The world of Monochroma is bleak with what seems like red propaganda. You play as an older brother in a world filled with many obstacles but you are determined to escape with your younger brother on your back. In this world you will see industry, malls, robots, and different forms of technology all juxtaposed against a rather bleak and rainy noir-esque oppressive looking landscape.
As you delve into this world, you’re thrown right in with no explanation. Almost immediately, you’re left to your own imagination to guess what or who these two young boys are running away from; and throughout this platform-puzzler you come across some disturbing sights with a good mix of jazz, classical and heist music. The longer you play, the more you see that things are very wrong, but what exactly is going on remains unknown for the most part.
The mechanics for Monochroma are simple. You carry your brother on your back and you have to put him down in a spotlight area in order to do certain things, like jump higher. Often times this just meant you have to be mindful of the fact that you don’t put your brother in danger situations. My only complaint is that I wish there was an option to re-patch the keys because I don’t like the default key choices. Still overall, I rather enjoyed playing this game.
Bottom Line: This is a beautiful game which somewhat allows you to create your own story for the world the protagonists live in and I enjoyed that. The puzzles were just the right amount of difficulty as was the length of the game and well worth making it to the end. Even without using my preferred keys for platforming, I found the game to be rather forgiving for the most part and I didn’t feel the urge to rage quit too frequently. The stylized storytelling and art decision has made this platformer stand out for me.
Hint: Remember sometimes you have to go backwards to move forwards in the world of Monochroma.
This review is based on a retail copy of Monochroma for the PC which was provided by the publisher.
