Surprisingly good but some flaws

[moomoocow]

When I first read about all the speculations about how the game would be (controls, graphics, episodical approach) I was pretty sure it could not capture the spirit of Monkey Island games and would be a huge dissapointment but fortunately Tales Of Monkey Island looks like a pretty good start for the first of hopefully many seasons.

However, as the nitpicking German I am, I still have some points I did not like about the game :

1. Textures

While the graphics itself is pretty nice I find that some of the used textures really lack some detail and color. This goes especially for floor textures but also for some walls and generally larger objects.

2. Dialogues

Like many I´d find it more appealing if Guybrush actually says what I click. It happens far too frequently that no matter what you choose he will say the same sentence.

3. Inventory

I think you should be able to combine objects more easily (like select object A and click object B). Same goes for examining objects. Also the Escape-Key should not open the game menu, this happened far too often yesterday

4. Controls

I still dislike the controls even though they are certainly better than the crap used in Grim Fandango or MI4. I still think there is room for improvement though and some (most likely) stupid idea came to my mind yesterday.

Why cant you add objects to the scene which only serve the purpose of letting Guybrush walk to that object. Kind of like visible waypoints (it should be optional to turn them on and they would not need to be more than lets say a large-enough-to-click red dot) guiding the player through the different scenes. This way it should be easily possible to allow point and click like control. The current controls are playable but it just feels a lot less enjoyable compared to real point & click adventure games.

Aside from that, great game. Now gimme that next episode!

[LukeSW]

Originally Posted by moomoocow

When I first read about all the speculations about how the game would be (controls, graphics, episodical approach) I was pretty sure it could not capture the spirit of Monkey Island games and would be a huge dissapointment but fortunately Tales Of Monkey Island looks like a pretty good start for the first of hopefully many seasons.

However, as the nitpicking German I am, I still have some points I did not like about the game :

1. Textures

While the graphics itself is pretty nice I find that some of the used textures really lack some detail and color. This goes especially for floor textures but also for some walls and generally larger objects.

2. Dialogues

Like many I´d find it more appealing if Guybrush actually says what I click. It happens far too frequently that no matter what you choose he will say the same sentence.

3. Inventory

I think you should be able to combine objects more easily (like select object A and click object B). Same goes for examining objects. Also the Escape-Key should not open the game menu, this happened far too often yesterday

4. Controls

I still dislike the controls even though they are certainly better than the crap used in Grim Fandango or MI4. I still think there is room for improvement though and some (most likely) stupid idea came to my mind yesterday.

Why cant you add objects to the scene which only serve the purpose of letting Guybrush walk to that object. Kind of like visible waypoints (it should be optional to turn them on and they would not need to be more than lets say a large-enough-to-click red dot) guiding the player through the different scenes. This way it should be easily possible to allow point and click like control. The current controls are playable but it just feels a lot less enjoyable compared to real point & click adventure games.

Aside from that, great game. Now gimme that next episode!

I strongly agree with you regarding points 2 and 3, but disagree with you regarding points 1 and 4.

[chrisff1989]

Pure point'n'click wouldn't work because of the camera angles and stuff as has already been explained. The explanation for combining being the way it is is so that the user knows it's always an option though, personally, I'd prefer if the old way was also available along with the new one.

I very strongly disagree on 2, though. Hearing the thing you just read gets repetitive and ruins jokes. It also helps them surprise you with jokes you didn't see coming.

[Laserschwert]

You can always just click an object close to where you want to walk and he'll walk there... just take over control before he reaches that object, so he won't interact with it.

But I partly agree with 2: While I don't want to have the line he'll say shown in the selection, I don't want to have him say the same line, no matter what I choose. That might work once or twice as a nice joke (I remember in MI3 the voodoo-lady offering Guybrush to show him some photo-albums of the kids, and the dialogue-choices were several iterations of "No, REALLY not.", and no matter which one you picked, he'd say "Uhm... maybe later." THAT was funny. But they shouldn't do it all the time).

[thesporkman]

Originally Posted by Laserschwert

But I partly agree with 2: While I don't want to have the line he'll say shown in the selection, I don't want to have him say the same line, no matter what I choose. That might work once or twice as a nice joke (I remember in MI3 the voodoo-lady offering Guybrush to show him some photo-albums of the kids, and the dialogue-choices were several iterations of "No, REALLY not.", and no matter which one you picked, he'd say "Uhm... maybe later." THAT was funny. But they shouldn't do it all the time).

I feel the same way. But I don't think it would have bothered me as much if it hadn't happened three times in a row for non-humorous purposes during that first conversation with Niperkins.

[Crasher86]

If you use an other way for combining items, you will have to think about the people clicking by fault the horn to brake the unbreakable glass and the U Item. I know its not so dramatical but later it could send you to redo a longer way.

I really miss the old buttons : "Use" "Give" "Talk"... and the comments if you do something really strange with the items like "Talk" with hole or "Talk" with dog --> Wuff Wuff with different answer possibilities. It was really fun speaking with a dog about le chuck.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I think you have to place items in the inventory combiner so people think about what they are doing, rather than mindlessly trying to combine everything with anything in their inventory. Obviously that is still possible, but it'll just take longer.