Guybrush continues his quest, through a manatee…
In the third Tales of Monkey Island chapter, Guybrush gets in deep (literally!) as his quest for the voodoo exfoliating La Esponja Grande takes a scenic twist — through the guts of a giant manatee!
The first two episodes of Tales of Monkey Island have been a great success with each surpassing the other. Can the trend continue with the 3rd chapter? In true Telltale fashion it does. The episode continues where Siege of Spinner Cay finished with the ship being swallowed by a giant manatee alongside Morgan LeFlay. Inside the manatee, Guybrush finds the long-lost (and obsessive-compulsive) explorer Coronado De Cava who was also sent on the quest to find La Esponja Grande. His crew also lurks deep inside the beast, but De Cava believes them to be dead.
It turns out that the crew has formed a Brotherhood in which they want to stay inside the manatee forever, which is bad news for Guybrush who needs the creature to take him to the mating grounds where La Esponja Grande is hidden. The puzzles in this episode are fairly easy, but for those who become stuck there is a walkthrough on Telltale’s website. There is some great writing in this episode and the reappearance of a certain Monkey Island favourite, one of the screenshots below shows him…so beware if you want it to be a surprise.
In this episode we learn a bit more about Morgan LeFlay and see a few cutscenes of the Marquis De Singe with Guybrush’s hand and Elaine with LeChuck getting cozy as they release monkeys back to islands. This episode is around the same length as the second episode, but I personally think it is even better than the last. Voice-acting is great as usual and like I already said, the writing is brilliant. It seems that each episode is funnier than the last.
What’s also good is that each episode has new areas to explore. It’s not like past Telltale games where each episode has a main reoccurring area and a few new bits added on, each one has 100% new areas (so far anyway) and makes the series seem more fresh. Next month’s episode is called “The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood” so I guess he’s in a spot of bother this time next month. In terms of visuals, the game looks as good as past episodes. It doesn’t push the PC far graphically, but it does have a great animated style to it that fits the series well.
The Verdict
Lair of the Leviathan is the best episode in the series so far, but I imagine that next month’s episode will be even better. It seems that every license that Telltale gets a hold of turns out to be brilliant and this is no different. If you haven’t checked the series out already, you are missing out!
