www.monkeyislandspecialedition.com
Not sure what I think about this. From what I gather, the game is completely faithful to the original. The story is the same, the dialogue is the same, the jokes are the same. They’ve just tarted up the graphics, UI and sound. Which at least means that this ‘remake’ isn’t sacrilegious, but does leave one wondering what the point is.
Okay, so commercially I can see what the point is. It allows LucasArts to test the water to see what the market is like for adventure games without having to fully develop a new title, and with lots of guaranteed sales from fanboys and people who remember the original and want to play it again (not realising they could already do that with ScummVM). But from a creative point of view, isn’t the whole enterprise a bit hollow?
I also wonder about the value of having the dialogue spoken by voice-actors rather than displayed as subtitles. Obviously, this had to be done; not having the dialogue spoken wouldn’t be acceptable in the modern market. But this is dialogue that was written to be read, not heard. Reading the text from the screen gave it a certain deadpan quality that could easily be lost, no matter how good the voice-acting.
I also gather the game has a built-in ‘hints’ feature. I’m not sure whether I approve or not. I guess as long as the hints aren’t too obvious, so that there’s still an element of working out to be done, it’s probably a good thing. Having the game give you a gentle hint probably beats the alternative of quitting the game and looking stuff up in an online walkthrough. And while I’d never need any hints for Monkey Island (I’ve played through the game so many times by now that I’ve lost count), I can’t deny that there have been other games in the genre that I haven’t finished.
I see that there’s also a new Monkey Island game in development. The good news is that Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman are both involved, although sadly Tim Schafer isn’t. I’ll be interested to see how it turns out.