by
Lee Mehr
, posted 1 hour ago / 149 Views
Perhaps I’m being a bit presumptuous, but Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine feels like one of those “minor classics” of the late Xbox Arcade Epoch. It exuded the attitude of that time: a new, humble indie team with hardly two nickels to rub together crafting a pixel-bit 2D stealth adventure with up to 4-player local or online co-op. Given the lull in stealth titles at that time, Pocketwatch Games didn’t have the strongest marketing hype, but the style and design asymmetry between these sleuthing characters captured the attention of a prominent niche back then. Fast forward to today and you see a team – though still modest in size – eager to leap forward from its decade-old foundation. But Monaco 2 also serves as an example of how excited evolution can lead to unforeseen pitfalls.
You’ll recognize the premise if this isn’t your first caper: a team of thieves lifts something of value from a prominent mob boss and now they work with him… or else. It’s a by-the-numbers plotline, and some of the character interactions can feel like wasted airtime, but the voiceover cast helps exude a bit more personality beyond the characters’ different colors and shapes. They’re better appreciated as empty flavor text than genuine character drama in the likes of, say, Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven.
For the uninitiated, the setup is relatively simple: choose between one of four specialists, each with a unique gimmick, and ultimately escape with your catch. Alongside the main score, there are plenty of coins and special items to find while avoiding obstacles such as guards, civilians, and pesky security systems. Since you or your crew only have a limited number of lives, it’s incumbent upon you to avoid unwanted attention. But as the saying goes: “the best laid plans of mice and men.” Almost certainly your plans will go south, so part of the fun is improvising.
As with the original, improvisation relies on either your own self-reliance (if going solo) or cooperatively weaving your character strengths in unison. One can hack electronic devices with a drone, while a debutante can temporarily distract a nearby guard with her adorable dog, and then a brute knocks out another. Although there’s a rotation of the four allowable characters for that level (eight in total), none of the roster changes feel stale. Plus, with its generous checkpoint system, you’re able to switch between any available characters if you so wish.
Although character asymmetry works on paper, something about this implementation doesn’t always click. While the baseline mechanics – default running, crouching, etc. – are fundamentally the same, AI activity rarely gels in the way the level design suggests. There’s a disharmony between how certain characters seem like they can get out of a jam versus relying on cheap tricks. Like before, the danger of alerting guards is meant to feel defanged and exploited in a way that reflects sillier caper films; their alert phase quickly resets once you’ve broken line-of-sight (LOS) and avoid doing anything that’d rekindle their interest. But this is contrasted with some level design annoyances: certain dead-ends and confined areas with only one path forward mean you could lose your life. If flying solo, that means you have to go back to collect those dropped items.
There’s more disharmony to these stealth systems and that partly stems from Pocketwatch’s changes. The updates make sense on their face. It’s only natural to transition from minimalist pixelated characters with a bird’s-eye view (e.g. Pac-Man) to a more fleshed-out 3D world with an isometric viewpoint. In a way, the amount of time between both Monacos is the same as releasing a game at the start of the NES lifecycle and then releasing the sequel on the N64. I can empathize with these creatives challenging themselves. But what was lost in the switch?
Instead of clean visual information conveyed through a character’s line of sight, you’re instead left with a fuzzier image – both because of the camera’s tilt and the distance away from everything. The user experience gets more awkward when sleuthing through multi-floored buildings; obviously the building levels you’re not on don’t appear, but it still feels visually uncomfortable in action. There’s a bit too much cluttered “visual noise” within the frame.
Past the camera mismanagement, it’s also not as aesthetically charming. Although it’s true that the soft-textured look in a 3D-modeled world does convey more specific information than pixel-bit sprites, it’s missing character – a je ne sais quoi, if you will – especially compared to Austin Wintory’s exuberant soundtrack. In a way, the greater complexity also makes it tougher to sell the enemy AI silliness too; almost like the design’s logic neatly melds with an old arcade cabinet. Several of the thief designs look outright stupid. What’s the logic behind a black lady shaped like Kingpin from the animated SpiderVerse films or a socialite in high heels? The roster feels like it was coughed out of an AI’s character randomizer with little consideration for this world’s context.
Although technically occupying different spaces, it’s nonetheless unfortunate that Blue Prince released on the same day to serve as a better example of procedural generation that’s often foreign for its genre. After completing what’s essentially the main campaign (“The Honest Truth”), players have the option to re-explore for more loot in the “Unreliable Narrator” mode. The exterior remains the same, but the guts have been tweaked in obvious and subtle ways. The immediate problem – as is often the case – is the potentiality of your run being diminished by bad luck. Perhaps the patrol patterns and randomized room tweaks are less favorable for you than the next player; if so, then attaching leaderboard scores to it is total bunk. It simply doesn’t make a compelling case for its inclusion.
If nothing else, Pocketwatch Games deserve some credit in this regard: it’s never easy to look upon your past success and say “let’s try a new direction.” Even if the original is over a decade old, it’s not natural to move away from a foundation that was already well-praised. So, to incorporate a new camera perspective, art style, and procedural generation, I’d say counts as ambitious. But ambition alone does not a great game make. Where Monaco 2 stumbles is in having those new features without judiciously considering their potential pitfalls – to varying degrees. That doesn’t strip away the broader stealth fun to be had with fellow thieves; only that this heist is a harder sell.
Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee’s obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.
This review is based on a digital copy of Monaco 2 for the XS, provided by the publisher.
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