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Return to Monkey Island | Review Thread

Draugoth

Gold Member
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Game Information​

Game Title: Return to Monkey Island

Platforms:

  • Nintendo Switch (Sep 19, 2022)
  • PC (Sep 19, 2022)
Trailers:
Developer: Terrible Toybox

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Review Aggregator:

Opencritic: 90% - 100% Recommended

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Metacritic: 92/100

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Critic Reviews​

AusGamers - KostaAndreadis - 9.5 / 10
A joyous adventure game that, if you've ever been a fan, should be savoured like a tall glass of aged grape juice.

Eurogamer - Christian Donlan - Recommended
A deft and heartfelt journey through nostalgia.

Gamepur - Tony Wilson - 8 / 10
Despite being set between the second and third games in the series, Return to Monkey Island feels like a beautiful climax to a franchise that's seen games spread across four decades.

GamesHub - Edmond Tran - 5 / 5
Return to Monkey Island isn’t a grand reinvention of point-and-click adventure games in mechanics or narrative ambition. It is, quite literally, a return. It sticks to its own identity, and aims to be the best version of itself – a comforting, charming game with great characters and amusingly esoteric puzzles. That a new Monkey Island game exists with Gilbert and Grossman at the helm makes Return to Monkey Island an attraction well worth the curiosity. And that this traditional format still satisfies while remaining largely unchanged, several decades later, speaks volumes about how timeless their ideas and this world have always been.

The Independent - Jasper Pickering - 9 / 10
Return to Monkey Island is a thoughtful retread of a genre that was once the pinnacle of adventure games, yet now feels rarely revisited, despite its influence. A lot has changed since The Secret of Monkey Island debuted more than three decades ago, but now Return feels like a fitting conclusion to everything that spawned from the original. Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman’s own reflection on the series after the game’s conclusion is poignant in its perspective that only years away from the helm could bring.

WayTooManyGames - Heidi Hawes - 8 / 10
The Monkey Island series are adored because of their humor and charm, and Return to Monkey Island is no different. It retains all the same wit, puns, and groan-worthy dad jokes as the rest of the games. In fact, Return to Monkey Island feels more in-line with the earlier titles, no doubt due to Gilbert’s involvement, as well as most of the original cast. The art style might be initially off-putting for some, but it really does grow on you after a while.
 
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Bragr

Banned
Considerably higher than I expected. I guess the writing is really good or something, I can't say I saw anything in the trailers that caught my attention.
 
Is this game available on Mac? I see it listed on steam page. Is there any details on the mac port ?
Got the switch version but would love to play it on my laptop.
 

Soltype

Member
Well, they hated the artstyle and people said it will flop because of that.

The hate was towards the artstyle. There was a dramatic reaction when they released the first trailer. As always, the internet kneejerked.
I see where they're coming from with the game being ugly but that doesn't mean it has to be terrible in all areas. That's a weird position to hold
 

Kuranghi

Member
I was one of the ones who was vocal about disliking the art style and animations. I am about to play it myself though so hopefully that will change.

Ultimately though, I think the puzzles, dialogue, characters and scenario is way more important in this genre than graphics & animation, as long as the latter has charm even if its not artistically great I think its fine. I wish it was a whole package I could love but then, what games actually give you everything exactly to your own preference? I'd say about 0.000000009% of them.
 

Soltype

Member
Let's say you're a GoW fan.
Would you like the next GoW to look like Southpark?
Not particularly, I do think that's too exaggerated of an example though. I agree that the game is ugly, but if the game has other merits then I can look at it as a whole.
 

Fuz

Banned
Not particularly, I do think that's too exaggerated of an example though. I agree that the game is ugly, but if the game has other merits then I can look at it as a whole.
We discussed this issue in the past in other threads. If you're interested just do a quick search. I don't want to start a pointless debate anymore.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
This would have been ideal to see on Gamepass, instead will have to wait it out until it gets a release on the other consoles..
 

Saiyan-Rox

Member
Steam page is full of people who've played for half an hour and saying it's perfect

Ugh

Never did play these so might pick it up if it works on steam deck
 

Kuranghi

Member
I've got it sitting ready to go now, but I have to go see Rise of the Tomb Raider looking "amazing" on my flatmates new PC first, the bloody bastard. My GTX 1080 is going to rock Return to Monkey Island at max settings native 4K afterwards though, woo!
 

Patrick S.

Banned
I've got it sitting ready to go now, but I have to go see Rise of the Tomb Raider looking "amazing" on my flatmates new PC first, the bloody bastard. My GTX 1080 is going to rock Return to Monkey Island at max settings native 4K afterwards though, woo!
This is basically a Flash game... I don't really think it's the kind of game that needs "4k ultra max".
 

Neff

Member
Game is promising but I'm really not a fan of the 'hotspot' mechanic, it makes things feel too obvious.

The voice acting quickly had to go too. Still, it's a new Monkey Island game and I maintain it looked nice from the get-go and it's even more impressive in motion.
 
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