Comments on: Thoughts: Monaco.

By: Aleksei Volchok

Aleksei Volchok — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:21:40 +0000

I see stealth is a new “puzzle platformer”, i.e. main indie genre. Suits me, cause all this Braid wannabes were boring, similar and too pretentious. It also destroyed the idea of indie being more original than mainstream games: oh, look, mainstream games don’t concentrate on simulators, TBS, RTS, tactics and economic simulators (this is how we call it in Russian and I can’t imagine it in English)… Let’s do a bunch of 8bit style graphics with endless homages to Super Mario Bros and some deep meaning!

Ahem, yes, Monaco. It’s still pixelated for no good reason and it has variety of solutions and something that looks like replayability unlike Mark of the Ninja, which is a good thing. Still there’s something missing. One day, one day.

By: Janek

Janek — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:11:38 +0000

The pace does seem about right with two players, but the problem then becomes that there’s very little margin for error – you cannot finish a level if anyone is dead, and actually getting there to revive them can be very difficult. Fine on a shorter level, but having to restart after clearing all but the last bit of a big multi-stage level sticks in the craw a bit.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:15:14 +0000

What about playing with two players instead of four? Wouldn’t that calm things down considerably?

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:12:42 +0000

I suppose that’s fair. I certainly agree that Penny Arcade (the strip) seems like just-one-more-thing that they do, similar to South Park and Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

Like I said, my issue with their involvement in the industry isn’t their influence (I wouldn’t know about Arkham Horror or Spectromancer without reading Penny Arcade, for example) but rather their attitude. They really don’t seem to mind the proliferation of invasive DRM and online interactions that I view as the creeping death of my favorite hobby, while their enthusiasm for the kind of generic, ho-hum crap that floods the market (like Uncharted, which…well, I won’t get started on that franchise right now) makes me wonder just how much of a minority I might be in the wider video game world. And don’t get me started on how easily they embrace reboots and retoolings of franchises. All you have to do is look at their opinions on Splinter Cell to understand why Ubisoft is willing to depart so drastically from the original titles.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:18:06 +0000

Yeah, I think it is literally impossible for one person though because you can’t get both lasers to shut down simultaneously.

Also I heard about this button for view sharing. I think it would take a lot out of the game, though; ti seems like it should be at least partly about good communication of guard positions instead of a psychic bond between you and your teammates.

By: Hentzau

Hentzau — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:15:40 +0000

Harsh it may be, but I think it’s fair. There was a period around 2004-2005 where they were being incredibly consistently funny and/or cutting about the state of the games industry and recent releases. Then they got big, started spinning off side businesses, and became a huge influence in gaming both through their readership and PAX, which has had two effects. One is that the comic is now only one of many going concerns for them, and also I imagine they’re starting to get a little fatigued after doing it for over a decade now. The other is what you said: they’re somebody that companies want to sell their games to because visibility on PA will mean thousands of extra sales. They’ve made the jump from being consumers of games to being huge trend-setters who are actively courted by the gaming industry, and have thus become part of the system they used to mock. At least I think those are the primary reasons why the vast majority of their output over the last few years has been distinctly filler-y.

(It’s not all bad, though. The PA Report side of the site can throw up some good pieces of gaming journalism as long as you avoid the more sensational stuff by Kuchera.)

Regarding Art of Theft, I’ve never played it, but based on what I’ve read it seems like it bears a reasonably close resemblance to single-player Monaco. Multiplayer, well, not so much.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:01:26 +0000

That’s a pretty harsh appraisal of Penny Arcade. I think that they are definitely the kind of gamers that companies want to sell to (i.e. they’ll put up with any old shit because they just want to play games and have access to reliable enough internet connections and don’t replay enough games to care about restrictive DRM), which makes me more than a bit suspicious of their viewpoints.

However, they are also pretty upfront about that, and they’re very good about being able to cut right to the heart of a matter. I’d assume years of a self-imposed 3-panel limit have helped.

Haven’t played Monaco yet, but how does it stack up to The Art of Theft, by Ben Crosshaw (Yahtzee)? Every description of it makes me think of that game, but I haven’t heard any comparisons.

By: Janek

Janek — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:19:44 +0000

I think you’re pretty much spot-on, although I’m perhaps a little disappointed at the manic nature of coop, and would’ve preferred something a little more cerebral (as opposed to Hotline Miami meets Pacman). Still good fun, just not quite what I was hoping for.

To address your first two picture captions:

1. Dave and I did actually manage to blunder our way to the safe with just the two of us. Didn’t even need a wrench! I think I punched the wandering guard with the cleaner and Dave hacked the security system, then it was just a matter of timing.

2. There is a button for view-sharing. It doesn’t actually tell you this at any point.