To be fair, the interface left a bad taste in my mouth that was difficult to overcome following a prologue sequence on Guybrush's boat that, while essential and entertaining purely from a story perspective, combines the frustrating new interface with absolutely awful camerawork to create a very difficult introductory experience. Re-learning how to make Guybrush walk somewhere, only to have the camera violently careen all about the boat, which itself is rocking halfway up and down the screen as you are constantly attempting to click on one small hotspot that's jerking about and changing positions, is not the most endearing way to be reintroduced to these characters. I was breathlessly grateful when the prologue had ended and I was back on solid ground where the camera could remain relatively steady and the hotspots were certain to not be rolling all about as I attempted to click them.

Complaints about the camerawork in places (and it is occasionally an issue in other areas where Guybrush fills so much of the screen, it is hard to stay properly oriented) and the interface implementation are symptomatic of the general feeling that there are components of the game that were a bit rushed. While surely in production far longer, this game was just announced to the general public last month, and the hurried development schedule was evident at times in the form of many small graphical or navigational glitches, and even a few crashes at startup. Though Telltale has been continuing to refine the game before public launch, promising that any major issues will be fixed prior to final release, these types of problems are unusual for Telltale—a company that has perfected the consistency of episodic gaming, maybe to their own detriment as they are now going to feel a great deal of pressure to stay committed to their monthly game schedule, bugs or no bugs.

One thing that Narwhal does very well is create a feeling of value. The playing time for me clocked in at over three and a half hours. Now to be certain, that comes with the caveat that I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer and have never been particularly good at adventure games, so I probably took my unnecessary sweet time solving some of the harder puzzles, but overall, the puzzle difficulty has a very healthy balance if you are able to step back from the trees and see the forest (so to speak). There are a couple particularly good map-navigation puzzles—just one example of many very direct, and mostly very amusing, homages to Secret of Monkey Island. You will find your character loaded up with a healthy quantity of inventory items during the game, some that have a use that will take quite a while to discover, particularly since they occasionally need to be combined with others first. With the number of distinct "stages" present, as well as a far more substantial number of area environments than any Sam & Max game, Chapter 1 unequivocally succeeds at feeling like a meaty and substantial episode in its own right, not merely a prelude of more to come.

Dare I say that adventure gamers are getting spoiled when we can take a gift horse like the return of such a beloved franchise and look it squarely in the mouth and point out its flaws. Yet despite being a flawed game with some questionable interface and camera decisions, and never consistently elevating the writing to a standout level, the first Tales of Monkey Island game demonstrates tremendous potential for this series to grow into the level of excellence that Sam & Max eventually reached. And if it seems like this review is loaded with comparisons to the dog and rabbit, it's because Telltale used them to set the bar for excellence with those games—and still has all the talent and resources in the world to attain those heights again. In anticipation of that potential, every adventure fan should consider this an essential play, and go into it with the understanding that this is a very good and very fun game—just not the best Telltale has to offer.