Recent reviews by Barboze

Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Been waiting for a decent boxing game on PC since Fight Night Champion.

Compared to Gang Beasts this one has:
- Gorgeous Graphics
- Better Psychics
- Simplified Controls
- Super Cool and Interactive maps
- Better object interactions
- Adorable animals and skins
- Voice Chat
- Community Events
- Ongoing Support

This is the perfect game to play with your kids or friends when visiting.
WORTH EVERY CENT!!!

All the money in the world and you can't develop a proper peripheral assignment system. If any other device that counts as a "game device" with axis and stuff get the first ID then your Xbox/PS controller won't work anymore no matter if you uninstall the device or the game.

Don't spend your money if you're planning to play with a controller, in most of the cases it won't work.

Before writing this review I need to state that Monkey Island has defined my childhood and put me on a path where making games became my sole goal. I'm not a purist so I don't hate Monkey 3,4 or any of the TellTale episodes and I don't see Ron Gilbert as the Monkey Messiah.
I will start with the Negative aspects and end with the Positives:
Mechanics & Complexity:
🅞 Combining wrong items no longer results in fun comments. In the current game, 99% of the times, only the items that work together can be combined. Even in low budget point-and-click adventure games, you would get replies for most of the item combinations
🅞 No more insult sword-fighting. Loved the insults sword fighting in the previous titles, especially in The Curse of Monkey Island and I was hoping to see something similar in here. In this game is very dull and dumbed-down. I felt quite disappointed that they didn't explore this feature further
🅞 Hard-mode is not necessary that hard. Puzzles felt quite easy. Probably the easiest Monkey Island in the franchise

Length:
🅞 Game feels rushed and somehow massively cut in scope to bare minimum: In 24h I finished the game almost 4 times and completed all achievements - I'm not a fast player, like to take my time and look at everything multiple times
🅞 Cog Island is proof of the cut content. An entire island with many locations that could have provided that variety the game needed
🅞 Very short chapters, even on Hard Difficulty: Chapters 1 and 4 are quite extensive, 2 and 3 are small-medium sized and the intro and ending are very short

Art & Narrative:
🅞 The Art style is an acquired taste. I understand that the bone-rigging type of animation is a lot less expensive, compared with 2D frame by frame. Maybe budget was a factor in this project. Overall I think it conveys the message and the vibe of the game
🅞 Due to the art style, sometimes little details are hard to read. Took me forever to understand that there is a knife in Gullet's back. Same for when he was upside-down, stuck in the rudder - I initially thought that's some sea-weed stuck in there and not a character
🅞 The new pirate leaders felt underwhelming and boring (both visually and story wise)
🅞 Scurvy Island could have been more interactible - Again feels rushed out and cut in scope


Narrative:
🅞 Fun Story with specific Monkey Island humor
🅞 The plot is very captivating. Would have loved to play a few more chapters.
🅞 Adding Murray was an excellent idea. The Demonic skull is one of my favourite characters in the entire franchise
🅞 Captain's LeChuck crew! All characters in the crew are very enjoyable and well written
🅞 The ending was great! No spoilers

Features:
🅞 Scrapbook Recap feature and the letter at the end of the game. Quite touching
🅞 Achievements and Trivia Book. That was a good way of making me spend a few more good hours collecting every card and answering the questions
🅞 Some of the puzzles were very creative but nothing challenging (Do yourself a favor and play the game in Hard Mode - I think the whole experience is a lot more cohesive and enjoyable)
🅞 Controller Support and UI are near perfect

Audio:
🅞 Voice acting is top notch. Dominic did a terrific job as well as the rest of the supporting cast
🅞 Soundtrack is fantastic. Peter McConnell's genius can be heard at every step

All in all I think it's a great experience for the 20$ price point. Ron and the team managed to achieve great results with such a small but passionate team. I salute the effort of the development team and I hope the sales prove Disney that this franchise is worth investing money in.
With a bigger budget I'm hoping to see bigger and richer places to explore, higher complexity in puzzles and narrative, as well as more refined animations.

Fun game but a technical mess. I already lost my saves 3 times while playing CoOp. Every time I join my inventory and experience is gone. This is beyond frustrating... Can't believe devs could not fix this issue in more than 3 years. You should be ashamed for releasing update after update with the same critical issue.

Joke aside, the game has probably the ugliest male character options I have ever seen in a game.
Other than that the game is phenomenally good, as expected from a Forza title.

See you on the track, bandoleros!

IOI YOU STUCK YOUR KNIFE IN OUR BACK, HITMAN-STYLE, FOR FINANCIAL GAINS.

I RECENTLY DELETED MY OLD REVIEW TO POST A NEGATIVE ONE AS A SIGN OF SOLIDARITY FOR THE ORIGINAL CREATORS WHO WERE UNFAIRLY PUSHED OUT OF THE COMPANY.

Original Review from 2021:
Probably one of the best games ever made. Been a point and click adventure fan for 20 years and this experience tops almost everything I have tried before. The only game that made me replay it immediately after finishing it.

GUYBRUSH THREEPWOOD SIMULATOR

10/10