“Monaco is an excellently designed indie pleasure. It oozes charm and charisma with its snappy writing, eye-grabbing aesthetic and overall delivery.”
completionist-taunting coins that randomly litter the levels. Naturally, there are online leaderboards that have players competing for top scores by finishing levels as quickly as possible and grabbing maximum coins along the way. Numerous items can be collected within levels that give you extra capabilities: you’ll find guns, which do exactly what you’d expect them to do, or you might find an EMP that knocks out electrical security when used, or you could become your team’s healer if you pick up some bandages and get to work fixing their boo-boos. And that brings me to the game’s finest point: the cooperative multiplayer. Playable by up to four people locally or via Internet magic, Monaco is at its shiniest when played with friends, using the unique abilities of each player’s character to make the
team’s job easier. It’s great fun, and you’ll have loads of laughs when your best laid plans inevitably go awry as your team sets off a chain reaction of hilariously unfortunate events and everyone dies horribly. But sometimes, everything will come together perfectly, and you’ll feel every bit the George Clooney of video games. Monaco is an excellently designed indie pleasure. It oozes charm and charisma with its snappy writing, eye-grabbing aesthetic (screenshots don’t really do it justice; this is a good-looking game) and overall delivery. Most importantly, the game’s mechanics are excellently designed and implemented, and for your $14.99 you’ll find hours of amusement – particularly if you can rope in friends to join you for a bit of cooperative virtual larceny.
Would you buy it? Considering the amount of enjoyment you’ll get in exchange for Monaco’s $14.99 price tag, I’d say it’d be a crime not to buy it.
The Score
8.8/10
[ Dane Remendes ] Issue 25 | 2013 The OverClocker 51