The Big LucasArts Playthrough

[Zeusthecat]

Yeah, the landscapes were very awesome. And it's soundtrack is one my favorites so far too.

[Trip Hazard]

Is this still The Dig? Are you enjoying it? It passed me by way back when, probably because I was only about 10 when I started playing Lucasarts adventures and it seemed awfully grown-up compared to Sam and Max and Monkey Island. I must say, I can't stand pixel hunting; even one instance of that is likely to make me ditch a game completely.

 

edit: oops, you did enjoy it and I accidentally read an old message thinking it to be the latest one. My bad.

 

double edit: Oh man, I love CoMI. Not my favourite Monkey Island game, but not far behind the second. I remember being really impressed with the graphics and voice acting when I first played it, back when it was released. Still looks great today, of course. Hand-drawn artwork never ages. Glad to hear you knocked Murray into the water, I can never resist doing that

[Udvarnoky]

Oh that's right, you did play the original versions of MI1 and MI2 - good on ya.  I don't know if the special editions bring the first two games that much more into the aesthetic continuity of the series as a whole, but I think things like the retroactively employed Bill Tiller-esque curly clouds and the voicework nudges it in that general direction.  I was just kind of curious how the progression might have played for a newcomer who started with the SEs first.

 

The interesting thing about The Dig despite the critical "meh" is that it's supposedly the most successful adventure LEC put out in terms of units sold, I think slightly behind the also record-breaking Full Throttle.  That's probably to do with the "based on an idea by Steven Spielberg" marketing hook, although you have to wonder how profitable it could have really been considering the number of years it spent floundering in production.  I think the only reason it ended up shipping despite increasing internal unpopularity was a stubborness on the part of people/person in high places who saw it as a pet project due to the Spielberg connection.  This helped make the The Dig come off as game made three years earlier than its time - basically the reason Blizzard cancelled Warcraft Adventures, which I bet would have compared favorably to The Dig, just not its contemporary, which was Monkey3.

[dium]

I was excited for you to get to CMI. It's the most nostalgic Lucas Arts game for me, or game in general. It's the game that got me into PC gaming (and led me to seek out and binge-play any older Lucas Arts games I could find). I suppose I'm outing myself as a relative youngster by saying this.

 

In hindsight, it isn't as good as the first two (MI2 is basically untouchable). But the VO is great and the game is consistently charming. I think I'm too close to the game to actually assess the puzzle design; I've replayed the game so many times that they all seem so obvious. 

[Udvarnoky]

CMI requires no nostalgic rose-tinting.  It holds up completely.

[syntheticgerbil]

Yeah, I think as a kid I may have felt CMI was better than Secret, but I think I appreciated the first game more as I got older. I think I rank Tales behind the first two now, so Curse is even after that for me.

 

CMI's heart is in the right place, but I feel it's a bit too clean and Disneyesque (in terms of the animated films, not the Pirates of the Caribbean ride) to be a full Monkey Island game. There's a personality shift with Guybrush starting with Curse and the old one doesn't really come back until Tales. I don't know what characterization EMI is, because it's all over the fucking place.

[Udvarnoky]

To a certain extent every installment after LeChuck's Revenge cannot help but be viewed in terms of how far it deviates from the aesthetics and perceived "characterization" of the first two games.  There's a satisfying cohesion with the first two that cannot ever be touched, since they were of course back-to-back productions made by the same group of people.  

The whole question of CMI's authenticity was a big deal (at least among the online fan communities) at the time but got largely redirected at EMI when it came along and was seen as a far greater offender.  By now the whole issue seems kind of moot.  CMI is kind of jarring six years after Monkey2, but now that we can look at the series as a group of five games made over a period of twenty years with sometimes massive gaps in between, I think it comes across as a reasonably organic saga.  We all have our preferences and peeves, but this series is way more consistent than it's sometimes given credit for, and the "Ron Gilbert Is God" contigent aside, the talent behind all of these games have been remarkably in-bred.  There's never truly been an installment crafted by developers outside of a certain broad family of Bay Area folks.

 

Personally, I remember being hit way harder (at the time) by how far Day of the Tentacle strayed from the characterizations of its predecessor.  That particular "controversy" tends to be a whole lot quieter because academic considerations aside, Day of the Tentacle is the far more beloved game, and the love that Maniac Mansion does get is traditionally not rooted in the memorability of its characters or story, which LEC hadn't really start to push the potential of 'til Monkey 1.  Plus I have a nostalgic relationship with Maniac Mansion that surpasses even The Secret of Monkey Island.

[syntheticgerbil]

We all have our preferences and peeves, but this series is way more consistent than it's sometimes given credit for, and the "Ron Gilbert Is God" contigent aside, the talent behind all of these games have been remarkably in-bred.  There's never truly been an installment crafted by developers outside of a certain broad family of Bay Area folks.

I suppose you are right when I ruminate on it more. I'm not really in the Gilbert is God crowd though. I just feel the series started to look a bit goofier in terms of character designs, in which CMI was always very jarring to me as a kid, and Guybrush became too nice, too much of a doormat, and became somewhat smarter. I remember when I first played Curse, I felt like Guybrush was even less than a pirate than how he started in the first game.

 

I mean it's no Prince of Persia Warrior Within and it is for sure a much more subtle difference in characterization between games in the series because many of the qualities of Guybrush are held within every incarnation to some degree.

[Zeusthecat]

I got a little bit further last night but there wasn't much in the way of puzzles after escaping from the ship so most of my time was spent exploring the island and talking to various characters.

 

Resuming from where I left off, after some more experimentation I discovered that I could use the diamond ring to cut the porthole glass, causing the ship to flood and pushing Guybrush up to the surface. After this I got to see another cinematic where Guybrush proposed to Elaine using the ring from the ship. Unfortunately the ring was cursed and when Elaine put it on her finger she turned to solid gold. 

 

After this I pretty much just combed through several of the areas picking up items and talking to characters along the way. I met up with the Voodoo Lady again and got some advice from her. While in her voodoo hut I picked up a few odds and ends (I haven't had to try using any of them yet so I can't quite recall what all the items were that I picked up) and used one of my wooden nickels to get a pack of gum. Outside of her hut I chatted with Murray again and gave him some gum. Then, after finding out that Elaine had been stolen, I started working my way through the various buildings in the city to find whatever items I could and chat with random people. The only things that have stood out to me so far are the big fat chicken in the first area, two dudes rehearsing a bastardized version of Romeo and Juliet on some stage, and a building that I keep getting kicked out of because I don't have a reservation. I'm sure once the puzzles in this area emerge and I spend more time examining everything, I'll be able to more thoroughly report on specific shit.

 

Also, now that I've put a few hours in I'm really warming up a lot more to the art style and voicework in the game. It turns out the voicework for Guybrush is pretty damn good after all. I guess it just sounded weird at first.

[thorn]

I remember finding the first act of CoMI somewhat tiresome. Perhaps it's just because there is just so much area to explore and so many characters to have long dialogue trees with, while from memory the puzzles were reasonably straightforward. I guess I prefer Adventure games when they're a little more closed and directed.

[dium]

Oh man, I feel the opposite way about adventure games.

 

My favorite two sections of any adventure game are Act 2 of LeChuck's Revenge and Rubacava in Grim Fandango. Because of how open and un-directed they are.

[syntheticgerbil]

Yeah me too, there's nothing better than a huge open area with a ton of puzzles to solve. I feel like that's when the genre is at it's finest (when it's constructed well at least). It for sure makes it more difficult and increases your chances to get stuck, but it also lends itself to game atmosphere and feeling like you are in an actual living breathing environment instead of going from corridor to corridor. Rubacava felt like an actual city with tons of areas and people to discover that just kept unlocking and revealing itself.

[Zeusthecat]

I played some more last night and now that I've spent a bit more time in the game I have a better recollection of what was in each area and which items I had picked up the night before. First, in the Voodoo Lady's hut I had picked up the gum that I mentioned earlier, a needle, some glue, and a stick with a burning ember on one end (I may have actually picked this up on the beach but I can't remember). Then at one point I had figured out that I could use the glue on the skeleton arm, so I've got that in my inventory now. In the stage area I had picked up a white glove, a magician's wand and some lice from a jacket that was hung up. I think I also got a flyer for the voodoo hut out of the jacket pocket. Then, there was a ventriloquism book that I ended up picking up in one of these areas and I have that in my inventory now too. 

 

Last night I was able to finish exploring the rest of the areas I had available to me. First I went to the barber shop and talked to each barber. Then I found an area with a marked up field and some logs. Finally, I found a Cabana with some dude at the entrance that won't let me through because I'm not a member.

 

After exploring each area, I spent a decent amount of time bouncing between them all. I eventually discovered that I could use my lice on the comb in the barber shop to trick the barber into thinking that the dude whose hair he was cutting had lice. Then the dude freaked out and ran off which means I can now sit in the chair for a haircut. Aside from this sequence I didn't really get any further.

 

I'm thinking right now that the main way forward is going to involve me somehow cutting my way through the undergrowth that is near the lemonade stand (and the lemonade stand kid is a little shit by the way). I've already received several hints from the barber that the scissors stuck in the ceiling at the barber shop are sharp enough to cut through anything, so I'm guessing that will be what I need to get through the undergrowth. So far I haven't been able to reach the scissors though. I did find that I can elevate the barber chair but the barber forces it back down before I can get it to go high enough to reach the scissors. I think at one point the barber also challenged me to a log throwing contest so maybe doing that will move me forward.

[dium]

(and the lemonade stand kid is a little shit by the way)

Voiced by the late Gary Coleman /fun fact

[thorn]

Oh man, I feel the opposite way about adventure games.

 

My favorite two sections of any adventure game are Act 2 of LeChuck's Revenge and Rubacava in Grim Fandango. Because of how open and un-directed they are.

 

I actually really love Rubacava. It feels like a real town and many of the characters have relationships that you discover as you explore. Plus, the puzzles are really good and you always know what the short and long term goals are.

 

CoMI, on the other hand, just felt like a huge unstructured pancake of a town. From memory, each individual building had its own set of puzzles - I felt like I was just checking them off the list rather than properly exploring. Plus I just didn't care about the characters - the only one I can even remember is Manny Calavera.

[syntheticgerbil]

 It feels like a real town and many of the characters have relationships that you discover as you explore.

Oh right, I didn't even consider that aspect. Yeah, the way everyone is intertwined in the goings on of their neighbors and friends in that city are very well put together. Everyone can usually tell you about someone else in town you have either already met or have yet to meet.

[dium]

CoMI, on the other hand, just felt like a huge unstructured pancake of a town. From memory, each individual building had its own set of puzzles - I felt like I was just checking them off the list rather than properly exploring. Plus I just didn't care about the characters - the only one I can even remember is Manny Calavera.

 

Ha, zing!

Intentional zing?

[Ben X]

Presumably a reference to a thing Zeus may not have seen yet...

[dium]

Oh. Wow. I forgot about that thing for a second.

[Ben X]

Frankly, this should all be spoiler-tagged up, from Thorn's post onwards.

[Zeusthecat]

I see words but I'm not processing them. I remember something about Rubacava-somethingoranother and relationships and that's about it.

[thorn]

Ha, zing!

Intentional zing?

 

Not intended as a zing, but you can interpret it that way if you like.

 

I don't think any of this has really been spoilerific. Manny's presence in CoMI is a non-sequitur rather than a plot point, and our discussion on the two games didn't involve any spoilers that I can see.

 

[SecretAsianMan]

I ironically forgot he was there until you mentioned him.

[Ben X]

I don't think any of this has really been spoilerific. It is a non-sequitur rather than a plot point.

Yeah, it was this I was referring to. I know I'm being pernickety, but if it were me, I'd prefer to experience that nice little surprise in-game rather than hear about it in this thread first.

[thorn]

I figured it wasn't a suprise because he hadn't played Grim yet.