Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan Review
Thursday, Thursday, October 01, 2009 1:54 PM
Mating manatees, Morgan Le Flay, monkey faces, Murray, Monkey Island and the Middle Tale.
First, a quick point some may have been confused about (and anyone else will be just commenting to tell me to climb out of my own arse and get on with reviewing the damn game), namely why I gave a lower score than Episode 1, even though I thought the second was better.
Quite simply: the first laid the groundwork, the second built on it. The first had the tougher task and yet somehow met my high expectations, the second just improved. The Empire Strikes Back would be nothing without A New Hope. The first blew me away in a sea of newness, the second I was already expecting something good. Happy? Rest assured, if one of the following episodes totally blows away my expectations again, I'll hand out another coveted 9. If it's just slightly better or just as good, it'll hover around the 8s.
Lair of the Leviathan came close to the hallowed 9 for two reasons: incredibly inventive puzzles and Murray. It lost it for reasons I'll get to.
For anyone who doesn't know Murray, you've either never played these games before and have never visited an adventure game website or just have no interest in this computer gaming lark whatsoever. For those uninitiated to the cult, Murray is an undead skull who's always proclaiming how he's going to wreak death and destruction upon everyone and everything but is slightly hampered by the fact that he hasn't any limbs and no one takes him seriously. He was originally only down for a single appearance at the beginning of Monkey Island 3 but proved so popular that he ended up in every chapter of the game. He's still a favourite character for many Monkey Island fans for one reason: he's utterly hilarious.
And he's used to the maximum in Lair of the Leviathan, the first recurring character from the old games to appear apart from the Big Four (Guybrush, Elaine, LeChuck and the Voodoo Lady). Thankfully he's still voiced to spot-on evil perfection by Denny Delk, as frankly there'd be riots if anyone else performed him.
The other characters, fortunately, are pretty good too. Coronado De Cava, the Voodoo Lady's ex-boyfriend mentioned in the first episode, is a slightly older, madder version of Guybrush, and so is great fun. The rest of the crew fall into a few stereotypes (particularly a "surfer dude" who seems to have been taken straight from Telltale Texas Hold 'Em, voice and all), but are still good and well written. Santino's a nice hark back to Day of the Tentacle's Dead Cousin Ted too.
A particular stand-out though (apart from that pesky Uber-Skull of the Underworld) is Morgan Le Flay, who's really beginning to grow as a character in a series that's only had a few female characters since Secret of Monkey Island (and half of them were in that one). She really shows a lot of emotion here, and is continually torn between her job, her obvious infatuation with Guybrush, and her realisation that her idol isn't exactly the swashbuckling brigand she'd imagined. Whatever the next two episodes hold, I look forward to seeing more of this damsel-who-causes-distress.
If there are character disappointments, arr, there be two. Character models are once again reused, although fortunately it's getting harder to notice as Telltale are disguising them pretty acceptably now. However, the total absence of Elaine and (more especially) LeChuck after their superb roles in Episode Two is a bit harder to swallow. Still, less of them means more Morgan and Murray, and that's no bad thing.
Did I mention puzzles earlier? Ooooh, I did? Goody! This is in no way a criticism of episodes 1 and 2, but apart from De Singe's Lab all of the puzzles in Tales of Monkey Island have been very. adventure gamey. Again, not a criticism, but when you get one really inventive puzzle you start to wish for more.
Wish granted. Lair of the Leviathan has at least three, probably more, major superb puzzles that are an absolute joy to solve. For example, there's a nice spin on the Insult Swordfighting idea with face-pulling instead (a lot more complicated and far better animated than you might expect) and a manatee courting ritual where Guybrush has to play cupid. The final "battle" is a bit of a disappointment after all that, mostly because there's a lot of repetition in that one until you arrive at the right answer.
As for the story, we finally get to the middle of the Tales and I don't think anyone will be surprised that Guybrush finally finds the mysterious La Esponga Grande - and from here things will start to get a lot more interesting. Episode 3 on the other hand is more of a final obstacle than a big complex plot, but there's some nice further obstacles introduced that are caused almost exclusively by Guybrush's big mouth.
If I had one major disappointment it's one of the settings. The first half of the game is spent in a giant manatee and has only two (large) rooms to explore, and the second half also has only two (large) areas to explore, although there's a nice swivelly camera effect on the ship that I liked. And if I were feeling incredibly picky, I'd say there were a few anachronisms (yeah, yeah, Grog Machine, Starbuccaneers, I know) that just stood out because they weren't important or funny. Plastic jewellery for example.
If I were feeling poetic I'd say that Lair of the Leviathan is more of a character-driven piece, particularly that of Morgan. I'm not feeling poetic though; it's all about Murray, some damn fine and very inventive puzzles, some cute manatees, and more Murray. The minimal amount of places to explore might leave you feeling short-changed, but what you do in them will keep you occupied and entertained enough not to notice. Oh, and Best End Credits Ever.
A great middle episode and I'm eagerly awaiting the run up to the conclusion as long as there's still an ample amount of manatees in it.
Did I mention Murray?
8.5/10
Chris Capel
Read our review of Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1.
Read our review of Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2.