We’ve almost come to the end of the Tales of Monkey Island journey and from a nostalgia-laden opening it has surprised us from month to month with fun puzzles and, more importantly, some great writing and performances. After the brisk, energetic and hilarious Lair of the Leviathan, the penultimate chapter is a rather different beast.

The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood begins with the titular piratical personage trussed up and being delivered to the evil doctorness of De Singe, for some nefarious necrophilic activities. Snatched away by a group of angry pirates, he soon finds himself in court, charged with all manner of strange and unusual crimes and headed for summary execution if he can’t win the case and get free. It turns out that escape isn’t a problem (particularly when you are representing yourself) but clearing his name is another matter entirely.

Telltale games continue their strong presentation with this latest chapter but a number of things stop it from being as good as the last entry. Firstly, the location: heading back to Flotsam Island makes sense in the story but revisiting the same locations is simply not that interesting, particularly after you spent time sliding around a manatee’s innards recently. Secondly, the tone is not as light this time around, with several revelations in the last portion of the game almost shocking and certainly more emotional than we are used to in an episodic adventure game.

While the humour is a little lacking this time, many of the main characters get a chance to expand on their roles and this is certainly the most plot heavy (and probably the longest) chapter. Stan makes a welcome return to the series (complete with the wonderful in-joke of the graphics on his jacket) and he adds some spice to the episode but doesn’t measure up to the wonderfully stunted evilness of Mur

We’re committed to the Monkey Island sage now but chapter 4 did leave us a little cold. The puzzles are still well designed to minimise frustration and the relatively straight-forward courtroom devilry of the beginning becomes some of the series most complicated lateral thinking before the end but without the rapid-fire gags of previous entries it feels more procedural than it should. Some strong dramatic moment towards the end are as welcome as they are surprising but the result is that this chapter feels more like an extended cliffhanger than anything else. Let’s hope Telltale can pull off something suitably epic for the finale.