Monkey Island 2 Remake

[Udvarnoky]

2. At least some of the dialogue from Easy Mode was recorded by the voice cast!

 

I'm betting they printed a big ol' extract of all the dialog lines in the source code and recorded them to cover all bases. I'm trying to think of other dialog that would have been exclusive to Lite Mode. I know that the beleaguered Man of Low Fiber cries out for Muenster Monster's help after you saw off his peg leg. And there's the discussion between Wally and Guybrush over the acid pit.

[KestrelPi]

They HAVE to get it at least 99% right.

 

They did.

[Rosefull]

Hmm, I'm having a strange problem with the spitting competition. When I blow the horn and try to move the flags, Guybrush always says "Cheat? With everyone watching?" He refuses to do it for some odd reason. Am I missing something? I am a little rusty at this game.

[anothercustard]

You have to do it really quickly once you've blown the horn.

[s-island]

Yeah, the timed puzzles are messed up. Walk as close as possible to the flags before blowing the horn, then quickly click on them as the spitting contest guy walks off the screen.

[Rosefull]

Hmm, okay, I'll keep trying; maybe I'm just not doing it fast enough.

 

Thanks guys!

 

EDIT: Jeez! I've been at this for like a half hour! I CANNOT move that damn flag fast enough. I must be really slow. Heh.

 

EDIT2: Ah-ha! Got it. Well, that was an ordeal.

[SyntheticGerbil]

1. You could still get the Ash-2-Life and revive him in Easy Mode (Which I never even considered, but am so going to try out now )

 

That's very interesting. I've never actually tried that in the original game. Good find!

[Rosefull]

Every timed puzzle in this game is obscenely fast. Do you think they did it on purpose, just to make it hard? Or was it an error?

 

I'm at the last part of the game now, and I'm having a lot of trouble doing everything I need to do before LeChuck shows up and zaps me.

[The Tingler]

Error I think. One tip though - for the Spit Contest and various LeChuck things - instead of manually choosing the action by holding down right mouse button, just right-click. This does the default action.

[Rosefull]

Cool, thanks! I managed, haha. I actually did some parts in classic mode, just because I could access it fast enough with the little inventory display.

 

I eventually got through it though, yeah. And I must say, now that I'm old enough to appreciate it, I can really see why people call this game a masterpiece! It was an 11/10 on the awesome scale, and I had a lot of fun playing it. I'm going to do a second runthrough tomorrow with commentary, heheh.

[ThunderPeel2001]

However, the one thing I couldn't do is use Root Beer on LeChuck at the end of the game. Even though it says 'Use' from the inventory, when you go to click it on LeChuck it transforms to 'Give' and nothing happens.

 

That's REALLY bad.

[Snugglecakes]

Finally have it. It's awesome. The interface is probably the best interface I've seen yet. It really works. This is so much better than the first SE. The art is really nice, I even love Woodtick. The music is great too, and iMUSE works... most of the time. It's not as seamless as in the original but not bad at all.

 

It all has a really nice feel, this could end up being my favourite version of MI2, whereas the first SE doesn't do the original justice. I just really, really hope they get a patch out to fix all the bugs, and I still think the intro is very missing. It's mostly a quality control thing, which is very poor indeed.

 

Like has been said, anything timed is way too fast. Not just puzzles, even in Phatt's room, the feeding tubes are meant to go for much longer than they do in the SE. The animations and dialogue are fine, but it's like some kind of timing of events in the background is going at more than double speed.

 

While the good stuff comes out on top this time, unlike in the last SE, it still needs a patch to make it truly great.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Glad that you're enjoying it, but I have to add something that perplexes me: On the subject of interfaces, I'm totally bewildered why they didn't just use the one from Curse of Monkey Island. That, to me, is the greatest adventure game interface ever created, the pinnacle of point and click (before it went all 3D) -- and it's theirs for the taking(!). So strange that they didn't use it.

[Udvarnoky]

It is pretty similar to it, though. And I agree, the Throttle/CMI interface holds up well - I guess that's why Bill Tiller uses it with literally no change for his games. I'm also a fan of the uber-streamlined "one click does all" approach of The Dig and early Telltale, but in MI2's case they had to preserve all the unique dialog responses for the different verbs.

[ThunderPeel2001]

But what about the inventory? I can't seem to access it without pressing I on the keyboard.

[SyntheticGerbil]

It is pretty similar to it, though. And I agree, the Throttle/CMI interface holds up well - I guess that's why Bill Tiller uses it with literally no change for his games. I'm also a fan of the uber-streamlined "one click does all" approach of The Dig and early Telltale, but in MI2's case they had to preserve all the unique dialog responses for the different verbs.

 

A lot of the dialog choices are still accessible in the SE I noticed, but you can only do it before you pick the object up. So usually what will happen is all of the unique responses will be available at first (such as opening the spyglass) but once you pick it up, you no longer get the option for unique responses because of the two control inventory.

 

Every timed puzzle in this game is obscenely fast. Do you think they did it on purpose, just to make it hard? Or was it an error?

 

I'm at the last part of the game now, and I'm having a lot of trouble doing everything I need to do before LeChuck shows up and zaps me.

 

Hey for those having problems with the timed puzzles, I have some important tips here to get around the frustration.

 

The horn blowing puzzle for the spitting contest is the only one that doesn't have an alternate way to get around. For that, like everyone said, you just have to blow the horn right next to the flags and pick them up ASAP. I found this easier on the PS3 version in the newer mode if that's any help.

 

For nailing Stan in the coffin, you can just use the nails on the coffin before even shutting the lid when Stan first gets inside it. All that happens is Stan shuts it for you and then Guybrush automatically nails him in. Very easy to do this way and doesn't require much manuevering.

 

For LeChuck at the end, I can confirm you CAN spray him with rootbeer. I couldn't seem to get this to work in the new mode but I was able to use it on him in classic mode. I switched to the SE very quickly and the Guybrush dialog and animation for spraying LeChuck is all fully there.

 

To do both the hankie and the root beer simply, just use the coin from the Grog machine, like you are about to give him the wedgie. This gives you more than enough time to do all the interactions.

 

I know none of this is still an excuse for the timing being screwy, but those are great tips for getting around what almost seems like game stopping bugs.

 

Also I finished it yesterday. I'm overly satisfied, really the worst voices were just for the Bone Song alone. I'm not sure why they thought having the characters sing it really bad and waily was appropriate at all. I think it would have just been more successful to sing it well and keep it danceable, like the original. What's the sense of making it sore on the ears?

 

For those sort of upset about the Sam and Max cameo being removed,did you notice that they still drew Sam in the remake? His head is still behind Purple Tentacle, just a little darker. I thought that was pretty neat.

 

And inexplicably, I'm currently in 7th place on the PS3 leaderboard for my speed run. I guess I was pretty efficient. I'll probably be ousted out soon enough, but it feels neat to be so far up out of 1000+ entries so far.

 

Last thing here, I got a hilarious bug, but I wasn't able to reproduce it. I tried briefly bug no big deal. So when you are sitting down to drink with Rapp Scallion, if you hit the direct control at the right time, you can move Guybrush around the room with his drinking animation in a loop. It even plays the sound effect in a constant loop. I was able to exit the front door and then float around Rapp Scallion's lawn drinking. When I left to the map, it stopped though. I was kind of hoping to drink around all the islands.

[Rosefull]

Ooh, I never thought of using the quarter to do the other stuff. I should've done that; I just kept trying until I finally got it fast enough.

 

Congrats on your speedrun placement!

[Monkey Mania]

But what about the inventory? I can't seem to access it without pressing I on the keyboard.

 

Middle Mouse Button

[simonsoup]

Middle Mouse Button

 

Oh - I've been playing it on my laptop with a two-button keypad and it did seem unintuitive that the 'I' key was part of the core interface. It's close to a perfect full-screen interface, but when the perfect one (CoMI) was right under their nose, I agree with others that it's a little odd.

 

Still, it's a breeze to play this SE and last time the classic mode came off far better, so well done LucasArts-of-today.

[LordTrilobite]

For LeChuck at the end, I can confirm you CAN spray him with rootbeer. I couldn't seem to get this to work in the new mode but I was able to use it on him in classic mode. I switched to the SE very quickly and the Guybrush dialog and animation for spraying LeChuck is all fully there.

 

Last thing here, I got a hilarious bug, but I wasn't able to reproduce it. I tried briefly bug no big deal. So when you are sitting down to drink with Rapp Scallion, if you hit the direct control at the right time, you can move Guybrush around the room with his drinking animation in a loop. It even plays the sound effect in a constant loop. I was able to exit the front door and then float around Rapp Scallion's lawn drinking. When I left to the map, it stopped though. I was kind of hoping to drink around all the islands.

Oh? I didn't have any problems with the rootbeer in SE mode.

And Rapp Scallion is the one who owned the weenie hut and left the gas on. And of course that bug will only work on the consoles since there is no direct control on the pc.

[Rosefull]

I just discovered this on my second playthrough, but those actions that apparently couldn't be done to an object after it was picked up (opening the telescope, etc.) can be done in classic mode, even after it's in your inventory.

 

Dunno if anyone has said this yet or not -- and I'm too lazy to hunt around and check -- but there it is.

 

Random edit: Anyone else notice the Grim Fandango cameo in Phatt's mansion?

[Scapetti]

Anyone else notice the Grim Fandango cameo in Phatt's mansion?

 

I've mentioned this 3 times now XD

[SyntheticGerbil]

Oh? I didn't have any problems with the rootbeer in SE mode.

And Rapp Scallion is the one who owned the weenie hut and left the gas on. And of course that bug will only work on the consoles since there is no direct control on the pc.

 

Oops, yeah I mean Rum Rogers' place. I always get those two mixed up even though it's obvious who Rum Rogers is.

[Rosefull]

I've mentioned this 3 times now XD

 

Oh, my bad. Haha.

 

EDIT: Okay, I've got another random comment. Did anyone else really love the woodsmith's voice? I dunno what it was, but there was just some quality that made me want to just listen to him talk over and over again. He should do like books-on-tape or something.

[ThunderPeel2001]

And of course that bug will only work on the consoles since there is no direct control on the pc.

 

I believe someone already posted that direct control is available with a controller plugged in.

 

Monkey Mania: Middle mouse buttons aren't standard, and it doesn't work with my mouse, sadly.

 

Got to say: The voice work is generally awesome, and a million times better than the original SE!