Game Review | Monsters and Monocles

As mobile game developers Ryan, Gavin, and Craig grew older, moved to new places, and started families, they found it hard to recapture the early arcade experiences they had when they were younger.

Monsters and Monocles is designed with that in mind, making it as easy as possible to jump into a game, and keeping gameplay sessions to a reasonable length.

Monsters and Monocles is a frantic, Victorian steampunk themed twin-stick shooter all about using teamwork and heavy weaponry to battle the hordes of evil. A naive occult collector has unknowingly unleashed a great evil that is spreading across the globe, and it’s up to you and a team of quirky paranormal investigators to find the source of this dark energy and blast it back to where it came from.

As one of up to four colorfully animated sprite characters, your job is to mow down hordes of monsters in each randomly generated stage as you fight your way to the boss of the area. You will be aided by randomly dropped weapons. Some weapons are insanely powerful like the key gun, and some are underwhelming like the fast to overheat teapot.

I found myself gravitating toward the stake gun and the grenade launcher, if I was lucky enough to get them. I love the flamethrower’s broad arc of scorching destruction, but it was into my 6th hour of play before it even dropped for the first time. I even had one playthrough where the revolver dropped 6 times before a new weapon showed up!

You can’t count on having your favorite weapon to deal damage, and you must also be ready to face different challenges every time you play Monsters and Monocles. Not only are the layouts of the stages randomly generated, but also the goals for each stage. One level you may be trying to slay 105 monsters before you can leave, the next you might “only” need to kill 4 Were-beasts. Or perhaps you merely need to find the exit! This unpredictability adds a lot of fun and replayability to each level, and no game will be exactly like the last. You’re always hoping you’ll start with that sweet gun and an easy objective; or grit your teeth, buckle down, and face the horde.

The action is fast paced and frenetic. Most monsters go down in a few hits, but they chase you aggressively in packs across rooms. Back up too far while they chase you and you’ll find yourself in a new room with new monsters and a world of hurt.

And this game will hurt you.

All progress toward the boss of each stage is lost when you run out of lives, and as I mentioned before, health power ups show up with maddening unpredictability and scarceness. Monsters hit hard, and repeated attacks stack with no stagger or temporary invincibility to give you a reprieve. This means if you get stuck in a corner against several enemies, you will die in a hot second. When playing multiplayer, you can revive your dead friend by shooting their popup tombstone, but all lives come from a shared pool so you may be tempted to let sleeping bones lie for a while if your team-mate is dragging you down.

If you survive long enough to get to the boss of the stage, you are in for quite a fight. They are huge, screen filling monstrosities with massive HP bars to match, and they shoot multiple projectiles while spawning smaller enemies to keep you busy. You can be doing well through the previous stages, all of your lives intact, only to die in 30 seconds at the hands (or tentacles) of the boss. Then it’s back to the first stage with just your revolver again.

There is no question this game is challenging, and many players will enjoy this, but it gets frustrating to start completely from scratch every time. The only exception to this is relics, which are boosters like increased speed or weapon buffs. After you find them, you can strategically equip up to three at the beginning of your game to help your next round. I have two problems with this progression system. First, if you equip a weapon buffing relic, you have no guarantee you will have that weapon drop in the game. My second beef with the limited progression allowed by the relics is your character’s speed. There is a relic that boosts your speed, but even then your character moves too slow. I often simply could not get out of the way of an oncoming projectile or enemy in time because of my character’s sluggishness. Combined with the way hits stack up, and some deaths feel really cheap. To be fair, there is a dash move that will get you out of harm’s way, but there is a cooldown after every use. I also would like to see more frequent health drops and maybe extra life drops added to the game, perhaps in an Easy mode.

Final Verdict

Monsters and Monocles is a charming, fast paced sprite based game to play alone or with friends. Randomly generated levels and weapon drops provide a new, exciting experience every time, and the game’s high level of challenge makes most sessions 20 minutes or less. However, the challenge level is high enough to cause frustration, and is compounded by somewhat sluggish characters that damage easily with few options to regenerate.

Pros:

• Great looking sprite based characters and enemies
• Randomly generated layouts and objectives
• Fantastic couch or online co-op experience
• Fast paced quick games

Cons:

• Steep, often frustrating level of challenge
• Random nature of health and weapon drop also frustrating
• Player character moves a bit too slow, damages rapidly

Monsters and Monocles is available for Early Access on Steam for $14.99. A copy of the game was provided for the purpose of this review.