LucasArts showed us a demonstration of a very complete-looking build of Escape from Monkey Island, the fourth game in the classic graphical adventure series. Escape from Monkey Island will use an enhanced version of the fully 3D Grim Fandango game engine. As in Grim Fandango, you'll converse with other characters by means of selectable dialogue options; distinguish objects and characters of interest automatically (since your character will automatically cock his head toward anything he can use or speak to); and walk or run through colorful, detailed prerendered 2D environments.

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However, Escape from Monkey Island will also include a number of convenient enhancements that should make gameplay even easier to control. For instance, the game will feature a simpler inventory system with which you'll be able to view all your current positions by rotating them around in 3D space. In addition, Escape from Monkey Island will provide the option for players to use floating sentence tags over objects and characters of interest that will either identify the object or character, suggest a possible action involving that object or character, or both.

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Naturally, Escape from Monkey Island will look quite a bit different from Grim Fandango. Escape from Monkey Island will use the same bright color scheme as the previous games (instead of Grim Fandango's more subdued noir theme). However, Escape from Monkey Island will also look a bit cleaner than Grim Fandango did. From what we could tell from the demonstration, there were fewer texture seams and far fewer instances of polygon clipping on both the characters and scenery; as a result, everything looked cleaner and smoother.

Of course, Escape from Monkey Island will retain the series' famous sense of humor. The game's opening movie shows the scatterbrained Guybrush Threepwood (the hero of the game and the series) musing on his previous adventures. The scene included all three instances of Guybrush defeating the evil pirate LeChuck (who uttered the same "Yeeeargh!" sample in each of Guybrush's memories shortly before being smashed, crushed, or frozen) before Guybrush is reminded of his current situation - he's being held captive on a pirate ship while his swashbuckling fiancee Elaine is single-handedly staving off a pirate attack.

In Escape from Monkey Island, both Guybrush and Elaine return to Melee Island, only to find that Elaine has been declared dead while they were away. As a result, the two must visit a law firm to get to the bottom of things and uncover the beginnings of a bizarre plot that involves an Australian land developer, pirates, grog, and several bouts of competitive insult-arm-wrestling.

Though it's unfortunate that there weren't many graphical adventure games at the show, at least Escape from Monkey Island was one of them. The game looks good, it seems to play well, and it will likely be a great addition to the series.
 

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