Formal Evaluation of By Pete Kinnunen Basic Information The Company LucasArts The Author Ron Gilbert Type of Game Interactive Fiction Price 14 99 That s with the sequels System Specifications MS DOS 5 0 or higher 386 33 DX 486 recommended 1 Mb EMS required 2 Mb EMS recommended Mouse 256 color VGA MCGA SoundBlaster and 100 compatibles Adlib Roland MT 32 Game Overview What is the Secret of Monkey Island You play as Guybrush Threepwood a man who wishes to become a pirate He has to complete three trials which in turn lead him to the love of his life Regretfully she is kidnapped by the Ghost Pirate LeChuck and you have to save her Installation Originally installed via floppy and run though DOS It was provided with the third instalment of the series The Curse of Monkey Island Requires you to install Curse of Monkey Island and you are given the option to play any of the first 3 games Artwork and Sound The graphics are your basic 256 colors nothing to impressive for today s date Still they hold up fairly well and portray what they intend to The sound is your basic MIDI soundtrack simple ambience music and some sound effects User Interface Provided with a screen showing your environment and a panel containing dialog actions and inventory Game Play Using your environment and available actions you attempt to solve puzzles which will progress the storyline Example Using Look at command with the chicken in your inventory provides a description What makes it fun The Secret of Monkey Island is designed to be humorous Much of the dialog and interaction with the environment is absurd Certain themes continue throughout the game becoming a running gag What makes it fun One Example To win a sword fight you must be able to win the battle of wits via insults One Exchange I got this scar on my face during a mighty struggle I hope now you ve learned to stop picking your nose And the first insult comeback you learn becomes a running joke You fight like a dairy farmer How appropriate you fight like a cow How it compares Outdated It is from 1990 so the graphics are good for their time but a tad bit outdated for the current market Interaction Most puzzles have only one solution and very few changes per run through Overall though This game is a classic for the genre and the humor carries over to this day Summary Strengths Witty dialog creative puzzles unique look at the life of a pirate Weaknesses Older graphics not to many differences per run though Improvements The sequels have improved on the graphics engine and made the puzzles still difficult but more logical
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