Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine Review

Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine is an indie game by Pocket Watch Games. It's a 4-player heist game that you can play with other people, while still being immensely exciting on your own. If you're looking for a crazy and chaotic party, then Monaco will definitely excite you! With you and 3 other players, everything is happening all over the place, and depending on your team's style, you can have a perfect crime, or end up with a frantic scramble to your goal.

Monaco is a game where you start a level with a goal in mind, you complete it, and you escape. And everything in between is up to you. Whether you want to strategically slip your way past all the security or go in guns blazing is entirely your choice! The game makes it easy for you to go in either direction, and come out feeling totally satisfied with your job well done. With this idea of being able to play in the style you want, there are a total of 8 playable characters, 4 of which you unlock as you progress through the game. Each of them have their own unique abilities allowing you to play however you like.

Within the game, you'll find there are many guards, civilians, police officers, all kinds of people who will notice you. And aside from them, there are alarms, laser traps, things to make it difficult for you to get from place to place. As you make your way past them, you'll find that there are many paths to take to your goal, and you can really take any way you want. Want to get the jump on an unsuspecting guard, then knock him out as The Cleaner and proceed to your target without anyone in your way? Do it! I personally prefer sneaking about, crawling through shafts, and quickly slipping through locked doors as The Locksmith. With 4 lives in single-player, I can have it all the different ways, even if I mess up through one of my methods.

It's a totally different story when playing with some friends though. We'll sneak about as we can, and go shooting tranquilizer arrows at all those who come our way, and knocking out everybody that we happen to come across. In and out without anybody able to stop us. Like an unstoppable force! Until we realized we didn't have a clue where we were going, the guys with SMGs came gunning us down, and we had to start the level over. Monaco really makes you feel great, as with every rerun of a level, you get a better feel for the landscape, and it's easier to plan your moves.

When you play Monaco, one the first things you'll notice is it's classy music. It was done by Austin Wintory, who worked on the beautiful music for Journey. It's quite the difference in styles of music from Journey to Monaco, and this is soundtrack you'll find fits perfectly with the style of the game. The sound effects are satisfying for every action you make, and it makes perfect sense when something happens. Alarms go off ringing, guns bangs away, and footsteps plodding away. All these audible cues add to the experience, and the devs attention to detail in this way has definitely paid off well.

Not only is the audio great, but the graphics are a sight to be held. Sight plays an important role in this game, and  the lighting is up to par to match it's significance! The feeling of a guard patrolling close to your hiding spot, you can see the light from his flashlight getting closer and closer. And just as you think you were going to have to make a break for it, he turns around, and the light is gone. It's these kinds of graphical details that bring out so much to the atmosphere of the game, making it intense and exciting!

Monaco is a lot of fun, with friends or without, and every time you play you can try out something different, or go about reaching your target in a new way, resulting in plenty of replay value. Continuing to improve your completion time, or just to simply have a blast with a group, there are many reasons to keep on enjoying this game.

This exhilarating game is compatible with controllers, can be played with everybody on one screen or online, and is for PC and XBLA! Monaco is one of the best co-op games I've ever experienced! You can buy the game for PC directly from the developers at Monaco's site, and will be available on XBLA as soon as possible.

9/10

This review was done on a PC Download of Monaco, provided by Pocket Watch Games.