked that the hint book was hardcoded into the game and in general I believe every game should be independant of online guides as those guides are only temporary in terms of longevity... but I hated that the hint book was so flashy and distracting. Everytime I opened my inventory it felt as if the game was trying to convince me not to find the solutions myself and instead open the book. I also didn't understand the whole "read prior dialogue" feature and I still have no idea why that was even a thing. I don't remember it ever being important for the gameplay. I also really didn't like the trivia cards. Yes, they were nostalgic but they heavily rely on the player having played all of the previous games and even I, someone who's completed them all, only got less than 25 right. I also noticed that some of the trivia cards had questions about this current game and about parts I hadn't discovered yet as of finding the cards, making it rather difficult to answer them. Well, and the ending could be a review of its own... *SPOILERS AHEAD* I just don't understand what they were trying to convey with all that build-up, the golden keys, hunting Lechuck to then do a 180. I imagined Guybrush and Lechuck having a final battle and then the secret would have been revealed or something... but instead I ended up in a 1:1 copy of Melee Island that Stan, apparently, had built. What ??? I'm so disappointed about that ending. I was kinda expecting the ending to be "there is no secret" but even that wasn't properly addressed. This game had a lot of loose ends that weren't answered, characters that weren't addressed and the setup didn't match the pay-off, simply put. The reason i'm giving this game a positive review is because Steam doesn't have a neutral review option and a negative review feels too harsh.

So this game was OK. It was actually very OK. So OK that it's average.
Where to start? I want to recommend people pick up the game because I'm a huge fan of the series and I'd like to see a new Monkey Island adventure more often than every decade. However, candor compels me to admit that this is definitely the weakest addition to the series thus far.
The gameplay is quite nice if you're into point and click adventure games. The puzzles are satisfying complex and the 'Hint Book' that the game provides you with ensures that you'll never be stuck. There are also two different levels of puzzle difficulty which is nice for old school fans. All of this is done well.
The game's problems are mostly thematic as it doesn't really feel like the Monkey Island that we've come to know and love. The game is almost aggressively disconnected from the 3rd, fourth, and fifth games in the series aside from random references. The plot hooks in game five are completely ignored. I know that Ron Gilbard didn't direct those games and may have mixed feelings about them but the fandom has lived with the franchise for decades and the canon aren't things that should be discarded so easily.
In this game, Guybrush feels like a comedic sociopath for most of the game and the way that he sabotages himself for the sake of a joke gets old fast. Guybrush has always been doing "questionable" things during the games but for the most part, the more cruel actions were always aimed at people who arguably deserved it. In this game, he seems utterly indifferent to the consequences of his actions as long as he gets what he wants. LeChuck feels less like a real threat and more like a sitcom archnemesis. Even five made him more of a threat and you spend most of the game working with him!
The new characters introduced in the game also fall flat. Elaine is probably the worst character affected as her personality feels like it was hacked down with a weedwhacker. The fiesty Elaine and brilliant planner of prior games is gone in favor of a paper-thin "female main character" for Guybrush to play off. You could rename Elaine as a brand new character without really changing much of the way the pair interact.
The humor itself is much weaker than in prior additions. Instead of mocking the zany situations the characters find themselves in, the game seems motivated to constantly make fun of itself which becomes wearing after a while. The art style has similarly devolved IMHO. It's much more pseudorealistic than in the other games and it feels like it's trying to half-heartedly copy ren-and-stimpy in places. The humor is much more biting than it used to be.
The ending was a huge let down but I'll get into that further along.
In summary, it's an OK game. I hope that we'll see more media in this franchise and that next time they'll return to their roots.

Spoilers Start Here
The ending was a serious WTF moment. I actually sat through the entire credits because I was certain that this couldn't be the way the game was ending and it must be a fake out. Unfortunately, it was real.
They seem to be trying to double down on the mindscrew ending of Monkey Island 2 but in this case they add so many confusing layers to it that I have no idea what the creators are trying to say.
The whole final act of the game feels deeply disappointing and almost unfinished. A lot of plot elements just don't seem to have any sort of resolution and it feels like the game is doing it deliberately either to mock its audience or to make some sort of artistic statement that isn't very well conveyed.


Long story short, I want to see more Monkey Island games but something in this design went seriously wrong. I like all of the other five to varying degrees but this one was not one I expect to replay.

I have played every Monkey Island and have been a fan since back in the DOS days on windows 93. I was 13. I played the original Monkey Island along with Kings Quest, Quest for glory, stuff like that. I was thrown off by the animation of this new game at first, but it grew on me since the story was so good. I really enjoyed the game and will be playing it again. I want to pick different responses from Guybrush in talk sequences.

Steam really needs a neutral option. I loved the first two games, and 3 had its own charm and introduced us to dominic armato, the voice of guybrush and what I now associate in my head with the character. the later games in the series (included the much maligned escape) were less memorable and 'play through once and never again' kind of entries. this falls in the latter camp.
as others have alluded to, the game is pretty solid but falls apart towards the end and last act. there's a lot of nostalgia being milked throughout this game, and while some of it is welcome, plenty of it could've just been skipped because a lot of the jokes and moments fall flat (albeit I personally wanted more interaction/lines with murray!)
they make a lot of meta jokes about some of the older games and about their bad endings and then leave a bad ending at the end of this. after you're done with the game go back to the scrapbook and check out the developer's note, which I think helps ease the pain of the bad ending.
most of the early puzzles were pretty easy (even on hard mode) but some of the worst game design things that ron talked about on grumpy gamer are here, including some of the inane map puzzles in twisty areas (I think there were 3-4 in this game?) where I even ran into a glitch and had to brute force it because the map didn't match the landscape. there's a TON of backtracking and moments where you know what you need to do but dread having to go back 6-7 screens to the location you need to reach because you know the next part of the puzzle which is unfortunate. the hint system is very welcome here for the late-game puzzles because some of them were annoying.
the voice acting is great; the music was less memorable this time, and the new variants on old themes was a little lacking. the remasters of 1 & 2 had terrific bombast and power in their production; this game everything felt a little dulled and muted which is a shame, since some of these melodies and themes are ones that hit hard typically, but these 'reduxes' are just kinda flat.
okay, this is getting long. I do still recommend playing this if you're as huge a fan as I am of the series, but temper expectations (hell, the game tells you exactly this as you get to the end) and you may just dig it. I'm gonna go back to playing the old games and remasters because they are superior in almost every way to this entry.

I grew up on the Monkey Island and other LucasArts adventure games of the 80's and 90's. They're very special to me. Return to Monkey Island is a look back on Guybrush Threepwood's life and is clearly a labour of love. The graphical style fits in perfectly with the spirit of the series (shoutout to Stan's jacket) and is beautiful to behold. The puzzles are varied and sufficiently challenging. The included hint book, which sits in your inventory throughout the game, gives you conversation-style hints for the active puzzles, increasing from vague to specific the further you go into the conversation. This is brilliant because it doesn't give you the answer right away, but truly gives you clues so that it still feels like you solved the puzzle yourself. This is a brilliant design.

All in all, if you even remotely like point-and-click adventure games, get this one. If, like me, these games have special nostalgia value for you then you'll already have bought this :)