Half funny conversations, little-inspired puzzles and a graphical style that can hardly hide the lack of personality: the biggest criticism on their games were exactly the points where the old Monkey Island games shined. That's why I had doubts when I heard Telltale was going to take on one of my most beloved adventures ever with Tales of Monkey Island.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, the first episode where we find back Guybrush Threepwood, accompanied by his live interest and of course eternal enemy LeChuck, starts a bit clumsy with a new control system that never really manages to convince, and an inventory that didn't really please me either. Positive point are the voices which were really well-done and save the game for a large part. Same goes for the beautiful music that immediately makes you recall that typical atmosphere that fed our nostalgic games brain so many years ago.

Weakest point of the game are probably the characters and the drawing style. Although they all have been fully voiced, they lack that extra ingenious touch to make them truly memorable. After two days you've already forgotten all about them, let alone after ten years. Only an old familiar lady from the classic predecessors managed to make an impression. On top of that the choice to work with 3D models is one that makes the characters very energetic, something that doesn't help the immersion. Jokes and dialogues are at times enjoyable, sometimes even funny, but never reach the level we're used to from the series. It's like the makers didn't really know whether they wanted to pay honors to the series, or start a new one.

Nothing to complain about in the content department though. You'll be sweet for a handful of hours with the puzzles and missions which are varied and aren't limited to one or two screens. Puzzles are typically a combination of logigal (and sometimes less logical) thinking and combining items.

You'll need to use your brain and it deserves praise that you need to search a bit before being able to solve a puzzle and afterwards realise you should have seen the solution from the beginning thanks to the hidden clues and conversations. Even more, one scene where you're chained on an operation table and need to escape can even be called brilliant. I'm already hoping the devs manage to keep up this level more often and longer in the next episodes.

Unfortunately it never feels epic but that's a criticism I always have on episodic adventures: you never get the feeling of being on an adventure but rather have the impression of hopping in and out. Therefore it's good that the promise of more gets nicely set up for the next episodes.