u/quagliax

Hi everyone Monkey Island fans! Long post, full of spoilers, thread with care!

Long time player over here....I grew up watching my brother play MI1 on Amiga, and buying MI1 for PC was the first reason ever I put money on the side. I played MI1&2 over and over, and played exactly once every other game in the series (but the Telltale Games, so I can't talk for those).

I have to say that after the original first two games, the creators misunderstood what makes the game and the setting special.
Just like in Ghostbuster (follow me for a moment), the Monkey Island setting is a perfect juxtaposition of serious and lighthearted, horror and comedy, filthy pirates and sleek novelty shops (scary ghosts, terrifying technology, and normal startup company business).
All about MI1&2 presentation is serious: the detailed pixel art, the music, most of the conversations and the obstacles. Also the special edition revamp did a good job at keeping this vibe. Then on top of it have that 20% of absurd and hilarious that makes you genuinely crack. And most of all, in MI1&2 you feel constantly really threatened by LeChuck and Largo, while in MI3,4&6 the bad guys are pure comic relief....and also comic relief from what since the game never even tries to convey a real sense of peril or tension.

I had some hopes that MI6 would make this right again. It did many things right. The interface and usability is on point, and I really appreciated the diegetic tutorial, todo, hint system, absolutely brilliant. And little details like the descriptions of the objects reflecting his thoughts rather than the obvious name of the things, shows how much care was put in this game. Thumbs up also for the lack of object hunting: every interactable in the game is very obvious, without the need of a highlight button.
Yet the vibe was off, the story felt short, like real short, and the puzzles were all pretty straightforward. I can't say anything was memorable at all.

Vibe: I already elaborated above, but in one word: Guybrush is never threatened; he's not afraid to die, or loose Elaine or loose in a confrontation with anyone. He's fully aware to have main character armor plot and treats the world as a theme park. The throwbacks at the original game were mostly nice, they played the nostalgia card with style I dare say. But why was Otis there? What role did he serve other than pure nostalgia for breaking him out of prison again?

Puzzles: A few of the puzzles felt rushed and unpolished, other just too convenient, many simply were non creative. Like the scurvy boat, with the sailors just disappearing, and then the boat also disappearing from the map. Or the notes in terror island caves conveniently scattered across the floor....like why, from whom? That's like a cheap escape room, it completely breaks the immersion in the game world. And the locksmith....really? Read the codes and get the key? Where's the challenge, where's the creativity and lateral thinking? And the challenges to become queen? Distract with a bonfire, spice her food...so bland. The book of demon jokes was half ok.

Story: I get the theme. The journey is more important than the destination. Cool theme, feels appropriate for an adult, mature main character and audience. Yet I feel it was very poorly explored.
Let's recall: Guybrush started as a naive wide-eyed young, then by the end of MI2 he got enough confidence to put up an act as a quite arrogant and petty trickster. But in MI6 he's a complete insensitive jerk!!!...ok I say, why not, it could be an interesting development. His fixation for the Secret might have drove him a bit crazy, and there's the whole plot of Marion following up his trail of destruction...and what's the conclusion of this plot? 2 minutes of scolding, that Guybrush can answer with a couple of one liners....it felt very incomplete, like they opened a thread and put a quick band-aid on it.

Also the ending...ok with the meta-ending, nothing against that in principle. Bute there's not been a real final payoff, or a climax, for example a faceoff with the pirate leaders and/or LeChuck. The climax of the game is a series ok puzzles. I did appreciated the throwback at the old Dial-A-Pirate, the copy-protection system. I felt the game missed a room though, with a final challenge that involved the bad guy(s), and maybe going meta once the chest was finally open. Or maybe going meta in a mental space where Guybrush has to confront his threads: his misdemeanors, his fear

So...I'm a bit sad...what I read about the Telltale MI version is that they stroke a tone close to what I'm expecting, I might go give a shot at that :D