The Monkey Island series was one of the first point-and-click adventures I played, and so is legendary to me, just like it is for most people that played it. However, replaying the first 2 games today seems a little boring and has noticeable flaws. The first game had a simplistic plot, clunky interface, lack of clarity of objectives at times, and long travel times between locations; all mean it hasn't really stood the test of time. The design philosophy in Monkey Island 2 is that everything aims to be bigger (and hopefully better).
This Special Edition remaster adds voice acting and a new graphical polish, and adds some "Quality of Life" improvements unlike the Special Edition of the first game. You can play the game purely with the mouse, with click and hold bringing up a context menu, right click to examine, and both mouse buttons highlighting interactable objects. You can switch between the new and old graphical styles at any time. When I played Monkey Island 2 back in the late 90's, I thought the graphics looked worse than the first game; there might be more pixels and colours but it lacked clarity. In this Special Edition, since you can switch between the new and old graphics, you can see how bad they really were. The clarity of objects seems far worse than the first game, and the new style makes them bold, and also enlarges some of them.
In the original release, despite the increase in graphical presentation from the first game, they got rid of the close-up character portraits when speaking to certain characters; which is disappointing. The voice acting is great to hear since they got the proper voice actors for the recurring characters like Guybrush, Elaine, Le Chuck, Voodoo Lady, Wali and Stan.
After Largo La Grande shakes you down for money and you learn he is stopping ships leaving the island, you decide to make a voodoo doll of Largo and scare him away. This introduction shows you what to expect throughout the game; where some areas/items are easy to miss and some sub-objectives are unclear. Once you finish Act 1, you then can travel between 3 islands to find 4 map pieces. The puzzles mean you need to grab an item from one island to use in another. So there is naturally a lot of travelling back and forth even if you know the optimal route. Since you won't have a set plan and know the optimal route without following a walkthrough, you will be constantly going back and forth as you try and work out what to do, and can easily miss items or areas, leading to more aimless travelling.
For some solutions, I remember them from when I originally played it. Some didn't quite make sense or I felt like they needed a stronger hint. Instead of reaching for an online walkthrough, this Special Edition does have an in-game hint system. You press H for a text prompt with increasingly helpful hints, and directional arrows to get you in the correct direction. These mainly seem context sensitive so you had to be in the correct location for it to show hints. Therefore there are times where you aren’t sure where to be and the hints just keep reminding you of the overall objective but not where to go for a sub-objective.
This game also has a larger inventory with many useless items just acting to throw you off. Or maybe you have used them but they stay in your inventory as if they are still of use.
I quickly became frustrated when I initially played this in the late 90's. A problem I had back then is that despite the supposed increase in graphics, some items are difficult to see so requires some pixel hunting at times. I remember not knowing you can climb through the ship window to get to the kitchen. Then once there, it was hard to see the knife that you needed. In the new graphics, the knife is very large rather than a smudge of a few pixels.
An infamous puzzle in this game is that there is a pump that you activate using a “monkey wrench”. The ridiculously silly idea of using an actual monkey as a wrench could still work if there were more hints that a wrench is what you actually need, but I think Guybrush just remarks at how odd the pump is. It’s also lost in translation because I believe only Americans use the term “monkey wrench”.
Another example of a lack of clarity is acquiring Largo’s laundry. I thought there was an implication that you just needed his ticket. Or alternatively, his dirty room should have plenty of clothes, but there’s nothing to pick up. You have to dirty his clothes first, but how do you do that when you don't know where he is? I suppose he should return to his room at some point which is what the game assumes you’d expect. Then you put a bucket of mud above his door but there was no hint you could put something there. You don’t see where Largo puts the ticket, but he has put the ticket behind his door for some reason. How would you know to look there? When you do claim his laundry, you’d expect to be given his t-shirt but actually get a bra which makes you think it’s not his and more work is required.
I was also annoyed when you find the mayor of Phat Island and despite being asleep, you can’t take the book from his bed as he always stirs. However there is also a bell that keeps ringing and food comes down the contraption so it's like he isn’t actually asleep. You’d expect that you have to put him into a deeper sleep by fiddling with the contraption but all you are required to do is swap the book for another. But why doesn’t that cause him to stir when you reach for it now?
The spitting contest had a lot of steps to complete and I didn’t even understand why I needed to complete it. The steps also seem to rely on information you have learned much earlier, and part of it also relies on timing based on wind you may also not have noticed. Once I had the trophy, it didn’t occur to me that I could sell it. So you do all these steps and then realise why you need to do so; to earn money.
The game has great humour, utilising a lot of sarcasm, wit, and slapstick. Guybrush seemed well meaning in the first game, but here he seems more of a psychopath, intentionally causing damage/hurt/inconvenience for many along the way. There’s more fourth wall breaking, references to other Lucasfilm properties.
The overall plot is Guybrush wanting to find more treasure and have more pirate tales to tell. One noticeable flaw in the plot is that Guybrush could stop Largo from leaving with Le Chuck’s beard but doesn't do so; purely for the plot to happen. Largo then uses it to revive Le Chuck into a zombie pirate. The ending seems to go for a dream/imagination ending but then hints that it might be real after all. Return to Monkey Island was supposed to clarify the ending but then twists it then also goes ambiguous again.
Monkey Island is a key series in the point-and-click genre. This version was a bigger adventure, and the areas were more consistent in quality. However, there's some unclear objectives, and some tedious backtracking which slows the game down. The Special Edition is a good way to play since you get voice acting, the option of the new or old graphics and quality of life improvements.