Review: Captain Morgane And The Golden Turtle

Join Morgane as she grows up from an innocent 8 year old girl to become the most famous Pirate of the Caribbean! Seek out the treasure of the Golden Turtle, help Morgane to solve mysteries and puzzles and outwit her enemies along the way. Explore over 50 locations on 5 beautiful and exotic islands in the Caribbean Sea, but above all try to keep her out of trouble… she is a pirate after all!

Pro:

• Beautiful hand drawn graphics with some breathtaking  back drops. The attention to detail in the levels really make the game feel “lived in”. From the ripples in the water to bugs crawling around carrying food. You really get the sense that you are in a living breathing world.
• Controls are simple and depending on the format depends on your input device. The pc version is mouse and keyboard, Wii is the wii mote while the DS uses its stylus and finally the PS3 uses Move controls. All work really well.
• The tutorial for teaching you about using items, combining inventory and interacting with people, is all handled well. Choosing to introduce the controls in game with a simplistic and relatable approach. Chores yep you heard me chores, and you thought you were playing a game about pirates! Joking aside, the set chores really do teach you the basics of the game and starts setting the scene for the story.
• The voice work is excellent. Morganes lovely spanish accent in particular is very well done. Helps keep it authentic.
• Humour, the game has it in spades. From in game nods to Monkey Island to other dam right crazy dialogue, the game will have you sniggering all the way across the seven seas!
• The story all though littered with humour does bring it home with some grief related mishaps. Sudden shocks and realisations really ground your character and you can see on screen the transformation of your player, from a young happy go lucky girl upto a fearsome pirate. The pace of the story is executed well and you never really feel like your time is being wasted or areas have been padded out to extend the life of it.
•  The game itself is surprisingly big, boasting a near open world experience. Players can visit 5 unique islands, all carrying their own unique feel and look. No island looks the same or plays the same. Each island has its own set of missions and while there are a few repeated missions, generally speaking it always feels like you are experiencing new tasks.
• A fully interactive map that, once a location is found can be fast travelled to. Morgane moves at a faster pace than other point and click games anyway, but this feature really is a good addition and one I hope gets carried over to new games.
• The story never over stays its welcome and will keep you coming back for more. You are rewarded with over 12 hours of game play.

Cons:

• The cut scenes first appear as a good job, but later on you realise they do begin to look a bit tired and even lazy. They are stills and drawn in a graphic novel style affair. With no animations or real voice work as such, they do little more than add a bit of visual eye candy.
• The cursor when clicked does a spinning motion and stops as the interaction stops. This is a bit broken, sometimes requiring you to click an object or move the text on several times.
• If you dont click the advance button on conversations, characters can become stuck in a loop. You will see their mouths moving or doing a action such as jumping or clapping. This can get really annoying and kill the mood.
• You get no acknowledgement on wether your item combining is successful or unsuccessful. Mostly unsuccessful hurts the most.
• The game does support multiple saves but it comes with a twist. You can only use one save in game. You can copy the save to a different slot but with this current practice, you have to put all your eggs in one basket or reboot the game to mess around with saves.
• Whilst the the story is good, you will find yourself endlessly clicking dialogue and running back and forth to characters.
• Playing the game on a smaller screen can get tricky, especially if you need to find small items on the floor.

In summary, If you can get past the little niggles and the really slow boring slog of the first section, the game will reward you with a great story and show you some truly wonderful location’s.  The game will click with you and will make you smile as you take on the pirate adventure!