Alt+F40: Return to Monkey Island doesn’t live on nostalgia alone & Thief is back! It’s just called differently
Hey, hello, hi! I think we’ve come to the end of the summer doldrums. It’s not that there weren’t many games, but you can see a certain amount of heat in the industry from May to mid-September, during which little happens apart from relatively uncontroversial releases. Maybe that’s why many will remember the summer of ’22 as the time of the leaks. Otherwise there wasn’t much going on, and when hacker Rockstar pulls down their GTA 6 pants and an influencer breaks a Ubisoft NDA under an anonymous handle to… I have no idea why, then it echoes all the louder through the net. I could well do without this creature. It demoralizes teams, creates false impressions, and generally makes work harder for people who should be able to focus on other things. After all: Nice, the gesture that other developers showed some popular works in early stages out of solidarity.
What else is happening right now? Well, after two years of Corona caution and swimming courses that were canceled without replacement or completely booked out, our five-year-old can finally make his first experiences with experienced swimming coaches in a children’s group. This was long overdue and it is a great pleasure to watch him proudly making his first experiences in the water. And the little one? He is an archetypal two-year-old who is just recognizing and verbalizing the first connections and who regularly behaves ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE. For example, when he has a nervous breakdown because you get wet while bathing and scream so loudly that the entire street gets something out of it. Unfortunately, he’s insanely cute at the same time. Tuesday we left the house with the most intense rainbow we have ever seen. Whereupon a “A Röhnbohng! Now I’m happy!” kidnapped. You know how they wrap you around their finger…
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Gloomwood: The best thief you’ve never played
Apologies if the current installment has a strong retro vibe, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t at least say a few words about an insanely cool discovery: Gloomwood has been in Steam Early Access for about two weeks and I’ve got myself hard on this game. The stealth title makes no bones about the fact that it’s maximally influenced by Thief, dishing out exactly the predatory stealth gameplay in intricate, sinister environments that you’d expect. In addition, in a look that could come from a PC built in 1998.
And I know that on the occasion of the Shadow Man Remasters I once lamented a “lost generation of games” because I now have serious problems with the graphics of this era. But Gloomwood plays and controls absolutely contemporary – and with its angular polygons, of course, fishes my love for the original in spirit. It doesn’t bother so much here, although I’m pretty sure that this look disguised as a stylistic decision doesn’t have what it takes to be anything more than a gimmick. Well, more would probably not be possible from such a small team anyway, which is why I gratefully accept the well-designed game environments that Dillon Rogers and David Szymanski put here for me. You don’t get games like this every day anymore.
In fact, the two probably even pull a good pinch of enraptured horror from the hulking guards, who stalk their rounds with grating voices, spotlight eyes and oversized Tim Burton top hats. Dealing with darkness, which is often just black here instead of just the dark blue or gray version of a level, also does a lot for the atmosphere. The rest is a typical immersive sim of the more classic and straight-forward variety, with lots of neat secrets if you dare to look around every corner. You can rarely be sure what’s coming next, and I found that extremely refreshing this week.
The most important thing of the week week 38, Alex Edition
In rotation: Next to The Excavation of Hob’s Barrowwhich I’m currently on the home stretch for and whose review you’ll be reading next Wednesday, I’m playing with great interest right now dome keeper, which was developed by a Dresden couple. I can’t say anything yet. But you could take a look at the demo on Steam… You’ll read more about that next week from me. Otherwise are straight Moonscars and There is no Light wandered onto the platter, both of which look quite nice. Ah! And I’m trying to get one Rhyme on WWI: Isonzo close. Also, we’ll be over next week Shovel Knight Dig have to speak. at Better Call Saul I’m currently taking a break early in Season 6 after the Season 5 finale pretty much put my pump to the test.
Music tip of the week: Strapping Young Lad – All Hail The New Flesh Don’t click when cleaning the ear canal with a motorized milling machine is inopportune. Probably the wildest music I heard when I was young. The mastermind behind the project, Devin Townsend, is now filling the Royal Albert Hall. At the beginning of the noughties I groupie-ed him with friends for a few concerts across Germany until the band put me on the guest list out of pity. Was a good time! The disc (“City”) was literally a dream of the future for me at the time. Hard, incredibly dense music that didn’t forget about harmonies and atmosphere. Can still be heard 25 years later.
Highlight of the week: I had my doubts, but in the end I LOVE what Ron Gilbert came up with Return to Monkey Island accomplished. Just the fact that while I started here because of my affection for this series, I was also able to appreciate Return to Monkey Island as an adventure game in its own right is a stroke of genius. It builds on my passion for those places and characters, but doesn’t rely solely on them. This journey is worth taking on in its own right and doesn’t seem a bit outdated, on the contrary. A feat that proves that it’s not for nothing that these games are held in such high esteem that 30 years (THIRTY!) later they still justify a direct sequel that many, many people obviously want to play too.
With a game that has become so much one with its myth – in terms of content, i.e. on the game level, as well as in its effect on the player and developer scene – it is of course impossible to unravel nostalgia and universal contemporary appeal. So forgive me if that comes across as very twisted, but I just can’t find any other words for this effect: As good as this game is attached to the second part, and as much meta text as opens up here in the further course, the one about the Reflecting the nature of adventure and mystery, the series’ history doesn’t seem like an anchor stranded in retro waters to keep us there. No, Return to Monkey Island catches up with this anchor and sails with it into the modern age of video game storytelling. It not only looks back, but also a lot today in a not always flattering mirror and even looks a little ahead.
problems I had? There are some. I had picked casual to begin with and quietly regretted it the rest of the way. I would have solved the controls significantly differently: The hotspot display can rest on the space key, please click through texts with the mouse and why do I have to select an inventory bag at the bottom left instead of simply moving the cursor to the top edge to drive? Such things. But other than that, this is the game we’ve been slowly earning. Maybe even a little bit more. You have to admire the guts alone of ignoring two thirds of the series. But that from the puzzles to the design (which takes some getting used to) and the humor everything comes together so well that Return to Monkey Island fits organically into this series is no small matter and something I feel like I have to thank for to want.
Center (!?) of the week: For your own criticism She-Hulks Episode 6 there wasn’t enough time this week. Suffice it to say, the series is still struggling to cross complete-episode sitcoms with a legal drama and the superhero act, and has now pulled the filler episode card a second time. Which, considering that there will only be three episodes left, is queasy. And as always, the effects show the overworked and underpaid SFX workers, which I find more morally reprehensible than what really bothers me about this type of series. But at least towards the end there was a hint of a conflict that hopefully will now pick up speed.
As with so many Marvel series, there’s a lot I like, but it kind of lacks the consistency and cohesion that would lift it beyond “quite nice, a little more for Maslany fans.” At least the gags this week were better than last time, the case of the week a little short, but extremely amusing in the idea of an immortal who would rather fake his death than seek a conversation with his many, many spouses. In this respect, the worst was averted once again, because I found Episode 5 really bad. How is the German synchro? I do not trust myself…
Oh, and then there were extensive remasters of Suikoden 1 and 2 announced that I really don’t know what to think of it. Some screens are really pretty and atmospheric, others look terribly sterile and barren. Hopefully there will be an option to play the titles in their original optics, then I’ll be satisfied because we all know these are two of the best JRPs out there.
Low point of the week: The electrical system in our house is still not finished, as the responsible craftsman was absent for a long time due to illness. Now we have breakfast by candlelight. However, improvement is expected in the near future. Hope dies last, hopefully not trying to solve any of these electricity problems yourself.
Oh, and that Ni No Kuni Remaster opened old wounds for me. It’s definitely not a bad game, but I think it’s been a long time since my will to love a game was as far apart from my real feelings as it is here. The sentence was already true in 2011 when the Level 5 JRPG first appeared and is still true today. An incredible visual that has held up wonderfully to this day, an elegantly dreamy character design and a fish-out-of-water story meet mallet tutorials, a declining level of difficulty and a sluggish storyline. I rarely get tired faster than when I play Ni No Kuni. The funny thing: I love it tonally and stylistically so much that I will keep trying. If it should still ignite, I’ll let you know.
Reference-www.eurogamer.de
