Return to Monkey Island (2022)

Guybrush's new adventure is every bit as fun as his previous ones. This is a triumph of a game that manages to live up to exorbitant amounts of expectation and ticks every box.

On the whole, I had a really great time with Return to Monkey Island. I think it hits a lot of the right notes fairly consistently, and while it does feel very familiar, there are enough surprises to keep things interesting and rewarding as you stick through the game and see it to completion. What it doesn’t do (and I don’t think it’s trying to), is recapture that feeling of playing the original games for the first time. It’s a great vehicle for getting yourself back into the headspace of those games and immersing yourself in the lore again, but for everything that’s familiar, there is a lot that’s different, for better or worse. And, it’s also still an adventure game, which these days is something you need to be in the mood to play. Having grown up playing them, I’m nearly always up for this, but it’s just a different pace and feel from so much of what else we play nowadays. You can feel Return to Monkey Island trying to find its place in the current landscape, and in many ways I think the game is a success. It’s true what they say, you can’t go home again. Return to Monkey Island knows that, and it’s there to help you embrace that fact.

Like the older but wiser cast of characters, the puzzling gameplay has matured, taxing your wits, but not your patience, never leaving you so bogged down with frustration that you can’t enjoy the comedy. Some gaming franchises age like milk, some age like wine, but Return to Monkey Island has aged like the finest bottle o’ rum.

After more than thirty years it's so nice to have the original developers Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman and the team bring the originality and charm of the first games back for this last outing. There's actually quite a touching note that becomes available after completing the game that goes into some details about the development of Return to Monkey Island and it really does just feel right (perhaps more for us older gamers who grew up with it than people just joining it now). If you were a fan of the original game/s then absolutely grab a copy… it's a nostalgic joy and will warm your heart better than a bottle of Rum.

Return to Monkey Island is above all a return to the origins of the series. They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice, but Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman managed to create an experience that in every way evokes the feelings conveyed by the original titles. Let's hope that Guybrush's adventures (these new adventures) don't stop there! We suspect that there are still many stories behind this infamous secret!