A Monster's Expedition Reviews

it's really really good no need to be an englandland resident to appreciate :)

Is it a Metroidbrainia? I think so. Is it for me? No, not my cup of tea. Puzzle games burn me out too quickly. So many Metroidbrainias lean heavily on puzzles, but someday I’ll find one that measures up to Outer Wilds.

Monster's Expedition is a wonderful puzzle game that is not too difficult to complete the main run through, but offers a substantial challenge for completionists. The pleasant atmosphere and whimsical writing really add to the enjoyment of this puzzler, but beware! 100% Completion is a lot trickier than it seems! For the latter, my only complaint would be that sometimes you need a good zoom out to see that you can travel further from other islands to achieve your objective and there are a few very convoluted solutions buried in there. Otherwise the later challenges rely on you remembering mechanics learned earlier, so you can often find yourself watching/reading a guide and cursing yourself "why didn't I think of that? Of course!" Although I did need some assistance from guides I didn't feel cheated or hard done by. If you have the patience and time to put the game down and come back to it everything is achievable after a re-think. Excellent puzzle game.

very simple rules, but challenging and well-designed puzzles.

Huge game. Really challenging and fun in a delightful, relaxed way.

A Monster's Expedition is a fun little puzzle game that you should check out. The aesthetic is adorable, the puzzles are tricky but fair, and the music is great. I love how the notes in the ost play when you bump logs. If the game was a few hours shorter it would be perfect. Eventually the mechanics wear thin and I kinda just wanted it to be over. Overall a really cute game that you should give a shot!

I "beat" this game a few years ago. I was trying to finish up all the secret stuff and for whatever reason, I got sidetracked, and never finished it. Or reviewed it. Which I feel bad about, because it's so good. This is one of my favorite developers/publishers, I've completed everything they've put out. In a weird way, I'm kinda glad I didn't finish it, as this is one of my favorite puzzle games, and I typically don't revisit games. Everything about it is so perfect. The music, the sound effects, the game world, the silly bits of lore; the game is just very charming. I'm glad that I got to experience it again almost brand new. The puzzles are also great, and while often quite simple, some main islands can be complicated, and getting to secrets can be pretty crazy. But, I don't think that is what this game is about. It's not even necessarily like some games where a singular puzzle blocks your progression and requires hours of attention to break through. It's about the interconnectedness of a messy world that makes it unique, interesting, and challenging. It's just so intricately and lovingly crafted. I just finished Stephen's Sausage Roll before this, and I think that's what reminded me that I need to finish this game. You can tell that SSR probably influenced this game. I know A Good Snowman is Hard to Build technically came out before SSR, and that these are all Sokoban inspired, but sometimes I couldn't help but see the trees as sausages. SSR is also the opposite of this. This game is really chill and has a lot of very easy things to do and a lot of really hard things to do. SSR practically has a difficulty curve after the start menu. The controls are very good. It's simple and grid based, but feels so smooth. The noises the occur when pushing a tree down or undoing moves are great, and the celebratory music when entering a new island, though simple, felt triumphant. If I needed to go AFK, I liked to sit down on the edge of an island and let the monster just enjoy himself a bit while I get to listen to the chill music. When I had originally played the game, there were no solution hints, and no friend hints. I knew about the implementation of friend hints through an announcement/discussion about the game, but this was around when I backburnered the game. I did not know about the solution hints this go around though, and discovered them while fat-fingering the key. While I preferred not to use them, it was nice that it's there, and used it a few times, just to confirm I knew what I needed to do. Due to this game's intentional unclear trajectory, there were times I would spend a long time looking for a solution to go the wrong way. It's not like a puzzle game where you know exactly what your end goal is at all times. It's not, I just gotta beat this level to get to the next level. It's a giant maze that can go any which way, multiple ways, sometimes one way, and often the path is complicated to reveal and complete. I think the friend hints were helpful, but even then, for some of them, I had no idea where to make the solution. I wish there were friend hints similar to the regular hints, which basically give you a starting point. I ended up looking a few up, just to see where I needed to build, because I would spend a while trying to build in the wrong spot. But yea, I think this was a really great addition to help keep the pacing going when I got REALLY stuck. I'm quite stubborn with puzzle games, but sometimes I'd rather keep a game moving so I can get to the next one. There are so many good games out there and I want to experience as many as I can. I am shocked that this game has a recent score of 85%. Granted, it has a 95% overall. Still, it's the type of game I would assume would be 95% recent as well. It's just so damn good. The gripes I read seem unfounded. If you want to be handheld, I'd say puzzle games in general aren't for you. If you think the game is too easy or uninspired, try 100%ing the game without any hints (I certainly needed a few), because you will find some insanely complicated and creative solutions to some of the secrets. My first playthrough took 50 hours to get 85% of the islands and 1/3 of the secrets. This playthrough took the same amount of time. So I think an honest first playthrough for me would have taken around 70 hours. Some of the negative reviews are after a few hours and at that point, you've only scratched the surface. That isn't to say there aren't many who put in plenty of hours and still disliked it, and I think that's fair. I just think these people are looking at the game through the wrong lens. Take a game like SSR. 99% of SSR is linear. Yes you can do pockets of the game in any order you chose, but it's all progressing linearally through each area towards the end. This game doesn't really have an end. I mean, it sort of does, but the game is barely starting at that point. The point of this game, besides being fun and challenging, is to figure out how to get to every island and get every secret in this giant mess of interconnected islands. There were plenty of forks in the road where I could have gone one way, or another, and I doubt anyone's playthrough is remotely similar. But yea, this game is great. One of my favorite puzzle games. The asking price is more than fair for what you get. If it's on sale, it's a steal.

Well crafted sokoban-style puzzle game with a level of challenge that feels just right on the main path and with multiple levels of extra challenge if desired (optional exhibits, which I got many of, and the hidden snowmen, which I think I got none of!). The "rule discovery" aspect of the game is handled pretty well, and everything felt reasonably intuitive. The graphics and the humor in the exhibitions are pleasant and charming.

A lovely puzzle game. Charming and challenging.

Wasn't expecting the natural progression of islands to offer so many unique solutions to puzzles with the same three items. How did they do it? How did they make so many islands? How is pushing logs so fucking fun?