Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge – Review
- September 3rd, 2010
- Posted in PS3 Reviews
- By nineinchnailed
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Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge – Special Edition is the second Monkey Island game to get an HD remake on PlayStation 3, the first being the original Secret of Monkey Island. Like its predecessor, Monkey Island 2 is given the ‘Special Edition’ treatment and like its predecessor, it really is quite special.
The original version of Monkey Island 2 was released back in 1991, so as you can imagine the graphics are very basic and look well dated by comparison to modern games.
A comparison between old and new
Thankfully, the clever folk at LucasArts have completely redrawn all the artwork, recreating all the original detail in glorious HD. The graphics, although essentially 2D, look brilliant and still manage to capture the essence of the original artwork.
Building on the success of the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island, the animation in Monkey Island 2: Special Edition goes one step further and actually adds in extra animation frames to make the character movement much, much smoother, which is a pleasant touch. The sound too has been completely redone, with high quality re-recordings of the original MIDI tracks. The only unfortunate omission is the iMUSE system, which was present in the original version but is sadly missing from the Special Edition. Revolutionary at the time, the iMUSE system subtly blended music from one scene into another, rather that sharply jump from one track to another each time you move to a new area or screen. Despite this glaring omission, the music sounds fantastic and again captures the essence of the original, highly popular soundtrack.
Largo's an even bigger berk now that he has a voice
The gameplay is similar to The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition except for one major user interface (UI) change – instead of selecting from a list of verbs and objects like before, you now have to bring up a ‘verb coin’ similar to that of The Curse of Monkey Island, which you hover over objects that you want to interact with and then select the appropriate action from there. It’s not necessarily an improvement, more a streamlining of the process, which makes it less like the original but quicker to use once you get used to it. Like all the Monkey Island games, the gameplay essentially boils down to collecting objects, talking to people and using your inventory and your brain to solve various puzzles in order to complete the game.
The new HD graphics faithfully recreate the old Scabb Island
Of all the Monkey Island games released, Monkey Island 2 is perhaps the most frequently cited as people’s favourite, and this Special Edition release holds all the charm that the original version had and more. It’s an almost text-book example of how to remake a computer game, brilliantly toeing the fine line between maintaining what people loved about the original version while updating the game to appeal to a modern audience. The only exception is the lack of the iMUSE system, which effectively drops Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge a point. Fans of the original will find this a wonderful way to rediscover an old favourite, while gamers new to the series will find a lot of enjoyment and humour throughout the game and shouldn’t miss out just because they didn’t play the original version.
