Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 4, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood Review

It’s already the 4th chapter of five for Tales of Monkey Island’s first season. And to to put a disclaimer right up front, this fourth chapter is the first one I’m playing (Egad, you say, how could I pass up on the three before it? Sorry, it just happened that way).

The story of episode four starts off with all but a few of the inhabitants of Flotsam Island infected with the “Pox of LeChuck.” Guybrush has been captured by pirate hunter Morgan LeFlay and is delivered to the mad scientist Marquis de Singe, who intends to use Guybrush in his experiments for harvesting voodoo powers. Instead, Guybrush is summoned to trial for several civil misdemeanors – the highest of which is infecting everyone on the island.

In this episode, our primary concern is to gather evidence to clear Guybrush’s name at trial, and to disinfect the people of Flostam Island back to normal. Along the way, you’ll encounter piping hot beverages, bar fights, strange animals, betrayal, deaths (I swear, that’s not a spoiler)* and of course voodoo magic and a love triangle. Just your average point-and-click- pirate-comedy-adventure game.

[C'mon, it's right in the title of the episode!]

As usual, the overall presentation of the game is top-notch. The environments and characters contribute to a solid cartoonish world of pirate fantasy. Voice acting is present throughout the entire game. It still amazes me that every single bit of interaction with other non-player characters, and inanimate objects as well, has been treated with a voiceover. (Obviously there’s also a lot of Guybrush talking to himself, or in other words the player, but you get my point).

The non-player characters all have distinct (but often stereotypical) voices and mannerisms, but it is also true that some of them are only relevant to one half of the game’s 4-6 hour span. A purist of these types of games will enjoy talking up every one of them to hear each possible dialogue tree – for all the jokes and quirky wordplay that would bring a smile or a laugh. This is where I was slightly disappointed, as it seemed to me the dialogue tree variations ended very quickly. However, it is a minor qualm as I understand full-well that this is an episodic game that can’t be too long.

Tales continues to be a single-player game, though that doesn’t preclude you from having a friend or family member to play along, sitting beside you. It’s something that I’m sure most players forget, but with point-and-click adventures like this, it’s always more fun to share the jokes and that tag-along person just might pick up on a clue that you might have missed.

From just playing this episode, it seems they’ve toned down the general difficulty in comparison to the old standalone Monkey Island titles. But there were still a few puzzles and combinations of items that were not readily apparent enough and made me wish I was playing through with a friend. Since I was playing alone, however, this meant that when I was stuck, I resorted using every item in my inventory with something else on screen to see if it did anything useful to the situation at hand.

It does get frustrating, because some of the answers are what I deem quite far-fetched, even for a comedic fantasy adventure. I clocked my leisurely completion of this episode at about 6 hours or so, but enterprising and quick-witted folks would probably finish it in a swift 4 hours.

Those who’ve played the older games of the series will appreciate returning characters like Stan, and many of his self-referential, breaking-the-fourth-wall lines. Coming in to play this fourth episode, I was mildy amused overall, but not enthralled like I used to be with older adventure-comedy games.

It was an enjoyable experience, and with a cliffhanger like this one, it’s quite difficult to pass on playing through to the 5th and final episode of the season when it is released in December. For fans of the series, or if you’ve played the previous episodes, it’s probably a no-brainer. For the rest of us though, I hope Telltale will kick things up a notch, especially in the humor department, and go out this season with a bang.