Return to Pirate Island 2

Developer/Publisher: Scott Adams
Platform:
Release Date: August 2000

By Erik Reckase

It was with great anticipation that I recently started playing the long-awaited Scott Adams sequel, Return to Pirate Island 2. Having played a number of his older adventures recently, I was curious as to whether or not his style had changed in the fifteen years since his last effort, and pleasantly enough, this game is pure Scott Adams, with a very familiar style and puzzle structure. The exception, of course, is the addition of sound effects into the mix, which work very well.

The goal of the game is to find a series of treasures scattered about a ship and the surrounding area. There are some very familiar places and items to be found, as well as some new surprises--when I woke up, and everything was blurry, the sense of deja vu was amazing. (If you haven't played the original adventures, I highly recommend doing so--many of them are available as shareware from Scott's web site.) The rule of thumb when playing this game is easy to remember ... examine everything. Closely. Nearly all of the puzzles in the game have clues in the descriptions of items, so a keen eye for detail is important while playing. Some of the puzzles are fairly difficult, but to alleviate gamer stress, Scott has included a multi-level hint system into the game to help you get unstuck. If you just need a subtle hint, the first level of information should be more than enough, but if you're completely confused, the final level of help provides a brief walkthrough of how to solve the puzzle.

The major new feature of Return to Pirate Island 2 is the sound effects. For many of the areas in the game, ambient sounds of your surroundings are piped through your speakers to enhance the experience ... although I'd played the original game long enough to hear that confounded alarm clock in my sleep, it was great to hear it when I woke up on the ship. Many of the voices heard in the game were performed by Scott's family, so the entire adventure has a "homegrown" feel.

As far as gameplay goes, I have mixed feelings. The descriptions of the different rooms and items seemed a little on the brief side, where a sentence or two more might have given the experience more depth. Although, on a few occasions, I had to use language that was a little bit counterintuitive, it made me realize how nontrivial it is to write a decent parser for an adventure game, and how glad I am that I don't have to do it! The game is great for children, as all of the puzzles need to be solved without any sort of destructive force--I had a smile on my face the whole time I was playing the game, and I think it will probably have the same effect on other gamers everywhere. Return to Pirate Island 2, as well as his previous interactive fiction efforts, are available from Scott's web site.

Final Grade: B