Another month, another episode in the ongoing Tales of Monkey Island saga. It goes without saying, but if you haven’t completed the previous episodes yet, you probably should avoid reading this review and looking at the pictures. I will, however, try to keep spoilers to a minimum, with the worst ones contained in this wee paragraph right here:

Here be spoilers!

In Episode 3, our hapless heores Guybrish and Winslow, and would-be assassin Morgan LaFlay, find themselves inside the belly of the giant manatee which swallowed The Screaming Narwhal in the closing scenes of Episode 2. We quickly learn that the manatee is on its way to the ancient mating grounds which are also home to Le Esponja Grande, but of course, there are a few puzzles to solve before we can make it there. We’ll learn a lot more about Morgan, as well as De Cava, and we’ll also meet up with an old friend.

You can look now!

Due to the circumstances, the majority of Episode 3 takes place in a very confined area, which severely limits the amount of “wandering around aimlessly exploring” time which usually serves to bulk out the Monkey Island games. This really shows in the game’s playtime – I’ve taken TOMI slowly and tried to explore as much as possible so far, but I found this episode to be by far the shortest at around 3 hours. There simply isn’t a great deal to do, and there aren’t a huge amount of usable items around – if you wanted to charge through it, I reckon the whole of Lair Of The Leviathan could easily be done in less than an hour.

Essentially, you talk to everyone, pick up the few things that there are to pick up, use them together in some pretty obvious ways, and you suddenly find yourself at the last part of the game before you know it.

It’s a shame, as this episode is full of charming characters, interesting and well written dialogue, and some really nice touches (including a much-needed but woefully underused combat system to rival the likes of insult swordfighting and Monkey Combat). I actually found Episode 2 a little soulless, and this was much better as far as “character” was concerned, but it seems one of my greatest fears about this series is coming true.

That is, that this was far too short, and I think the episodic nature of the game is to blame. If the first 80% of this episode were tacked on to the end of the last game, I’d have been much happier with both episodes, and Episode 3′s ending would have served as a very good opening chapter for Episode 4 (I assume – obviously I haven’t played it yet!).

The fact that we’re introduced to a combat system halfway through Tales gives me a bad feeling that it won’t be a big part of future episodes, and that would be a real shame. If it turns out to be a very small nod to Monkey Island’s past and not a clever element that’s closely intertwined with the gameplay of future instalments, I’ll be a saaaad panda.

Of course, it would be unfair to judge this episode based on wild assumptions about the future episodes, so let’s get back to what Lair of the Leviathan has to offer us now. The game is colourful and the characters are likeable and interesting, as we’ve come to expect from Tales. There isn’t a huge amount of discourse to be had in this episode (I would’ve taken the limited setting as a good opprtunity to flesh out some backstory through character dialogue and good old chitchat), but we do learn a lot more about Guybrush’s foxy nemesis Morgan LeFlay as well as De Cava, the voodoo lady, and of course, Le Esponja Grande.

To sum up my experience with Episode 3 using something as simple as a 1-10 scale would be a very difficult thing indeed, as the game has so many good and bad elements working against each other in very powerful ways. I didn’t enjoy the puzzle element of Lair Of The Leviathan as much as the other episodes, but the last part of the episode does make up for it somewhat. There are also some sorely needed classic Monkey Island moments in this game, which really set my nostalgia senses tingling.

Despite some of its more serious flaws, I’m going to go with a decidedly above average 6.5/10 for this episode based on its charm, nostalgia, and “character”. The puzzle element is childishly simplistic the majority of the time, which really lets it down, but I still couldn’t help but enjoy the overall experience, and it does redeem itself in the end if you just stick with it.

Here’s hoping for great things in Episodes 4 and 5.

(Review is of the PC version of the game)

Other TTB Posts Like This One

• Review: Tales of Monkey Island Ep4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood (PC)
• Review: Tales of Monkey Island Ep1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal (PC)
• Ask Valve About LOOM
• Review: Sam & Max: Season One (Wii)
• Review: So Blonde (PC)