Something I gotta get off my chest.
Chapter two was quite a disappointment for me, due to following reasons:
- The puzzles were much, much too easy. The only place, I got stuck, was finding the damn bucket.
- Mermaidfolks? There where not funny at all, they all look the same and behave the same, no character at all, all are friendly and peaceful. Apart from that, in my opinion, they don't really fit the MI-series. The supernatural in MI is about spooky Carribean legends, that lure in the jungle or under the sea, not about another intelligent race, that lives peacfully at some island and is known to the general public.
- The pirates look the same, like the persons of Chapter one and they're not interesting, funny or building up any sort of tension. And again, none of them has a character, they are just ill-tempered, but they seem more like puppets of the curse, than actual persons.
- I did not like the look of Spinner Cay. Looked too smooth and cartooney, like a Disney background.
- more places to go? excuse me? Did you mean the jungle or the few beaches? The only new "places" were Spinner cay and DeCava's shack.
- hide the parrot in the chest and then search the small islands? Of course I thought of it, but the sollution is plain nonsence. You don't get to know, if the two pirates burry it at another island, they could as easily bury it at some of the beaches of the island, they are on. The parrot says it's line e-ve-ry 5 minutes. Don't they notice that themselves? Why don't they wonder, why the chest is speaking, goddammit?
- Though a funny adventure is everything apart from realistic, I didn't like the fact, that the mast was replaced in 2 seconds, without the mareperson being payed.
- Running with the melted pyrate and then pouring it off the cliff exactly in the turtleform? Again, realism is not to be seeked for, but still. This 'try to get to the destination in as little screens as possible' was never too good a solution for a problem.
- Why did you do the talking to LeChuck part, when it is no puzzle? Why, Telltale? It could have been such a good puzzle, this would have washed the chapter clean of everything else. You just have to give him the pearl, which he obviously has to use with the seahorse and tell him to do so. It could have been so much funnier, if he doesn't get it and you have to fool him in order to get him to do, what is obvious.
- the game was way too short? Chapter one and two had (like S&M season 2) following structure:
a short puzzle; two long puzzles, mostly consistend of three parts and a short puzzle in the end. The Siege of Spinner Cay did not have those two long puzzles, instead it had two short ones and the last one wasn't really a puzzle, for it was way too easily handled.
And Chapter three!
- New faces! Not the same, as in Chapter 1. And DeCava looks great. Everyone has ten times more personality, than the characters in Chapter two (except the main characters of course).
- The backgrounds were marvelous, the look of the intestines you slide through, the way "The Screaming N." has its mast inside the manatee's ear, Guybrush's movements underwater, the manatee-models, not to mension the wonderfully athmospheric green flashes, coming from Reginald Van Winslow, having locked himself in the hopelessly stranded ship.
- puzzles again! Though every puzzle was fairly easily solved and I rarely had to stop and ponder, the puzzle ideas were amazing. Using the locket and collecting facial expressions and remembering the details of reviving Morgan were splendid. They were as good as the puzzle in DeSinge's lab in Chapter 1, which had been the best puzzle so far.
- All the cut scenes gave this Chapter a cinematic feel. The camera-movements were much better, than in Chapter 2.
- While Chapter two felt like a side story, that is not important for the main one, and is only initiated, because the infested pirates are slowing Guybrush down, this Chapter affected the main characters in much broader sence and the player got lots of background information, like meeting the former love of the voodoo lady or getting to know Morgan better.
- The end was wonderful, having the manatee eat DeCarva's ship again and having Murray fall into a chest again was wonderfully ironic.
- The unforeseen twists of the story reminded me of older MI games: DeCarva capturing Mo and Guybrush, Guybrush joining the mutineers, them turning against him, DeCava joining up with them and Morgan turning against Guybrush again.
I could go on, but feel, that I stated my point.
Chapter two was allright, but after the promises of the first one (the pox spreading, Guybrush being infested, LeChuck and Elaine getting close and a headhunter after Guybrush), Chapter two did not much to progress these pressing issues, they remained more or less the same. The only new stuff was, that Elaine is infected too, we get to meet Morgan and Guybrush gets his hand chopped off (thank you for that, by the way).