Neat, a review with |_| a pulley in the middle.

Like meeting and old friend! Love this game.

The Monkey Island series comes with a hefty, legendary legacy and that's a double-edged sword. On one hand, as one of the most iconic gaming series of all time and one universally beloved by adventure game enthusiasts, there is some level of pressure from the developers to uphold the reputation - especially this time around as the original creator Ron Gilbert returns to helm the series (and brings with him a wide cast of returning names in both the dev team and actors). Little wonder then that Return to Monkey Island plays very well. I played it on the "hard mode" which basically just means the game has puzzles, and the gameplay achieves that good balance of making it clear to the player what the end goal of each puzzle is, but leaves enough to imagination so that finding the solution is genuinely rewarding (and in most cases, thoroughly logical - at least for the logic of cartoony adventure games). If you do get stuck, the in-game hint system is easy enough to ignore but doesn't spoil the experience if you do need to use it, and works a treat even if just to ensure you're on the right path. The presentation is class throughout from music to acting, and the (controversial?) art style only takes a couple of hours to convince the player of its unique charm and personality.

On the other hand, well, who's playing Monkey Island in the 2020s besides grizzled Monkey Island veterans? The game knows it has a legacy to live up to and an audience of passionate fans. While I imagine it's easy enough to jump into Return to Monkey Island as a complete newbie, the game is chock-full of references, nods and loving embraces of its own history, and especially the first two titles. Much of Return is intentionally like a reflection on the series' history and a proverbial final chapter (if only because who knows if Gilbert would get the chance again to work with it), and sometimes feels like a sightseeing tour of faces, places and items that would raise a smile on the faces of old-school fans. Problem is, if you're not as passionate about Monkey Island, you do get the feeling at times that this experience isn't targeted at you. I grew up in the golden age of click n point adventures but due to circumstance and coincidence never played any of the Lucasarts titles growing up, and so my Monkey Island journey has been a piece-meal catch-up effort over a few decades. They're undeniably good games but not ones that strike a passion in my heart like certain other classic (and not so classic) adventure game titles do - and there were definitely times during Return to Monkey Island where it felt like in a different lifetime my heartstrings would get tugged a lot more heavily than now, where it felt like a token of gratitude for someone else's admiration.

Tl;dr Return to Monkey Island is a tight, well-executed and excellently presented adventure game which is bound to be an enjoyable and solid ride of feel-good puzzling for fans of the genre; but if you're not a hardcore Monkey Islander, the final *je ne sais quoi* to make it truly great might just end up missing for you. If you do hold the originals to a high, personal esteem, then what are you waiting for if you haven't played this yet?