Note: This review is based on the version found on
the Monkey Island Madness CD. This review was also written without the Monkey
Island 2 SoundFont.

I once read in an interview (circa
1991) with Ron Gilbert (creator of Monkey Island 1 and 2) that he
believed CD-ROMs would never be popular (he referred to their slow loading speed).
You really have to wonder about his decision-making with a comment like that,
and you have to wonder even more after playing Monkey Island 2. What’s
with the sudden inclusion of arcane puzzles? Why the hell does the game go breakneck
speed to the end when it slogs through the story in the middle? All these questions
and more (like how to find true happiness) are included in this here review.
Guybrush Threepwood is back again, and this time around is searching for
the mysterious treasure called (drum roll, please) Big Whoop. Already having defeated
LeChuck and becoming a pirate, he assumes it’ll be smooth sailing on his
new voyage. He only has a few things standing in his way–namely he’s stuck on
a strange island run by pirates, has no boat, no map to the treasure, and recently
lost all of his material possessions to LeChuck’s former right-hand man, Largo
LaGrande. Not to mention the fact that Largo has stopped all pirates from setting
sail, in effect ending all hopes of Guybrush ever reaching the Big Whoop.

Of
course, Guybrush does overcome these obstacles (otherwise, there wouldn’t be a
game) with the help of some good old voodoo magic. Now that he can leave, Guybrush
sets sail to find the four map pieces that will let him find Inky Island, the
resting place of the infamous Big Whoop. The four pieces of map are distributed
on three islands: Scabb Island, the one you started on, Booty Island (which happens
to be run by none other then Elaine), and the oppressive dictatorship of Phatt
Island.
It is at this point where you really start to question Ron Gilbert
idea’s for the future of the Monkey Island series. The plot of the game
slows down to a snail’s pace once you start to explore the three islands, as you
slog through puzzle after puzzle with very little return in the way of story advancement.
But once you have completed the three islands, the game picks up at an insane
speed and hurtles itself into an anti-climatic conclusion. It’s like going down
one of those lazy rivers at a water park, only to find that at the end there’s
a 50-foot plunge. Funny thing is, Ron said in that same 1991 interview that they
had to cut out six or eight scenes to fit the game in floppy format (that’s probably
why the story had such an odd pacing). If only he had believed in the future of
CD-ROMs!

Another low point in the story is the ending. It’s so odd, you’ll
have to play the end sequence again just to understand what happened on screen.
It’s probably the most god-awful ending I’ve ever seen in a game, and it really
kills the entire atmosphere and mood of the game. Overall, I would give the
plot a C for its off-kilter pacing and a downright horrible ending.

Luckily,
though, the game’s artists did an excellent job. It is a definite improvement
over the first Monkey Island game, The Secret of Monkey Island. Sure,
it still has to deal with the horrible resolutions of DOS, but it conveys the
sense of coming from a oil painting instead of some computer art program. The
characters themselves are also a lot more lively, as their extensive body gestures
imply. This is taken to the extreme in many instances, with cartoony-looking bulgy
eyes and the like (more so than the occasional ones in MI1).

While
on the subject of oil paintings, gone are the strange cinematics and talking sequences
that use strange, realistic portraits of characters instead of keeping the whimsical
style of the in-game graphics. There are indeed small cinema scenes, but none
of them includes any portrait of a character and instead they focus on the action
(when Guybrush lights a match, for example, it only shows his hand lighting the
match), retaining the feel of the in-game graphics. Strangely, however, Guybrush
looks too cool to be pulling off some of the dorky pirate antics they make him
do. Graphics get an A- since Guybrush’s new look doesn’t strike me as quite
right, but the overall quality is well beyond the already high achievements of
MI1.

Ron’s previously noted comments really baffle me in the audio
and music department. There never was a talkie version of this game, nor was there
ever a redone score like that in MI1 (which strikes me as odd since you
would think they would have done the same thing for both games). What MIDI music
is in the game is well-done, but it’s sparse and happens only at somewhat dramatic
moments (nothing that can even be remotely considered ambient). Let’s face it,
MIDI can’t touch CD audio with a ten-foot pole unless it’s on a Amiga. The sound
effects, on the other hand, are whiny bleeps and pings that are always used in
the places that you’ll be spending the most time (meaning you can’t get away from
the horribly insane noises). Occasionally, the sound effects actually do help
immerse you in the game, but whenever there’s a parrot squawking on screen, it’s
time to shut off the PC speaker. Music earns a B even though it is a bit
on sparse side. Sound effects, however, barely earn a D for being downright
annoying.

Finally, we arrive to the meat of any adventure game (next to
story of course)–the puzzles. Scabb Island has the most logical puzzles of the
three island areas. However, once you hit the other two islands in search of the
other map’s pieces, things get downright silly. You always know what you need
to do, but that isn’t the problem. The inherent problem is what might seem a perfect
solution is not, because you forgot to do some arcane thing. I mean, who would
think of using green beer anywhere but the grog-drinking competition with the
old man on Booty Island (what it is used for instead makes absolutely no sense
at all)?

Once you do get past the three-islands stage, you are faced with
a flurry of easy puzzles, which lead up to the final showdown with LeChuck (which
would actually be quite clever if it wasn’t for his previously sporadic appearances).
The puzzles are oddly paced and have more to do with another M-titled series than
they have to do with Monkey Island. The uneven quality gets the puzzles
a grade of C-.

This game as whole is a decent package, but it can’t
even hold a candle to the brilliance of Monkey Island 1. The creators conveniently
ignored the ending of MI2 in The Curse of Monkey Island (MI3),
and it’s a good thing, too, because the Monkey Island series wouldn’t even
be worth fighting for if future episodes had to go down the same offbeat road
as MI2.

Final Grade: C+

System Requirements:

Macintosh:O/S
version 6.0.7 or higher
16 MHz 68020 or higher
2 MB RAM
256-color, 13″
or larger display