I was just explaining why I don't know anything about this game, lol, sorry that I didn't finish explaining that.

The only computer 🖥 gaming experience I have is from stuff like WoW, LOTRO, City of Villains etc.

I've owned many consoles in life, my first was Atari, my favorite was X-box 360. Fav game 🎮 on a console? Zombies on COD Worls at War.

Ah, yeah. Now that I can see. There is some pretty gross-looking stuff in the intro I think moreso because you are playing as a kid.

Aside from some things on LeChuck's ship though, that is kinda toned down later in the game.
First day of my new job moving around tons of dirty water the word "Swabby!!" kept popping in my head lol

Yeah, no, I don't mind that they went with this look, but part of the charm of the Monkey Island series has always been how pleasing it is to look at (AS IF IT WERE INSPIRED BY A DISNEY RIDE), and half of the prologue is all Ren & Stimpy visual gross out gags. Not that the other games didn't have gross things, I guess (like the governor of Phatt Island), but hey, the pixels made it CHARMING.

[quote=Roody_Yogurt post_id=136055 time=1679627041 user_id=9]
Anyhow, I was just asking about Monkey Island because I wanted to say to somebody, "what's with that Ren & Stimpy-esque art direction?"
[/quote]

I noticed a few people pointing that out when the trailer came out. It actually works extremely well in the jungle like areas and places like LeChuck's ship. While I am partial to the look of MI2, as Ron said basically he and no one else at the company had worked with pixel art against scanned drawn art in many, many years if at all. The new style reminds of a popup book or something. The UI is nicer than SCUMM in some ways too as it just feels quicker and you spend less time trying every action on every damn thing.

[quote=Jizaboz post_id=136053 time=1679626039 user_id=910]
The only big negative for me was the brass lantern battery. So, I don't recall exactly how this worked in the original. In that one I thought you have a certain number of turns you take before the lamp starts dying. In the new CC, it just feels.. weird and punishing for no reason. So even after a lot of wandering my battery never seemed to be draining. But, when you touch or look at the last "treasure" in the cave you've interacted with for the first time, just a few turns after the lamp begins to die. Even using a guide for the best advice on getting out with the last one, it took me like 12 tries manage to get out. Basically I had to make it to the "bird room" where I could turn out the light, then dash into another room as far as I could go in the dark without falling, then toggling the lamp again in an area I knew in the dark. WHY? Why do it like this? It feels almost as punishing as the raids in Modern Warfare II lol
[/quote]

I guess they thought they'd turn the whole lantern battery into an intentional last puzzle. Kind of a cool idea in concept, but I can understand why that would be frustrating. Unlike text game where it's easy to not get too bothered by dying from a lack of light, I imagine it's harder to think as clearly when you actually see the cave getting darker and that "oh shit" is starting to sink in.

Anyhow, I was just asking about Monkey Island because I wanted to say to somebody, "what's with that Ren & Stimpy-esque art direction?"

[quote=Roody_Yogurt post_id=136046 time=1679593791 user_id=9]
So what were your final thoughts, Jiz?
[/quote]

Ah you reminded me to return to this. So yes, I have "finished" the game in the respect of I found all of the treasures and stored them in the well house above ground. I was a few points of a full score, but not exactly sure why. I don't really care either. I can't see myself replaying this unless maybe in VR.

That isn't saying it's a bad game though. Running into the pirate the first time was cool, the "Soft Room" had very hippy vibes to it and looks cool. The pirate is well rendered, as well as the bear. When my memory ran out and I started running into things I couldn't figure out I just resorted to a guide rather than the in-game hints. In the new Monkey Island game (I really like but haven't rushed thru it like I did this game and am still playing it) you mentioned I have glanced at a couple of the hints probably just because I overlooked or forgot about a detail of the world.

In the end I would say that initial exploration of the cave itself and starting to interact with things is the best experience. It really does feel like wandering around in a huge cave! Mix that in with the more fantasy or almost sci/fi elements (such as one of the mazes looking like something built by a government black project) and there are a lot of cool surprises around some of the corners even if you played the old text game. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the original or finds caves in real life a bit fascinating. I think those 2 things are what made me really have to play the game in the first place. However, once all of the rooms have been marked on your map it's almost like wandering around an amusement park after closing. You saw it all during the day for the first time and now that everyone has gone home there's not much left to do.

The only big negative for me was the brass lantern battery. So, I don't recall exactly how this worked in the original. In that one I thought you have a certain number of turns you take before the lamp starts dying. In the new CC, it just feels.. weird and punishing for no reason. So even after a lot of wandering my battery never seemed to be draining. But, when you touch or look at the last "treasure" in the cave you've interacted with for the first time, just a few turns after the lamp begins to die. Even using a guide for the best advice on getting out with the last one, it took me like 12 tries manage to get out. Basically I had to make it to the "bird room" where I could turn out the light, then dash into another room as far as I could go in the dark without falling, then toggling the lamp again in an area I knew in the dark. WHY? Why do it like this? It feels almost as punishing as the raids in Modern Warfare II lol

So what were your final thoughts, Jiz? I recall you talking about this on IRC but I can't remember if it was before or after this point.

To be honest, in this day and age, I think that anyone who has the patience to even find the cave in the original game has "won" it, so it's great to hear they made that more of a no-brainer in the new one. I played a C64 port in the 80s and I sort of recall getting a full score (I remember it being pretty straightforward once I knew magic words?), but I also sort of doubt my memory. Some versions have this thing where you start the game with like 16 extra points for some reason, so it's possible that I didn't have a FULL full score and just didn't know any better.

Also, in retrospect, I find it hard to believe that I ever solved a damn thing and wonder if I legitimately found the magic words or if I just looked at the game source or something.

Anyhow, it's good to hear that you got as much enjoyment out of it as you did!

Ok, now I'm about an hour and a half in. This is actually a pretty fun game. I've already managed to learn 2 of the magic words and extract about 5 treasures. The snake/bird puzzle in this game is even more ridiculous in this version and there is absolutely no hint about it so I guess unless you asked for a hint or looked it up you'd have no idea unless you got that far in the text adventure.

The dwarves have some of the oddest behavior. Sometimes you come across one and he kind of grunts, jumps straight into the air, and disappears into the ground with a special effect. Other times, the little bastards randomly throw something at you and it's a roll of the dice to whether you get hit or not. This is a weird game, which actually seems to fit the setting.

As I mentioned, some areas in this game a depicted in a way that seems different from how I pictured them when playing the original. The "maze of twisty passages, all alike" is definitely one of them. Instead of a confusing natural cave system you are in what almost looks like some odd and pristine missile silo. And man oh man did I get lost in there even with the auto-map. In areas unlike that though the auto-map combined with the compass is extremely useful.

Currently at 8/24 achievements and probably pausing again for the night.

I found a Steam key for 8.99$ and have been really curious about this game, so I bought it. Here in this thread I will review it. Well, to the best of my ability anyway.

Within the first 15 minutes these are my initial impressions:

1. Built in Unity? Huh. Same engine here as the game I just released, "Duck Slide Range" for phones and tablets. Interesting. Here I'm actually really familiar with the platform used to make the game unlike Ken and Roberta Williams older games.

2. Oh wow. I already found the shed. I recall getting lost in the woods a lot before just finding the damn shed and the metal grate a bit further away by a creek in the original game. Here the two are damn near visible to each other. I like the way the area is rendered though and suppose a winding maze of forest before the cave would be a bit much.

3. Speaking of which.. the graphics. I've heard some reviewers say "PS2 graphics" and eh really LOTRO beta had about the same graphics. It's not that it's bad, it just that there's nothing really fancy here as far as detailed meshes and such. Like I always have to stare at water in games and the water just uses a method I've seen in Unity before which is neither really impressive or dorky looking; it works though.

4. UI feels a bit clunky despite being so simplified. I can't quite narrow that down in 15 minutes but will return to it.

5. The cave feels like an actual cave as far as layout. Satisfyingly confusing to walk around. The lights got dim but I wanted to preserve my lamp for as long as possible and got an hilarious death for daring to do so.

Getting late and not sure how much more I will be able to check out before I pass out, and I have a Dungeons N Dragons session tomorrow. However, I will add more here as I play it more.