Was SoMI: Special Edition really an improvement on the original after all?
I personally loved the game. I thought that they improved Secret of Monkey Island in every aspect. But some people have had complaints about things like the interface being difficult to use, annoying and inconvenient, people saying the artwork was bad and that Guybrush looked awful, and then of course there are those who are really like the "blocky" look of the old, classic adventure games. So, how is your view on this? Was the Special Edition really all that much of an improvement?
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The voice acting is a good edition, but they fall flat. The voices in ToMI, EMI and Curse all have emotion - you know when Guybrush is sarcastic from the tone of his voice alone. In the Special Edition, there is no distinction. All of the voice actors sound as if they are reading from a script.
The hint system is a nice feature, but only useful to those who have never played the game before.
I would only recommend the Special Edition to those who either never got the chance to play the original SoMI, or to those whose game disks broke. If you are fortunate enough to retain a working C-D of SoMI, just download Dosbox for free instead.
I liked the fact that it finally had voices for the characters, and that most of them were the familiar voices from the later sequels. I like that consistent fact that the Guybrush, Elaine and LeChuck voices are the same as the ones they used in Tales of Monkey Island.
So the voices were definitely an improvement.
It was nice to have some HD graphics to replay the game in too. I think I would have had second thoughts about playing a low-res giant pixellated game on my 24 inch widescreen monitor...
So the graphics were an improvement, if a bit weirdly drawn stylistically...
The control scheme was a bit fiddly to use, but at least it didn't obscure the view any more. The old interface took up half the screen space! They could have made it better, but at least it works enough to complete the game.
I liked the fact that I could drop back into the original game at the touch of a button. That is one of the key features - even if you don't like the new game style, you can just play the original built-in.
This pretty much sums up what I would say about those points.
As for the controls, yes, it was annoying if you were the type of person who used the scroll wheel. Kind of how some people use click and drag but complain about it. I can't understand the type of people who complain about the verb menu, though. It's basically the exact same thing from the original, except that it doesn't take up screen space unless you push a button to make it appear. I didn't use that either, though. I'm the sort of person who just used the keyboard shortcuts for the verbs and was entirely happy with it.
As for the graphics, I loved pretty much everything except for Guybrush's head. Everything stayed incredibly faithful to the original, save for Elaine (and I never liked the original Elaine anyway, and her SoMI:SE counterpart is my favorite version of Elaine), and it was incredible to see it all updated.
Overall, I thought it was a great update to a classic game. Right now there's only two games I want to see get remakes, and MI2 is one of them, if only to hear Dominic Armato finish voicing the last of Guybrush's lines.
The other is Metroid II: Return of Samus. Zero Mission was amazing, and if there's one thing that Metroid II desperately needs, it's a map.
Sound: It felt natural, that's all I can say. I thought the original was already good, but the remake is good as well. Kinda like how I enjoy original Beatles recordings over another bands covers. Voices are nice, but they felt a bit more forced than the other games. Obviously because the script wasn't handmade for voice-actors. But it felt so familiar as well, that you didn't really think about it having voices while you played. That's testimony to how great the voice-actors in the Monkey Island games generally are, particularly Dom.
Controls - many people hated them, but I didn't mind them at all. But then again, I played the X360 version first. Have yet to complete the PC version, although I have it. They worked great on console, but may annoy me more on the PC. We'll see eventually.
I think it was a nice addition to the series, and great for those who wants to try it but can't look past the resolution and pixel-fest of the original. And it's lead to a release on the Iphone, so I know at least one game I'm getting once I get one of those. I certainly support the notion of a MI2 SE as well. Nothing will ever rock my love for the originals, and I'll still play the originals. But now I have another option for SOMI. I can play the Amiga version, which is the one I completed many years ago, or I can play one of the PC versions - VGA with the interface of MI2, or the SE. Or the X360 version. So, I really hope an MI2 SE comes as well.
I guess I'm not alone when I say I hated Guybrush's design, because he looked too much like an idiot. I mean sure, Guybrush is not Einstein, but his facial expression looked really stupid.
Adding that hair to that killed the design for me. But that's something I could overlook.
The handdrawn BGs were really nice IMO, although they look better from a distance and a little rushed when you look closer. But I like how sometimes there were little holes in the BGs through which you could see the original pixels.
The controls were OK, but I have a feeling that this xboxified interface was even more difficult for beginners to use than the original verb-and-item bar. If anything, I think a MI3-ish interface would have been good for this game. That might have come in the way of the safe-puzzle though, and I'm sure there were a few others that made a difference between different actions.
Oh well, it's not easy to come up with a good solution for everyone.
Overall, I do not regret that I bought it (for half the price on TLAP-Day), and if it was for the voices and experiencing the awesomeness that is SMI in a new way.
I've always despised the original close-ups of Elaine. Dunno why. And you can't deny that the close-up of Spiffy is an improvement.
But then again the game was less than 10€, so I really can't complain. I own CD versions of the original SMI and LCR, so I wouldn't have necessarily bought the new version if it wasn't that cheap, but I'm kind of glad that I did. I like both versions, but it was nice to hear Dominic's, Earl's and Alexandra's voices. New graphics didn't bother me and I used keyboard shortcuts for verbs like I also did with the original SCUMM games.
Agreed. I thought that the close-ups where the best looking shots in the game, in fact. I like how they also made Estevan a lot more creepy.
The item menu. Only for the pour the grog while walking to jail to free Otis. I had to switch to old school mode to do it good.
Guybrush's face.
A future improvement should be to allow voices with the old art style.
The pour the grog puzzle on the new interface was a big fat pain, otherwise i was ok with it.
Also i really wish we could of had the option to have the new voices and new music over the old visuals. I prefer the older visuals, it just looks more realistic and darker. If we gave monkey island 2 this cartoony flair i fear it would lose a lot of feeling to the game.
Did anyone notice the graphic glitch outside the scumm bar to the left on the dock walkway there is a point you can move to that puts guybrush standing over the sea making guybrush have levitation powers. In classic mode obviously there is ground at that point. Someone made a boo boo :P
I didn't find the puzzle particularly difficult. With keyboard shortcuts pouring was rather easy to do.
Agreed on all fronts.
I voted that they're "about the same."
For me, it comes down to positives and negatives sort of balancing each other out between the two. When I compare the classic version to SE, I compare the combined SE and classic modes of the SE game to the older CD version of SMI on the "Monkey Island Madness" CD which I have, which has superior music to the diskette version, because of dialogue and visual changes made to classic mode on the SE game.
Special Edition has voice-acting by the cast of Curse, which is a positive, but they changed some of the dialogue a bit, which breaks my nostalgia when it happens: Classic: "Oooh, that's nice. Simple. Just like one of mine. And little. Like mine. And it says, 'Made by Lemonhead.' ...just like one of mine!" ; SE: "Oooh, that's nice. And it says, 'Made by Lemonhead.' ...just like one of mine!") To keep the voice acting in time with the classic mode of SE, the text dialogue of the classic mode on that version was also changed.
The music for SE utilizes recordings from real instruments, which is good, but the LeChuck Theme sounds better on the old version because the lead trombone part in the SE music seems to run the notes together in a few places, instead of a better, more defined sound from the classic CD audio format.
Perhaps, if I had never played the classic versions beforehand, it wouldn't bother me at all, but one could say the same about changing the sound effects of the Star Wars:SE movies.
Also, the visual style of SE is really very well done, but the color and density of the trees on the map view of Monkey Island in both modes of SE almost give me eye strain compared to the classic game which looks better. Then we come to Guybrush. Yes, he has a better and more updated look in SE mode, but his hair looks weird and he seems to always stick his pelvis out in front of him, a la Steve Urkel from Family Matters. I always thought Guybrush to be a bit of a nerd, but he was still cool enough and carried himself well enough to win the heart of Elaine Marley. In classic mode, he looks less overtly nerdy and I like that.
And finally, the Inventory and interface in SE can be annoying when you have to pull up the action menu really quickly, like LeChuck1986 pointed out with the grog-on-the-cell-door puzzle.
Some people complain about having to use Steam to run SMI:SE, but I don't have that issue because after I bought SE from Steam, I downloaded a torrented copy that doesn't use Steam at all. Some people might question the legality of this action, but I already own the game legitimately, so getting a cracked Steam-less copy from someone on the net doesn't sound wrong to me.
In summary, yes the voice acting is wonderful, the visuals are stunning, and it's a welcome return to Adventure gaming that hopefully will bring in new fans, but Guybrush doesn't look quite right and I wish the LeChuck music was better as well as having the exact same dialogue from the old version to keep from breaking the nostalgic feel of one who has played the game a dozen or more times.
Voices and full musical score: better.
Close-ups: worse. Even Spiffy. (I love that blue dog...:()
Interface: Both.
In some ways it was nice to have the full screen taken up by the background.
In other ways it was annoying to be limited on the available interactions. Specifically regarding the inventory items the interactions were very constricting. I can't say I can think of a particular example where it was impacting, but I still liked having a full set of interactions available.
The puzzle with the grog and the mugs is terrible on the SE edition without using the shortcuts. I actually didn't even realize the XBLA version had shortcuts until someone else pointed out to me that the D-pad has shortcuts assigned to it.
In the original version (even on the XBLA old-skewl mode) I can do that puzzle with only 2 mugs. It makes me happy. The SE version just upsets me.
Oh and no offense to any of the voice actors, but some of the inflection just...really didn't seem to strike the way that I thought it should. Some of the lines seemed taken totally out of context in the way that they were said.
Oh and Guybrush's hair is just infuriating. The fact that LA thought that making his hair look like that just stands as testament that we must never allow LA to reclaim this series from us. TTG you've done us well...now make more already.
So it's better in some ways and worse in others. Overall it's nice to know that someone...somewhere...will meet Guybrush for the first time...and despite his foolish hair...will fall in love with this amazing series. :rolleyes:
Amen.
Oh, and I agree about the dialogue inflections. I noticed Dominic Armato did mess up on that at least a couple of times:
Herman: "...if they want it back, I've got to have my picker
first. It's a matter of pride, you know."
Guybrush: "Why don't you just give me the key to the Monkey Head?"
Dominic emphasizes the word "give" instead of the word "me" which makes it sound like he read the line out of context.
I never seem to notice things like that, which would probably make me worst theatre critic ever. Sure I notice if acting is as bad as in X-rated films, but otherwise I seem to be blind as a bat to acting mistakes. Worst thing is that I don't often notice mistakes in stress even if I know where to look for. (Although I'm more fine tuned to finding those things when I use my native language).
Personally I did enjoy voice acting in the game, but then again I don't have problem with things like: "He/she should be British but he/she speaks American English", which seem to annoy many movie fans and adventure gamers (I probably won't even notice it unless the accent is thick). I'm wrong person to comment this issue at all, but since I have nothing better to do before going to bed (this is first Friday in ages when I'm not in pub or party and I'm bored.) I decided to comment this.
The grog puzzle was impossible for me without switching back to original mode. I also missed the text box jokes, you know, the parrot "Fondle, molest, pet, stroke" thing... I thought that was a shame but not a huge loss.
Overall, I think it was great to have it rereleased and potentially introduce a few new people to the series.
it has both new and old version in one to make everyone happy. if you tried to run the old one on a new system, you'd have difficulty, this way you could play the old version on a new system due to compatibility. so i'm going to say improvement.
Difficulty? Any DOS emulator can run original SMI without problems.
My original version of SoMI that I've had for years (White Label Double Pack, with Monkey Island 2) always had the short version of that line, so they must've based the Special Edition on that. In fact, I don't think they changed anything at all in the classic mode except for the Grog machine - after the machine eats Guybrush's piece of eight, trying to make him put another one in will just make him say "I'm not stupid enough to do that twice." It's still possible to give all your money to Otis, though.
yeah, but it would be easier just to launch the new one, then press the button that changes the game to the old one, that's easier, dos emus are usually not straight forward, considering you have to use command line (dosbox). it's not really for the basic computer user.
Commands are really quite simple. DOSBox is actually a lot easier to use than real DOS and everyone and their mother used to have MS-DOS as their operating system. I believe that average computer users remember at least basic DOS commands from the earlier days. So it shouldn't really be a problem.
The graphics are nice, but Guybrush's sprite is really bad. The sound (both the voices and the music) are an enormous improvement though. Almost every song got a lot better. I don't like the new inerface.
IMO they should have made an option that allows you to play with the original graphics, but with voices and remastered music.
But yeah, they probably wanted the gap to look as large as possible, so it could make the new version look good. But getting the CD-VGA version on the PSP is a much better representation on how it's supposed to look.
Why are you guys even discussing DOSBox when it comes to SMI? ...That is to say, ANY game that uses the SCUMM engine, SMI included, runs beautifully under ScummVM with no problems whatsoever.
Hee Ho Ho, ScummVM is not only easy enough that a three-headed monkey could use it, but it also requires no DOS commands. All you'd have to do, in SMI's case, is copy the entire set of game files from the diskettes or CD to a folder on your PC, then "Add" a new game to ScummVM's list, browse to the game folder and click Okay. That's all.
I for one don't like the fact that ScummVM changes menus and stuff, so I rather use some other programme instead. I know it isn't probably a big thing for many, but for me it is. I don't want that emulator, which I use to run the game, changes my gaming experience in any ways, but it should be as invisible as possible while the game is on.
Besides DOSBox allows me to play practically any DOS game, so why should I have separate programmes for Monkey Island and my other old games?
Because there are games that requires Windows that ScummVM can run? And if you have those, you might as well use it for other games as well, seeing as it's simple as dirt.
Also, the only thing ScummVM changes is the menu. Yeah, the menu for load/save/quit/etc looks different. What a travesty. Besides, there are lots of games that doesn't have a new menu, like Flight of the Amazone Queen, Simon the Sorcerer 2. They use the in-game save/load/option menu.
I use Windows to play Windows games like Curse, so I really don't have need for ScummVM.
And while you're fine with losing original menu, I'm not. Small things like that sometimes annoy me so much that whole gaming experience is ruined, because game doesn't look like exactly like it did in early 90s when I first played it.
I don't know what my monitor has to do with it, but I have CRT monitor. Currently I have the third computer where I use this same monitor, so I have to say that they made it to last. I didn't believe that it would serve me a decade when I bought it, but it sure was good investment.
Art? Aside from the water effect, I thought it was really bleh. There was a lot of amateur mistakes in it. I think outsourcing the art had a lot to do with it.
I voted "No." Why? Because I think that not only SE wasn't much of an improvement to the original, it actually worsened it. First of all, things that really look improved:
1) Backgrounds. Yes, they are very nice, it's hand-painted/hand-drawn animation, sprites can't compete with that.
2) Character movement. Smooth and easy. It feels normal, instead of the original one, that felt too robotic.
3) Music and sounds. Some sounds are so-so, but in general they don't distract. Very pleasant atmosphere when you go in Scumm Bar, for example. Or the island jungle.
Now, what really bugged me about SE:
1) Characters. They look too cartonish for real life, but not cartoonish enough for games. Result: their "spriting" feels like those free online RPG games made with Flash - very amateur. Many of them lack proper drawing or design (wrong foot walking, arms going through another character, too long or too short, too tall or not tall enough, etc.).
2) Inventory. They wanted to remove the inventory from the main screen so they hided it, along with verbs, in two separate screens. Result: very hard of access. If you want to look at objects and simply grab them it's one thing, but when Guybrush has a timed delay to bring grog in the jail, changing mugs as it ate through them was almost impossible, I had to switch to the original.
3) Dialogues. Not the ones when you choose what to say. This is fine. Also, great voicing. But subtitle delay was killing me. It's just like in the original game, plus when the subtitle has to change in-game, they cut off the actor's voice and it felt simply weird. When you turn off subtitles it's the same thing, pretty much.
4) Gameplay. The prob with the whole play thing was that they decided to make a remake of the original, so they seemingly remade the whole game on the same engine, simply using today's technology to overwrite over the original. And this is what bugged me the most. When Guybrush walks and moves in/out, it feels like the original, but not in reminiscent kinda way, more like "oh jeez, not this thing again". It was all over, and that, added to many things simply inserted in the game because they felt like it would be better this way (such as the big moon at the dock, the wharf out of nowhere, etc.) Maybe it's ambiance, but seeing it as part of a remake was painful for me.
In all, I'd consider making another remake. While the idea is great, this game feels unfinished, or simple quick-made. If they gather to release a patch for all these inconsistencies, just one big file to fix it all, I wouldn't mind. But playing it like another, new game, and seeing the same dude at the bar bragging about Loom like he did 20 years ago, then remembering that it's just a remake, and then thinking to yourself "what would the guys who never played the original think of it? a 100 wtfs at least..." - it's all just too much for me.
So I'd say "No, but maybe if you'd give it another try..." if such option would've been available there.
It's a remake and very loyal to the original, so it's no surprise that there's that guy talking about Loom. Old Sierra remakes (in the early 90's) changed few jokes here and there, but nothing major. And because I haven't seen other remakes of the adventure games, besides those Sierra ones, I assumed that SMI:SE would resemble those and just be "graphics and sound patch" to the original game. And it seems that I was right with my expectations. I don't know what you expected when game did cost less than 10€ and was advertised as remake.
I wouldn't worry too much what new players think, but most feedback I have heard has been positive.
Indiana Jones trilogy. Star Wars. Aliens. Several old movies first coming to DVD etc. etc.
That's why I never buy em
Btw, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"... Don't even get me starter on this.