Monochroma is a cinematic puzzle platformer that takes place in an industrial-alchemic setting. It's about being a child, having a little brother, growing up, falling down and solving some other puzzles.
Review:
When you read the synopsis above that is all the game is, your a child whose growing up with a little brother, and all you are doing when going through the levels is solving puzzles. That sums up 2D platformers for me, and everyone know's how I feel about these game, and in terms of those feelings, well, they still stand with this game.
This for me is another game which doesn't bring any exciting to the genre. It's still the game old stale formula that comes out with 99% of 2D side scrolling platformers.
But I'm not going to let that take anything away from the quality of the game as the art work is absolutely beautiful, I love the Noir look with the red showing through, kind of reminds me of Schindler's List.
Throughout the world the different areas and scenes are designed beautifully and for a game that is primarily using black, white and grey scale there is so much detail and thought gone into it, you can tell this was a labour of love for the developers.
As your going through the levels, there are certain parts where the camera angle will change slightly giving you a better view of something your climbing or something important in the world/background.
The movement of the character you play sometimes feels a bit wooden, especially when he has his brother walking on his back. Jumping over things as well sometimes feels a bit wooden and dragged out. The animations too of walking look rather strange, they resemble more of someone who is in desperate need of the toilet and that's where they are running too. I would hate to have to squat walk everywhere, especially with my brother on my back. Pain.
The music on the main menu and throughout the game is delightful, although especially the main menu, I could sit and listen to it for hours, it's so peaceful and tranquil I could very easy relax with it on in the background while say writing this.... Not to say I have it on the background now, I'm just saying that I could :)
As I mentioned above, you do have to go around the worlds with your brother on your back which can be a bit of a pain, but not an entire pain. You are limited in what you can do with him on your back, but you're not completely restricted. You can still jump on ledges and pull switches, move boxes etc but you can't jump as high as what you can without him on your back, so there are times when you need to put him down to be able to jump up on a higher ledge to get to a switch before going back to get him again.
Another annoying thing I found with him was that you can't put the brother down when there is no light about, he will only be placed down if there is a light around, so that again limits to where you can place him, however when you do see a light coming up, then you kind of know that he has to be placed down at some point.
The puzzles within the game did add some disappointment for me, I found that they were too easy, simple pulling of switches to move things, dragging boxes or other items so you can climb up on things or weigh other parts down. Was just too simple, and while as you went through the game, there were more complex puzzles, they were again too easy to figure out, and it was more to the point that it was far more to do to achieve the goal, than it being more difficult.
The loads screens annoyed me as well. Reason being they were the type of screens that when loading, will just change the message to 'Press A' and there would be no visual change in the pictures on the screen, so if like me while you're waiting for the screen to load you go into a day dream about something and your away with the fairies because you're waiting for the screen to change and it doesn't so you stay in your daydream not realising its changed the wording which you haven't noticed and a couple of minutes has gone by and you could have continued the game about a minute before. What would be best is for the picture on the screen to change, or the level to load for me. However, what I find daft is that when you die, the game will auto load the level for you to continue, but if you go into a different area or first load the game, you have to watch out for the 'Press A' warning... Not good.
The game overall is a good one, it doesn't bring anything new to the genre and the puzzles are really simple, however the graphics and art that have designed the game are stunning and the music is a joy to behold.
Monochroma get a 7/10 :)
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