Monaco Review (aruvin)
TLDR
Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine reminds me of Payday meets overcooked 2 in a 2D pixel world. Minus the drill.
Non-TLDR
Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine (M:WYIM) is developed & published by Pocketwatch Games. The PC version was released on Apr 24, 2013. It is also available on the Switch, Xbox 360. On Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/monaco-whats-yours-is-mine) it has:
87 Metascore from 47 critics
An average user score of 7.7 from 223 ratings
#36 Best PC Game of 2013
Do you have what it takes to succeed and enjoy M:WYIM ?
You will need:
3 humans who wants to play co-op with you
with specific skill sets for stealth or numskulls that cause mayhem together with you
who dont mind staring at PIXELS with you
and above all the ability to VERBALLY COMMUNICATE like a HUMAN with you.
If you meet all of the requirements above, congratulations! You have what it takes to enjoy M:WYIM! else you are going to sound like a sore loser "its not my cup of tea" BS.
Overview
M:WYIM is all about pulling off the "perfect" heist either by yourself or co-op with another 3 person. it has 8 unique characters(class) and offers 3 game modes:
Classic: From the original release as at April 2013
Zombie: Play as zombies instead
Enhanced: Missions that have been updated/fine tuned
Each game mode offers the following:
4 "story" mode: a total of 41 maps to play
3 PVP maps
32 "workshop" maps - which you can continue to add by yourself (These are made by the community/modding)
and finally it has a leaderboard for the real hardcores who strive for the "perfect" heists.
Controls, Audio, Visuals
Controls: Keyboard and mouse (when aiming)
Audio: music, npc reactions, weapons, dog, explosion are all well made. +1 to the audio team
Visuals: It's a well made, colorful pixelated world. +1 to the visual team
Mechanics
Every heists will come with a certain challenges. So it is up to you to plan out what strategy you want to use; dig all the wall to the vault? Hack computers? Or disguise yourself and blend in with the crowd?
The NPC will alert the guards if you are spotted. The guards will rush to you once alerted. They chase you until you hide/run away. There are also dogs and helicopters that will "track" you.
The detection & hiding system combined with line of sight and the AI behavior is so, so good. It is probably one of the best i've ever experienced in any co-op game that focuses on heisting.
My personal thoughts/My Summary
As someone who enjoys Payday 2, i thought this was going to be a "payday in 2D Pixels" and when all hell break loose, it turns into a silly, funny, intense moment "hide! hide!" "I got shot to the face!" "RUUNNN! THE DOG! @!$@!$" "Noooo! You killed us with your bazooka!"..it reminded me of overcooked 2.
M:WYIM mechanics is really well made that it manages to balance out the fun + technical aspects of the game to deliver one great gaming experience. Having said that, you will only experience this if you play with 3 friends and have a voice chat together. That's where the game shines brightly and that is also it's biggest drawback. There is very little value to play solo/duo.
In all honesty, M:WYIM wasn't my cup of tea because i KNOW games like these requires co-op and i am not a "social butterfly" gamer. On top of that, it was running on a pixel game engine (the likes of Terraria, Minecraft) which i have my concerns for the younger generations preference. But for what it's worth, while it lasted, it was really stupendous. in a good way.
So, on the scale of 0 - 10, my personal rating for Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine is an awesome 2D Mashup between Payday and Overcook 2 = OverPay2dayCook which is worth a 8/10.
and hey, take back all your cups and teas.