Basic Controls to Get You Started

I remember playing Escape From Monkey Island on my PlayStation 2 back in the day, so I purchased this for nostalgia reasons. However, when I booted up the game, I had a hard time figuring out the controls, and it took me over 30 minutes to figure out what buttons did what. Most of this came from me being used to PnC Adventure Games and now just playing an Adventure Game that had neither Xbox/Windows controller support NOR mouse support, the fact that from my searching on the internet there are NO OTHER GUIDES on this subject, and from the fact that the controls did not feel intuitive to me in the first place. So while I will not cover every single button in the game, here are the key ones to get you started.

Important Keybindings

Arrow Keys: Movement -- This is the most self-explanatory and logical part of the control scheme, so I'm not going into detail, but I wanted to bring it up because the intro/tutorial level has you tied to a mast post, and you can only move left and right to start off. When I first played this game again, I was almost afraid that my game was broken because I was so limited in my movement (and it has been quite a while since I played this game, so I forgot about the nature of the tutorial.) In the off chance you get scared of this too, don't worry, chances are your game is still fine.

U: Interact -- I think the "U" is short for "Use," which makes sense when you put it into perspective, but in literally every other game I have played, the Interact function is usually represented by E or F. This is the first time I've encountered U as the interact button, and this is necessary for completing the intro.

P: Pick Up and Put Away -- Again, in retrospect, this keybinding does make sense for the function it corresponds to, but this is not something I would have figured out intuitively. This function is necessary for the tutorial, as there is an object you do have to pick up, but the game does not teach you about putting things into your inventory during the intro sequence.

I: Inventory -- This control also makes a lot of sense, but it is not used at all during the into sequence and the game does not talk about an inventory system at all. So keep this one in mind once you make it to Melee Island, as you will absolutely need to learn to manage items in your inventory as you progress through the game.

PgUP and PgDN: Option Cycling – Now this one right here is a pain in the rear end and is the reason it took me so long to complete the tutorial. I understand why the arrow keys could not be used to option cycling, since they were already reserved for movement, but Holy Hannah it does not make sense to make such a crucial and necessary function like option cycling be achieved through keys that are as obscure and archaic as Page Up and Page Down. Yeah, those keys between your main set of keys and the Number Pad, normally located above your arrow keys. [Num8] and [Num2] (which typically function as another set of arrow keys with separate bindings so you can have two sets of directional inputs if you so desire) make much more sense to me as the default cycling method, but I suppose some minds work differently than others. Make sure you remember these keybindings by heart, since they are necessary for the tutorial and are the only things keeping you from staring at a cannon and a ship grate for the rest of your life while your lovely wife is fighting off other pirates.

F1: In-Game Menu -- Who in their right mind decided that F1, of all of the other keys on your keyboard, was the best one to use for an in-game menu? Normally, games use either the Escape Key, or even the Backspace Key, to open up an in-game menu. But no, Escape From Monkey Island prefers to use F1. I feel so blessed that I happened to find this key by accident, because it is through this menu that I was able to learn the other controls and keybindings that I’m telling you about now. Thankfully, the menu can be fully navigated with the Arrow Keys, the Enter Key, and the Escape Key, so I won’t fault it for being bad, but I’ll be darned if it wasn’t difficult to find.

Enter: Confirm Selection -- I saved this one for roughly last because it is a very logical and intuitive keybinding to have for the function that it achieves, but I still want to put it in this guide because, obviously, it is a necessary function for the intro/tutorial and the rest of the game.

Spacebar: Pause -- I didn’t find this key too useful for me, but I can’t deny that it is a nice feature to have for some people.

[Monster Girl Titties]

Thank you. That pgup and down helps out so much. And the f1. Why??

[Hari]

well I got the tutorial, without looking up because alt+arrow keys also works like in a few other old games

[talula1060]

All of the hot keys you mentioned also work in the previous Monkey Island games. The only difference is they don't force you to use them unless you want to because you also have the option of using the mouse. In fact, Monkey Island 1 allows you toggle back and forth between old and new versions and has all the hot key shortcuts (including U and P) at the bottom of your screen. Also, if you played games in the 90s, the F keys were common to call up menus because ESC was reserved for shutting down your computer or actually quitting a program. Monkey Island is a classic adventure series so they continue to use the F keys even though the world around them has changed. In fact, Monkey Island 3 also used the F1 key to get to the save menu, so it shouldn't come as that great a surprise.

[Dimi]

Actually you can plug in an XBOX360 controller and it will work.

[the Vdovich]

Krasava, spasibo!

[KeyG]

There is a tutorial in the Steam library!