Tales Of Monkey Island Launch of the Screaming Narwhal – Review – PC

Telltale Games created a new business model for adventure games with their episodic content. Their success has led to a partnership with LucasArts to resurrect some of their classic adventure game properties. Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is one such episode…

I have been getting into PC gaming as of late, and I am something of an adventure game fan, although I both love and hate them.  Rarely does it happen that developers strike that perfect balance of obscurity and intuition in their puzzles.  I think Telltale has done a pretty good job in balancing the puzzles.

There were a few times that I got stuck…My best advice if you are stumped is to do everything you can think of. See if anything works, and see if what you did changes anything, then do everything over again to see how that change affects the outcome.

Telltale has very successfully translated the quirky LucasArts adventure game architecture style from 2D into 3D.  I really enjoyed the ship and building designs, along with most of the characters.  The island map system is also nice, letting you go to places you’ve been without having to find your way through the jungle every time.

I didn’t feel out of the loop from inside jokes and long running gags, but I could definitely tell that there were some there…A friendly nod to the die hard fans of Monkey Island and other LucasArts adventure games. I found myself smirking at the sarcasm, quips, and asides scattered throughout the dialogue.

Adventure gamers have traditionally been spoiled with low system requirements.  The move to 3D is raising those requirements.  I would recommend a 2.4GHz  or greater Pentium 4 (or AMD equivalent), more than 512MBs of RAM, and a Radeon 9700 video card or newer for TOMI.  These are pretty relaxed specs by today’s PC standards.

The one area I felt that was lacking is the new mouse control scheme.  To move Guybrush using the mouse, you click and hold, then drag the mouse in the direction you want to walk.  A circle appears around Threepwood, with a small arrow that shows you what direction you will move.  The mouse movement system just felt awkward, so I used the keyboard to move and the mouse to manage the inventory and select or use objects.

Having played Sam & Max Season One, I feel that Launch of the Screaming Narwhal provides a decent amount of game-play for a first episode.  I would expect the content to increase slightly with each episode, as it did in Sam & Max. Depending on how savvy you are with adventure games, I would say Narwhal offers anywhere from two to six hours of game-play.

There is also a Treasure Hunt mode available in the Main Menu.  Treasure Hunt sets you in the jungles of Flotsam Island with one treasure map to start.

By following the sounds of the forest (Sounds you must follow are marked on the map), you will find a buried treasure that unlocks prizes on Telltale’s website.  I noted that these sounds are not subtitled like the dialogue, which could present problems for the hearing impaired, requiring them to rely on trial and error, or faqs/walkthroughs to find the correct directions.

Successfully finding treasures will unlock Wallpapers, TOMI Avatar pics, and coupon codes for discounts on Telltale Game episodes or seasons (the 50% off an entire season coupon excludes TOMI).  Treasure Hunt is available in the demo as well, so you need not buy the game to unlock coupon codes.

I had a good time with Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, and the ending is quite the cliff-hanger.  Thankfully Episode 2, “The Siege of Spinner Cay” is coming later this week to alleviate your gnawing curiosity.

Score: 7 out of 10

Thanks to WalllessFury and Telltale Games for providing the game for this review.  You can purchase the entire season, or Episode 1 only at http://www.telltalegames.com/store/games …Episode 1 is now also available for purchase through Amazon.com

Keep your eyes peeled as I may be offering some of those coupon codes I unlocked for a Loud Mouthed Gamers contest (for those of you too lazy unlock a code for yourself through the game, demo, or Telltale’s website)

Review Written by Playing Mantis

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