Ron Gilbert may have intentionally decided to ignore the existence of the installments after Monkey Island 2 when creating and shaping Return to Monkey Island, the legitimate third installment of the saga, but that does not mean that we will see some parallels with them . The most recent: the classic verbs have been replaced by a control system very similar to that of The Curse of Monkey Island.
The latest playable preview of Return To Monkey Island took us back to the Island itself that gives the LucasFilm saga its name and, in the process, allowed us to see in much more detail how the actions, puzzle solving and inventory system works. Simpler and more intuitive, of course, at the risk of losing the charm of lunar logic.
The gist: Hovering over any object will they will offer us the precise actions that we will have at our disposal, being able to alternate between them through the two mouse buttons. In a way it makes a lot of sense, since it saves us going to the verb box of “Open” to go through a door or see what’s in a chest.
In fact, one of the interesting aspects is that we are allowed tinker with the objects without having to pick them up or directly store them in the inventory.
That said, and in what refers to the irremediable collection of artifacts, valuable treasures and crap that we accumulate, we have the same thing: this is present on the screen in the form of a bag and it unfolds, allowing us to also see what is in the picture.
As a final detail, it seems that, to prevent players from blindly shooting, when we move the objects we are using around the screen we will see directly where they cannot be used or activated. No more listening to Guybrush that something didn’t work or couldn’t be done every 20 seconds.
A system very similar to that of The Curse of Monkey Island, but not the same
The Curse of Monkey Island it was the last game in the series to use the SCUMM environment and engine, and the first to redesign the way the game was played. Although LucasArts had already managed to blur the barrier that separated cartoons and graphic adventures with The Day of the Tentacle, the leap in quality occurred with the third installment released, without Ron Gilbert at the helm of Guybrush’s destiny. Of course, it was used to redesign the interface.
In The Curse of Monkey Island all verbs were simplified to a series of actions that are displayed on the screen when hovering over an object, so that we could experiment or try to get something out of Guybrush by doing something that we knew would not work. Return to Monkey Island It is very different from this other third installment, it is obvious, but it must be recognized that the premise is very similar.
Curse of Monkey Island control system
Still, it’s worth noting that Ron Gilbert has designed Return to Monkey Island With both longtime fans and new players in mind, making the steps easier was a step in the right direction. However, what is truly essential lies in what distinguished the saga Monkey Island from the rest: challenging and ingenious puzzles, absurd situations and hilarious lines of dialogue.
Return to Monkey Island will be available on PC and Nintendo Switch from next September 19 and you can already reserve both and Steam as a la eShop for something more than 20 turkeys. A fair price according to Gilbert. What new trouble will the intrepid Guybrush Threepwood end up in? We are looking forward to finding out.
