Return To Monkey Island - MI2 sequel from Ron Gilbert

[flyingjohn]

I found a retro fascist.

-Says nothing of value(no mention of puzzles) and criticizes the art style like everybody else.
-Considers the original gameplay dated
-Likes no man sky

We have a special Olympics winner here.

 

[Darkozric]

We have a special Olympics winner here.

He also says that the 30 years gap is the reason they've changed, which is straight up shit, since we had Thimbleweed Park 5 years ago.

 

[Darkozric]

Fuck yeah - I live for this shit.

 

[OndrejSc]

IT IS A

Spoiler

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

I thought this was interesting:

Spoiler

Melee Island is run down and just going to shit.

The governor is now black. The pirate council is now made up of one Haitian, one psycho dyke and one Karen. Most of the inhabitants you run into are now black.

Ron doesn't seem to realize what he subconsciously recreated.

They just couldn't handle 3 white guys being in charge of anything, eh?
Pirate council ... Yeah sure a black guy, a white chick and an asian chick... sure

Where's muh "native american" representation? Fucking racists!
I bet not even one tranny character in the whole game.

 

[Daedalos]

Thinking about how mouth-foaminginly mad the crazies are from this game makes me through the day.

I don't care anymore. Tbh, I will prob anjoy playing through it, shitty artstyle and all.

 

[OndrejSc]

This game is not for the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or/and Islamaphobic!

 

[Alienman]

What's the theme park theory people are talking about? Not played this game in years.

 

[Fowyr]

What's the theme park theory people are talking about? Not played this game in years.

Same here, but if you remember MI2 ending, everything was just a imagination's product of two overexcited boys in theme park. Or not. Never liked this ending.
https://scummbar.com/resources/articles/index.php?article=2

 

[OndrejSc]

two overexcited boys

Is this a cooming-of-age strory?

 

[Fowyr]

From the Steam reviews.

I played through to the ending.
Right off the bat things seemed abit disjointed with events not strictly fitting the time line. I thought it might be foreshadowing for a big plot twist that took into account the ending of MI2, the beginning seemed to heavily hint at that. I was expecting something incredibly clever and satisfying because the scrapbook seemed so well thought out.
Other than that it played like a decent Monkey Islands game... until the ending.
I won't spoil it for you, all I'm going to do is say this. If you have any positive memories of this franchise, if you can even half accept the ending of Tales of Monkey Island as being the end then do so. You'll still be able to think of Guybrush Threepwood as a mighty pirate going on swashbuckling adventures.
Monkey Islands was the first game I ever played and since I was... I want to say eight, thats the image I had in my mind. This game will snatch that from you and leave in its place a vanity project. Because if theres one thing writers love to do its to get meta, it reminds you they exist at the expense of the story.
It makes them larger than the characters. I regret playing this.

 

[lightbane]

EDITED

No kidding. The ending has been leaked and

Spoiler

it's a meta-reference cop-out with no resolution, taking the most known theory for MI2's ending and then recycling it.
I like how the game goes "stories change over time" and then it ends with a blatant sequel hook barely seconds after the "reveal".



There's also an unlockable letter after winning the game where Gilbert explains how he doesn't know how to make a good ending to the MI2 dilemma.

Brok the Investigator is much better than this joke and looks better (argueably).

BTW, is the frontpage of the Codex not loading properly for everyone else? In my case it looks distorted for some reason, with the categories (news, content, gallery...) fucked up.

 

[Antigoon]

BTW, is the frontpage of the Codex not loading properly for everyone else? In my case it looks distorted for some reason, with the categories (news, content, gallery...) fucked up.

Yeah same for me, broken since yesterday I think

 

[JarlFrank]

The only bad thing about Thimbleweed Park was the stupid meta ending, so it's no surprise that Ron fucked it up again.

Monkey Island 2's ending is not that hard to salvage if you put a little creativity and imagination into it. The "it was all just in the kids' imagination!" explanation never really convinced me, since you can see magic lightning coming from LeChuck's eyes as the two kids walk into the amusement park. And Elaine still hangs on her rope, wondering what's taking Guybrush so long. The way Curse of Monkey Island explained it wasn't the best, but it worked. Someone with a genuine creative mind could easily have come up with something even better.

But not Ron. He lost his creative spark and can only "subvert expectations" at this point. He loves his meta jokes and his stupid "Ey, ey, it was all just a game bro! Isn't that some fun meta commentary on how the stories we tell aren't real?" bullshit.

The only genuinely funny thing about all this is that for three fucking decades, Ron claimed that he knew the true secret of Monkey Island and that he always had the explanation for MI2's ending in the back of his mind. Only to now admit that it was all bullshit.
That, at least, gets a genuine chuckle out of me. But I guess that's the one joke Ron didn't want us to laugh at.

 

[ferratilis]

I started playing the pirated version last night, was pissed from the start with the art style, and then it got even worse, the stupid jokes and meta commentary started rolling in. Couldn't get past the one about "this new audience is hard to please, but at least they shower regularly" or something like that. Monkey Island 1 and 2 are still close to my heart, playing this further will just sour the fond memories of those games. I wouldn't recommend anyone to buy this tripe.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I simply can't understand how there are people not only defending the art "style" as something depending on personal taste but even go as far as to claim that it fits the MI-experience better than the glorious pixel art of MI 1 and 2, which is, according to one comment I just read on Indie Retro News, "stiff and lifeless" compared to RTMI's graphic "style". It's true, if you compare the venerable dignity of MI1+2's graphic design to this constantly wobbling, spasming, squirming pile of madness it seems much more calm. In a good way that is.

 

[JarlFrank]

A tasteful oil painting is also "stiff and lifeless" compared to a pile of writhing maggots.

 

[El Presidente]

Just watch the ending on Youtube, it's up there already. I'm personally REALLY not into this meta stuff so I didn't like it, same way I'm very glad I watched all the spoiler bullshit about Inscryption before making the mistake of buying it for its glowing reviews, I'd have hated that crap. Anyways, back on the topic, since I didn't waste my time playing RtMI watching the ending wasn't enough to stain my fond memories of the series.

My final thoughts on this is that Return to Monkey Island is the Matrix Resurrections of the adventure genre.

Also, I doubt I'd ever warm up to the art style. This is just an ugly and poorly animated game, end of story.

 

[OndrejSc]

the venerable dignity of MI1+2's graphic design

MI2 looks like someone ate a pack of m&m's, vomited them on paper, and then scanned the mess into computer. Return to Monkey Island, on the other hand, is graphically up there with MI1. I disliked MI5 art style at first, but when I've seen more of it and in motion, it's gorgeous.

 

[JarlFrank]

Watched the ending. Same t-shirt joke that Monkey Island 1 used in its first chapter? Seriously? It was funny back then because it was just one of three trials and it came unexpected, but making it the final joke of a classic series? That's just uninspired and boring. Same joke from 30 years ago, except now it's part of the grand climax.

And then Guybrush's son complains about how the ending is a disappointment, as if having a character in the story acknowledge its badness makes it any less bad.

Also the MI2 ending is retconned into "The fight between Guybrush and LeChuck really happened, but the amusement park ending was just Guybrush's kids re-enacting the stories of Guybrush's life!"
Seriously?
What a load of crap.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

The whole game is just "Member 30 years ago? Member?"

 

[OndrejSc]

The whole game is just "Member 30 years ago? Member?"

 

[HeroMarine]

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShaggyDogStory

 

[Keshik]

 

[Boleskine]

This game is not for the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or/and Islamaphobic!