The 5th Day of Christmas

MONACO: WHAT’S YOURS IS MINE Joe reviews this award winning video game

M

onaco: What’s Yours is Mine is the latest release from Pocketwatch Studios, which wowed audiences with its unique sense of style and take on the stealth genre while still in development. It won the grand prize at GDC: Independent Gaming Festival back in 2010, as well as the excellence in design award, and was released for Windows on April 24th (released for Mac on July 3rd and Xbox on May 10th). Now is the perfect time for you to find out what makes Pocketwatch Studios magnum opus tick and if it was worth the wait.

Monaco itself is a stealth based heist game for up to 4 players, each level of the game being based around some high value loot or special character that you must steal or rescue respectively. Top-down perspective, the camera angle used for the entire game, should be familiar to anyone who has played the original Grand Theft Auto or more recently Hotline Miami.

Campaign mode starts with you and your friends each controlling one of the four playable characters as they mount a jailbreak, thereby teaching you the basics of gameplay and each character’s unique ability.

In Monaco, each of the 4 playable characters (after a few missions this number rises to 8) has their own special ability and consequently their own play style, which greatly increases the replay value despite the finite number of missions. For instance “The Gentleman” character can disguise himself. Mechanically, this means NPCs don’t become hostile to him as quickly, he can waltz through a room full of guards (provided none of them look too closely) and leave without a trace. “The Cleaner”, on the other hand, is more likely to use his instant knock out ability and leave a room full of unconscious guards for one of the patrols to find.

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With its high difficulty and varied challenges, defeating many of the later levels feels like a genuine accomplishment.”

THE GAZEBO 12 days of Christmas

Joe Neary Joe is a tall ginger man, not unlike a young Alyx Vance and not unlike a young Alyx Vance; Joe lives out his days in wettest Galway, relying on his wits and mad freelance graphic design skills to make his way.

When you consider the multiplayer aspect of the game and therefore the many different character combinations that can be used for any given mission, its re-playability goes up another notch. Even a four player game with just one character

being swapped out for another plays massively differently. If “The Lookout” character is swapped for “The Lockpick”, for example, everyone on the team loses the ability to see guards that are out of line of sight, but breaking into well guarded safes will become much easier.

As your character moves through each level, they cast line of sight in 360 degrees around them.

Anything the character can see is represented in colour while anything that is obscured is shown in a grey blueprint style. The unusual line of sight mechanic takes a bit of getting used to, but after a few minutes of play I’ve found it becomes second nature.

It’s unlike anything I’ve seen in a videogame before and really helps the game stand out.

Most levels are split into three tiers (e.g. ground floor, first floor, basement) and as the game progresses these levels become more and more expansive and the security measures being taken become... a little excessive.

What starts out as a game about simply avoiding a few unarmed solitary guards becomes excessively complicated to the point of eluding a small army of gun toting sociopaths (dressed as guards) with cameras, laser alarm systems, guard dogs etc. as you navigate through the maze like surroundings to get to your objective. When the objective isn’t to steal a piece of loot, it’s to liberate a hostage, and they’ll repay your act of kindness by joining your merry band of criminals, becoming a new playable character with yet another unique skill.

On each level aside from the main objective of getting that particular mission’s “Golden Trophy”, there

is also the secondary objective of collecting all the coins (about 120 or so) strewn throughout each tier, which adds depth to the game. Although completing this secondary objective isn’t necessary to clear a level, attempting to collect all the coins in any level greatly ups the difficulty and improves gameplay as a whole, forcing you to use your own character’s special abilities and work in tandem with your partners to best utilise theirs.

As the game goes on the number of guards increases, as do the methods by which they protect their entrusted McGuffin, with more complex patrol patterns and greatly expanding their use of gadgets to Bond-esque levels.

This coupled with great game design and an expanding cast of unique characters makes Monaco a complex, ever-changing joy to play.

“

.... coupled with great game design and an expanding cast of unique characters make Monaco a complex, ever-changing joy to play.”

THE GAZEBO 12 days of Christmas

I feel it’s important to note that Monaco has been built from the ground up with the multiplayer aspect at its core. If you venture into its blueprint mazes alone you may find it tense and exciting, but not particularly fun and you would be missing out because multiplayer Monaco is made of fun.

Monaco truly is a great game; I haven’t even mentioned the soundtrack yet which is one of the greatest accompaniments to gameplay I’ve seen in a long time. Click on the link and have a listen: http:// austinwintory.bandcamp.com/ album/monaco-whats-yours-ismine Upon booting up Monaco the first thing you’ll see is the Pocketwatch logo accompanied by deranged 1920s ragtime piano tune. Get used to this tune - it will follow you throughout your most memorable moments in game. The soundtrack to Monaco is an in-built playerpiano indirectly controlled by you, reacting to your play style and the situations you create for yourself.

Starting out as a meandering simple melody at the beginning of a level, the rhythm gets a little faster if someone spots you (symbolized by a black ‘?’ above their head).

If a guard sees you and takes an interest (a black ‘?’ filling with white) the notes become higher.

Finally, if you trip an alarm/alert the guards to your larcenous intent (symbolized by a red ‘!’ and

usually quite a bit of gun-fire) the tempo will take a leap skyward, bringing your heart-rate along for the ride and forming the perfect soundscape to the absolute chaos that is now erupting on screen.

The music will inevitably slow down when you either successfully give the guards the slip or succumb to their many bullets, but that tune will stay with you and after the third or twelfth time you’ll be keeping time humming along with it. Monaco is a rare gem, in that it’s immensely satisfying to play well.

With its high difficulty and varied challenges, defeating many of the later levels feels like a genuine accomplishment.

Hard core difficulty fans were always going to love Monaco, but where Monaco stands out is that it does all this without excluding new players.

Indeed it’s just as fun to play in not exactly the right way and is at its most enjoyable when things have gone very, very wrong.

I loved my time spent in Monaco as both a great game and a way to hang out with friends. If you are thinking of buying it, bite the bullet and go in for the 4-pack special offer. It reduces the price of each individual copy and guarantees you’ll have people to play with (provided you can guilt a friend into buying one off you).

Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine is available to buy directly from Pocketwatch studios website or through Steam, at time of writing a single copy of the game costs £11.99/€13.99 while the 4-pack deal costs £35.99/€41.99.

CREDITS EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Anita Murray & Noirin Curran DESIGN & LAYOUT

Wayne O Connor PROOF-READERS

Noirin Curran & Rachel Scanlon

THE GAZEBO 12 days of Christmas