People often say that Ron Gilbert was the biggest reason MI 1 and 2 are better than the sequels, but I don't agree with that. I mean, I agree that they're the best games in the series (especially 2, and not counting the remakes which killed the mood/comedy too much), but people forget that 99% of the writing (the main reason people love these games) was done by Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer. I would be fine with another Ron Gilbert Monkey Island, but I'd only be really enthusiastic if Grossman and Schafer would be involved again. They are what made Monkey Island funny in the first place. Looking at Ron Gilbert's later work, I'm still not convinced he's any good as a writer. Deathspank was horrible in that regard, for example, and Grossman and Schafer's later work shows that they can both still be hilarious. And, of course, I'd want people like Purcell, Land and McConnell back - the art and music are such huge part of these games and those teams were so insanely talented.
Don't get me wrong: Ron Gilbert is a great and smart game designer, and his work on the Scumm engine borders on brilliance. But he's not that funny as a writer, and people often ignore the work of others just because Gilbert's name was on the front of the box.
Disagree with you on his writing, it's pretty clear from their individual work that Ron probably did a good chunk of the deadpan/black comedy in the MI games, which was my favourite part of the games, and the main reason I hold them well above MI3/4/Tales. It's not really evident in either of their individual work (including tales!), while it is in his.
I
love both Schafer & Grossman's writing too - DOTT is one of my favourite games ever - and Schafer is definitely a better writer (not sure on Grossman because I've never seen him do entirely solo work) but if I could only pick one for the themes I love most about MI it'd definitely by Gilbert. Obviously all three would be best, the game would certainly be lacking without them. I'd love to see Mark Ferrari doing BG work too, some of his stuff on Thimbleweed has been really evocative of his work back on Monkey Island.
Personally, I don't. Everything I've seen left a bad impression on me. "Hey, look, it's C64 bobblehead art style, just like in Maniac Mansion but worse! Oh, look again, we took a HUD straight out of CD version of Monkey 1, but we couldn't be fucked to draw items appropriately!" I want to believe in the genius of Ron Gilbert, but as for now, the game shapes out to be too referential and worse than some fan efforts.
Well, the PAX impressions were highly positive. I'm not a fan of the big heads either though.
I am not getting the hate for Curse and Tales here. Curse of Monkey Island still looks gorgeous, plays amazing in ScummVM and absolutely does not need a remaster. All we need is a release on GOG. I still have the discs saved on my computer so it is not an issue for me. I really liked Tales too. I remember thinking that the 3rd episode in particular was really funny. Also I liked the Telltale Sam and Max games too. I really need to replay those. Especially in Season 1, Episode 4 when Sam and Max were in virtual reality. That episode was really funny too.
I think with Curse, there are two issues:
1) The tone - it's generally far lighter then its predecessors. Dominic Armato adds to this with his portrayal of Guybrush (which really didn't work in the MI:SE's since it didn't fit the tone at all). This isn't actually a negative per se. I just don't treat Curse as a MI game and I'm happy. I think some people who don't like curse aren't able to make this seperation and their resentment ends up clouding their view of the game, which is really
very good
2) The Verb coin. This *is* a negative for me (as it also was in full throttle). By the FATE/DOTT era, I feel lucasarts had gotten the gui perfect - 9 verbs, with on-hover descriptions making "what is" unnecessary and "use" having always made turn on/off a bit useless. "Walk to" was truly unnecessary for anyone using a mouse.
But I never supported going from 9 to 3 or less. For example, "giving" someone an item should always be a separate process then "Using" an item on someone. The less verb possibilities you have, the less you can specifically describe how you want to act on your environment, and the simpler a lot of the puzzles become. It's become even worse recently with many games just having "look" and an all-purpose "use" command.
With Tales, the first act was mediocre and the second was flat out
terrible. The third & fourth were a lot better, but I suspect a lot of the damage was done at that point. And at their best with part three, they were still not as good as 1/2/Curse, and they never really got the tone right, even in the underworld.
