May Assassination #1

Such a good palate cleanser after Picklock

Consider liking my review on Steam - it means a lot to me!

Monaco is a sweet game with an incredible sense of style and aesthetics. The graphics, while not impressive, are very easy to read and delivers enough information for you to enjoy the game without ruining the challenge. The sound design fits the overall vibe of the game perfectly, it's not perfect but it also isn't bad and I never got tired of it. Bonus points for the soundtrack that fits the game like a glove.

The plot keeps you hooked, at least on the first Act. I felt it started to drag a bit on the other Acts, but you can pretty much ignore the plot since it's a very arcade-y game, which is a plus. The writing is generally fun as well, really good and it surprised me in a positive way.

The gameplay is where it shines. This is a game where planning and execution are very independent of each other. Sometimes you sometimes will plan a perfect route and execute on it flawlessly and feel like a master thief, sometimes you don't have a chance to plan but will still pull a perfect heist by the slimmest margin, sometimes you'll plan a grand robbery and have it foiled by a cat on the very beginning, having to improvise a plan B on the spot, and sometimes you won't be able to plan and will simply be killed by the first guard you see. When you die, you can pick up the game on the same level with another character, so failing isn't too punitive. And each character brings a very unique gameplay style to the heists, which is super cool and adds a lot of variety and replayability.

I was probably a bit too tired of it by the time I beat Act 4, since it gets very repetitive (especially on single player), but I have no doubt that Monaco is one of the greatest stealth co-op games I've every played and I very much recommend it.