Translated by
Microsoft from French
Microsoft from French
Product received for free early access review preview of the twin-stick shooter monster and Monocles monster and Monocles is available since August 16 in early-access on steam. It is a twin-stick shooter with retro-pixel look developed at retro dreamer which costs €14.99 (excluding promotion).
For the time being, it is a small game that does not invent anything in the genre, does not prevent that it offers something interesting. First of all, Monster and Monocles is calibrated for co-operation (local and online), you can play it very well in solo, but the experience makes all the sense in multiplayer. Indeed, all players share the same bar of life, so you will have to help each other so as not to die stupidly. At the beginning of the game, you start with a small revolver and it is by killing the monsters that you recover money, weapon and power-up. One thing I find pretty cool is that each part is different. The great fashion, among developers, is to try to break the routine of the players by proposing content generated procedurally as for no man's sky or the underground in the Division. In Monster and Monocles, you'll never play the same level twice, but that's not all, it's also the goals of each level that change. In order to be able to complete a level, you have to validate a goal that may be to kill a certain number of enemies or to target a specific enemy.
For my part, I like this kind of game that allows to play on short sessions and that puts above all on a demanding gameplay, this is clearly the case for Monster and Monocles which is not really difficult but that still offers a real challenge. Then it is a game that is deeper than it seems: weapons do not use ammunition, but there is a system of overheating (which varies depending on the weapon used) that makes your weapon unusable for a few seconds, there is also a whole heap of improvement to looter on enemies, you also have to learn the patterns of monsters and bosses in order to minimize the damage suffered.
If the gameplay is already quite rich is demanding, the game has a quality soundtrack but also of solid animations, so that we do not confuse the decorations with the enemies and that there is no difficulty to move despite the multitude of effect on the screen. As it is I wondered why monster and Monocles came out in early-access and not directly out, I found my answer with the roadmap of the game that was open to the public. And actually, retro dreamer will add a lot of content: new environment for levels, new goals, support for mods...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GSthvpeeN8 read the overview on GrettoGeek [grettogeek.com]