Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle (PC) Review

By Athanasios 06.04.2015

Review for Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle on PC

It's impossible not to think of The Secret of Monkey Island when the main protagonist of this piece of point-and-click fun wants above everything else to become a pirate. However, and even though the hero of this story isn't a scrawny dork, but rather a curvy 18-year-old brunette, it all feels like a watered-down version of the old school LucasArts' classic. Where does this So Blonde spin-off fail? Its 2D world is nicely drawn and very colourful, the female lead is more than descent, and the gameplay is, for the most part, quite good, despite the lack of any innovations. Aren't these enough? Grab a bottle of rum, wear a cool-looking - yet impractical - eye-patch, and see what Cubed3 has to say about this seafaring tale.

Everything that Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle offers, can be found in the very beginning, which serves both as a tutorial, as well as a prelude to the main plot and characters. The introduction leaves a very bad taste, but, thankfully, these crude cut-scenes don't occur very often, and, more importantly, the in-game graphics are far better, featuring an assortment of typical pirate locales, like coastal towns, spooky graveyards, murky caves, tropical islands, and so on. The only "flaw" here is the 3D character models, which are fine and all, but look somewhat out of place inside the smooth, hand-drawn 2D backgrounds.

Screenshot for Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle on PC

The story begins in the least adventurous way possible, especially for a girl like the cute seven-year-old tomboy Morgane Castillo, who spends most of her time dreaming of becoming a fearless pirate. She is assigned by her mother to do some chores, yet while not exactly fond of cleaning the house and fixing the water pump, these menial tasks are great for getting players accustomed to the game mechanics. Similar to this "initiation" chapter, the vast majority of the puzzles are inventory-based, which translates to searching for items, picking them up, and then using or combining them with something else.

There's no "I can't do that" message to indicate failure when trying to mix items together, something that can be annoying at times, yet, unlike most games of its kind that have lots of miscellaneous items in each scene to complicate things a bit, that's not the case here, therefore the process of problem solving is pretty straightforward, easy, and, thankfully, quite enjoyable. Finally, for those not into searching all around the place, it's possible to turn hotspot visibility on with the push of a button.

Screenshot for Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle on PC

The real adventure begins in the second chapter where Morgane, now a pirate under her father's command, finds a man who wants her help in following the breadcrumb trail of an explorer that supposedly leads to something called The Golden Turtle. Unfortunately, this is when some of the biggest flaws start to show up, like the awful amount of backtracking that is needed to trigger some events, but at least instant travel between locations is possible due to a helpful interactive map. The worse problem, though, is that most missions revolve around doing boring favours for other characters, something that would be acceptable if these didn't happen so often, didn't deviate so much from the main quest, and, most importantly, if they weren't so mundane and… non-pirate-ty.

Screenshot for Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle on PC

Another aspect that feels somewhat lacking is the plot itself. For starters, none of the characters or events manage to make a good case as to why the "mysterious" Golden Turtle is important, and, secondly, the characters themselves are not well-developed or colourful enough to stand out, unlike the likable and headstrong main heroine, who is one of the few redeeming factors of this game, since the story gets immediately more amusing the moment it focuses on her personal issues, instead of her "epic" quest, which just doesn't ignite any sort of interest.

Summing-up, the graphics are 50% pretty, 50% ugly-to-mediocre, the puzzles are good, but they rarely have anything to do with the discovery of The Golden Turtle, and, finally, while the main heroine is brave, charming, humorous, and an all-around likeable gal, the rest of the cast is forgettable - not bad, just forgettable… as is the bland storyline, which fails to make a connection with the one pushing all the buttons, due to a barrage of boring and repetitive "side-quests."

Screenshot for Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle on PC

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

While certainly not bad, Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle is missing on a couple of key ingredients with which it would be a whole different game, and not just a descent one-timer. It needed better 3D models, a variety in music themes, less chores, more puzzles, more interesting characters, more humorous dialogues, and, most importantly, a stronger focus on Morgane and her search for The Golden Turtle. Is it worth trying out despite the low score, though? To be honest, it's hard to recommend this title to anyone other than those really, really passionate with adventure games.

Developer

Wizarbox

Publisher

Reef

Genre

Adventure

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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