The International House of Mojo

Throughout the review you can compare old and new, with screenshots of the locations from The Secret of Monkey Island, and Escape from Monkey Island

You want to download the Demo ?

Well here it is - all 119mb of it. There are a few different ways to choose to download it, so click here to proceed to the EMI Demo download page.

On with the Review:
So maybe you've spent the last 10 hours downloading the demo, or maybe you're just about to. Or perhaps you spent 30 minutes downloading it because you have a T3 and you can laugh at all the mere mortals with their tiny 56k modems.
Either way, no matter who you are, or what stage you are at with the demo, this review will be interesting to you, especially if you are downloading the demo now and can't wait to find out what it's like!

Inside the Scumbar

First let me just say that before you play this game, if you have a Voodoo5, or GeForce graphics card, you should read this section about getting FSAA to work, thus making the gaming experience a whole lot nicer (not mention a nice piece of eye-candy!).

We all know the plot of the game, but for those who don't: Guybrush and his new bride Elaine return home to Mêlée Island after their honeymoon. They discover that their mansion is due for demolition, Elaine is officially declared dead, and a new politician called Charles L. Charles is trying to take her place. All the while, a cunning Australian land developer is commercializing the Caribbean. As Elaine launches a emergency re-election campaign, she leaves Guybrush the responsibility to save the mansion from destruction and to travel to Lucre Island for a seemingly harmless legal errand.

Mêlée Island Map

The demo contains Mêlée Island, although some of the locations and puzzles have been removed from the demo to streamline the size, and of course (not to give away too much of the fun!) the demo restricts you from going into the International House of Mojo (Guybrush asks, "I wonder who the Voodoo Lady got to run it after she relocated to Plunder Island?" - ME ! - Spaff) or go to Meathook's Isle. The demo contains a few cracking lines and jokes like Guybrush's much emphasized use of the line "ESCAPE FROM MONKEY ISLAND!" in his conversation to Otis, or the cute way people think that he is Guybrush Marley, or what happens when you ask the dart player to hit "that guy over there."
The best part of the demo, of course, is Timmy's ("Who?" You ask... The monkey, of course! ) little dance when you complete the demo!

The Town

So, from this demo, it looks like the dialogue and humor is going to have the same wacky Monkey Island style in the full version, but now with a new Sam N Max-style twist! The demo is quite short, but still definitely worth every second.

Outside the Governers Mansion

The demo contains an introduction movie which is basically the same as the trailer LucasArts released, but with a few additions (oh, and Full screen too)! After watching this, the action begins! The vocal talent is extremely good. You'll straight away feel at home with Dominic Armato's familiar tones back in the role of Guybrush, although it'll likely take some getting used to the new American-voiced Elaine, unlike the English one from Curse of Monkey Island. The vocal talent of Boen's Charles L. Charles is also very well done. You'll be convinced by his very regal political voice while eerily spooked by the odd flange into LeChuck's voice. The voice of Ignatious Cheese is one of the best MI voices I've ever heard; it has that classical piratey flair that was missing from a lot of voices.

The Cliff walk to the mansion

One thing that did strike me is that there is lots of new music, while some parts contained old music from Curse of Monkey Island. This, however, is probably only because they hadn't got the new music finished in time to include in the demo. The Front End shipped with the demo is full of nice suprises, it features a Welcome section from the project leaders, an Overview, Hints, Legacy - which basically tells you about the previous 3 games, Survey and an Order section. If you get stuck, you can read a full walkthrough for the demo in the Hints section. If you're feeling lucky, you can fill out the survey you can be within the chance of winning a full version of the game when it's released!
The demo isn't flawless, though. The control system is buggy in a few places, but considering this is a demo, it's fairly certain the kinks will be ironed out before the final version. Either way, if you are planning to download the demo, or already are, it'll be worth every kilobyte of download time. And for those of you who have... I know you enjoyed this great trip back to Mêlée Island!

Release date:
Demo: October 6th
Full game: 17th November 2000

Requirements:
p350, 64mb ram, 3d Accelerator

Pros:
Its Monkey Island 4.
Fabulous voice acting.
Great graphics and likeness to The First games layout.
Cute Monkey !

Cons: The Town looks a little bright.
Jaggedy models without fsaa on.
Dodgy steering in places
Not many puzzles to solve.

Conclusion:
Despite the Cons, it rocks, download this demo now, you will not be dissapointed !

If you follow these links you can read about more great stuff to try out with the demo, and more screenshots!