Telltale holds wake for Guybrush Threepwood
By Chris Park
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Heading out to San Francisco from Berkeley, Ca is always a bit of a daunting task. Braving the ever-so-annoying BART system and walking through the massive climate change that is “The City” usually pushes me towards the “not too often” category for visitation.
However, on December 2, Telltale Games hosted a nice little event they called the “Wake of Guybrush Threepwood,” which translates to, “Check out a demo of Tales of Monkey Island: The Rise of the Pirate God.”
Around 7 p.m., Telltale CEO Dan Connors thanked everyone for attending and introduced Dave Grossman, one of the original writers and programmers on the Monkey Island series, who gave an interesting eulogy for Guybrush, telling stories about their relationship over the years. It was a little difficult to make everything out, as Grossman spoke softly, but it was easy to see how the Monkey Island series gained a lot of its humor.
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After a tribute video to Guybrush Threepwood that was more of a recap of the series thus far, I headed upstairs of the Varnish Gallery and watched a demo of the new episode.
I really enjoyed the Wallace & Gromit series, but haven’t had a chance to play Tales of Monkey Island, so seeing the demo was more to see how Telltale improved on its development skills and if the new series delivers. Tales of Monkey Island: Rise of the Pirate God is the best-looking Telltale Games title yet. Even the sparse environment of the Crossroads, where Threepwood wakes up after his death, contained an interesting ambiance.
The characters, like the Boatman, all had that characteristic Telltale humor in the dialogue delivery, and the animations appear much more detailed and specific. One graphic touch that stood out was Threepwood’s ghost form. His skeleton is visible through his clothes and simply looks cool in motion.
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I only saw a few sections of the fifth episode, mainly the Crossroads and a couple sections where Threepwood escapes the afterlife and is able to possess his body for a short amount of time. But it appears that the fifth episode will close this chapter of the Monkey Island series and most likely keep the possibility of further adventures open. Since I am not too familiar with the specific story of the game, some of the conversations of the characters were lost on me, but the attention to detail that all the scenes carried was impressive.
Tales of Monkey Island: The Rise of the Pirate God released today, and after the event I plan on playing through the series in its entirety very soon.
For more info, www.telltalegames.com
