Monochroma

Awesome!

The controls and gameplay are frustrating. Go buy INSIDE instead.

Monochroma is a puzzle platformer made by Turkish people and the reason why I'm pointing out the ethnicity of the developers is the due to fact that we don't have many original ideas coming out of our country and Monochroma is one of those original ideas. It's clear that LIMBO is a big inspiration for Monochroma since it bears heavy similarities with it in terms of style. However, while having a great story, a unique art style, great puzzles and a wonderful soundtrack, it doesn't do a good job when it comes to controls and optimization. Your momentum cuts off whenever you jump and that is unacceptable in a platformer in my opinion. The performance of the game is very poor as well since I've had constant FPS drops despite having a powerful PC. Considering it's the first game of the studio, the problems I've mentioned above can be overlooked and for the year it came out, I'd say they did a pretty good job overall. I won't say anything about the story because I believe it's best enjoyed when experienced blind. I'll just let you know that you'll be carrying your brother a lot while dealing with cleverly thought puzzles. In short, Monochroma is worth playing if you're into puzzle platformers but if controls are a deal-breaker for you, I can totally understand that.

If you played and liked games like Limbo and Inside, you should definitely check out Monochroma. They added the colour red right next to the black and white and it looks awesome.

Very well put together title. The presentation and atmosphere were excellent. Controls were nice and tight with my Xbox 360 controller. I have no complaints about this title save for the ending (which I won't spoil) that seemed... unresolved. Hopefully a sequel is in the works.

If you enjoyed Limbo and Inside, this game is very easy to recommend. It has it's similarities to those two amazing games yet stands up on its own...

Monochroma has a lot going for it, interesting art style, cool puzzle platforming and an intriguing visual storytelling approach. Unfortunately, clunky gameplay and bugs hold it back from being a memorable experience. If you're interested in this kind of game, check out Limbo or Inside.

It's another Limbo inspired platformer. Same black&white aehstetics, similar peculiar world, identical puzzle mechanics. It does not bring innovative stuff and it just tries too recycle the old ones. It still could have succeed but unfortunately there are some negative aspects that won't let the the good stuff shine.

Pros:
* Good visuals and sound design
* Interesting mysterious world
* An ok story

Cons:
* Feels slow and sluggish
* Mediocre puzzles
* Some platforming bugs and glitches
* Annoying character movement animation
* Long and frequent loading screens

Monochroma is one of the underrated and unfortunate titles of cinematic puzzle-platformer genre. Due to visual and mechanical similarities it is hard to not to compare it to Playdead's indie hit Limbo. However, Monochroma offers more complex mechanics, musics and visuals that some of them were clearly inspired film noir movies as well as Schindler's List.

Injured young brother mechanic offers different gameplay styles by letting player consider different movement speed and jump height. However, not being able to leave the young brother in the dark and not being able to go far away from him makes the mechanic a bit dull. It would be more thrilling and creative to provide a relative time limit of leaving him in the dark and/or alone which would create many possibilities. Current form creates invisible walls that I'm not fond of.

Level variety is as satisfying as it can get; the game starts in rural environments; second chapter takes place in urban places; third chapter is located in manufacturing facilities and the final chapter let's protagonist to wander around classical furniture. Visual variety provided in second and at the end of third chapter is quite impressive.

HOWEVER... As the game uses an early version of Unity engine which should be from Unity 4.x branch given the release date, controls in particular are not well optimized. Launch version of the game suffered from that problem which resulted low review scores; later on some of controls problems were fixed but it was already late. Honestly, controls are still not precise enough which is a shame. Let me give you a hint; if you need to jump to pass an obstacle, wait until the edge of the platform you are on, otherwise it is easy to misland. It looks like developers didn't have time to make some jumps more forgiving in order to compensate unoptimized controls.

Ending of the game is probably the weakest part of entire experience; it feels rushed, unpolished and annoying. To avoid obvious spoilers, I can say transition between phases are mediocre at best. That is probably the only portion of the game that frustrated me to the core... I wish the studio had more time to make the final scene better.

As far as I know, during the development of the game, political turmoil in the country caused street riots some of them took place near the office of Nowhere Studios in 2013; in fact employees were affected by tear gas in one point. That might explain clunky controls and tiresome ending due to production environment and time constrains but later updates left some of the issues mentioned unfixed.

If you loved Limbo and looking for even more, Monochroma is a great title for you. But if you have concerns about controls, just wait for a sale, then grab it. Lastly, Gevende composed original music of the title that can also be listened in Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3KQ7C2J7f6ZrF2c5G5y72k

Monochroma's gameplay is punishing, but fails to be fun. It introduces an interesting mechanic in the carrying of another child which reduces your capacity to run and jump and requires you to set him down at times, but the mechanic isn't well utilized for much of the first part of the game. The level design forgos creativity in favor of tedium, stretches of mere walking, and long waits for level events or cutscenes that must be repeated after an error. Granted, I didn't make it through the whole game, which may eventually present compelling design, but I played well past my threshold for boredom until the game became tedious enough that I had to stop.

I most enjoyed the music and I appreciated the overall aesthetic. The story finally picked up somewhat where I stopped playing, but it proved not enough motivation to keep trudging along. The game could use some general polish, but the fundamental platforming design is what really hurts it.

It's a shame that Monochroma ended up this way, as there are sparks of brilliance buried within. There is a real qualitiy to the sound and level design, which really add to the atmosphere and the puzzles could have been challenging with a little extra work. But the poor controls and the frequent frame-rate issues hamper this puzzle platformer. If you liked Limbo, do yourself a favor and go buy INSIDE instead.

+ Sound design
+ Atmospheric

- Performance issues
- Controls
- More frustrating than challenging

Monochroma, a game which harkens back to sidescroller era and tries to offer modernized gameplay in sidescroller genre but the game has a major design flaw and that flaw is how the player is never introduced to the mechanics of the game. First few levels that act as "tutorial" have nothing of the sort explained what you're about to face in the game. So you have most of the time no idea what the hell you're supposed to do and most likely due to that, you will die quite a few times until you've just had enough and gonna go watch a walkthrough how to proceed forward from the section you're stuck at.

I got this game cheap but I can't help but admit that it was waste of my money, since the game is very frustrating due to "die to proceed -> watch walkthrough -> die to proceed -> watch walkthrough". It's not impossible to make a game that is legitimately hard/unforgiving but also fun and passable/understandable. This game is not that since you're expected to do things you have no idea about.

Game runs kinda smooth but it's sad to say that it also ignores the AMD framecap settings I'm trying to use and instead the game flies between 93-1000frames. Menus are usually ridiciolously high 600fps in this and the game is 93-170 which is quite annoying.

Visuals are decent and not really anything that should be complained about. Audio has nice reverbation effects but the panning/spatialization on audio is certainly quite bad. Atleast when played on a pair of headphones, usually if a train forexample is coming from the right, the audio is on the very end of right side, making it sound odd and this is how it is with every piece of audio in this game, the spatialization is very bad.

Game cannot be recommended since the sidescroller genre offers better games for the same price and offer more also value for your spent money.

Monochroma looked so good on the store page, but once I started playing it I quickly realised just what kind of puzzle platformer it is. The controls feel slow and floaty, and the key to making a precise jump is to press jump before you actually want to go up. I think the thing that bothered me most about this game was that you break your brothers leg and have to carry him around, and you can only put him down in spots that are well lit because you are a nice guy - that part is okay, I guess, but it falls apart when you can only leave him under a street lamp in the rain where you're going to lower a shipping container (which will crush him if you're not quick enough to pick him up after you pull the lever), but you aren't allowed to put him down next to the lever that lowers the container which is not only well lit, but it's also out of the rain and not under threat of being crushed. The puzzle plaforming just doesn't seem well thought out in some spots, which will probably cause me not to bother coming back to this, which is a shame because it looked so interesting.

If you liked Limbo, this is very reminiscent of that. Dark and moody, no voice dialogue, imprecise floaty controls, and many industrial-themed environmental deaths to be had.

4/10 Would not break my brother's leg again. Well, maybe.

Alright, as a good friend of mine would say, this one is done and dusted. It took me around 4 hours to finish, although those of you who are platformer stars could finish this in 2 hours most likely.

It is a beautiful game in the spirit of games like Limbo. Mostly black and white and grey, but with red highlighting special things and used to accent the striking world portrayed. Simply put, this game is stunning.

The game is also fairly deep into the topics of slavery and forced labor, by way of an alien invasion kidnapping all the children. You and your brother try to evade capture in this crazy adventure. There is a bit of surrealism or what have you here as well. You leave home to play, and really never see your home again. The ending is one of hope and sacrifice.

The controls for the gamepad handle quite nicely. I had no issues with clipping or any of the other issues that can plague games. In fact, as far as I could tell, it was perfectly optimized and free of bugs.

It has a nice save system that auto saves at each juncture or before any challenging or significant event and also saves after getting past the same. That means that when you die (and you will likely die a lot), you never have to go too far back, and so even with the more challenging sections, it never feels like a chore.

Speaking of challenges, this game was quite challenging IMO. Not that everything was, but I found that some of the puzzles could stretch the mind trying to find the solution. Still, with a 4 hour playtime, obviously nothing was insurmountable. In fact, I would say it was just right for the type of game that it is.

All in all, this one is an easy recommendation.
8 children escaping the clutches of their alien overlords out of 10 possible.

If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, it would be appreciated. Cheers.
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/

TL;DR play limbo instead, and if you have played limbo better play limbo again.

The +

Really good universe/environment
50% more colours than limbo (white black and red with mixxes!!!)
Nice music, quite fitting!
Has some interesting puzzles given the game mechanics

The -

This game could have been so much more, there are aspects of its story totally left unused and unexplained, generally speaking they could have focused more on delivering the story rather than making big levels.
In terms of story you can pretty much get the idea of what is it about from the trailers in the store page after that the only thing more to that is the reason you are being hunted (and that is the only thing explained in the game).
Gamewise they could use a lot more some mechanics like the robot which given the trailers sees litle use in game.
In terms of controls I found some jumps to be clunky, meaning you could fail them because you did not press the direction key the right momment (keep in mind this is a puzzle game not a platformer).
In my oppinion it does not worth 20 euros and given that i got it on sale (80% I think) I believe its not even worth the 4 euros I spent on it.
Lastly the ending is remarkably dissapointing and while i have 2,7 hours on this game it took less than 2 to finish it, the rest I left it running in the end screen just to see if anything was gona happen...

This game is amazing! Beautiful visuals and music, and clever gameplay. One of the best puzzle platformers I've ever played. It keeps getting compared to Limbo, but I think I enjoyed Monochroma more. I just wish little brother was ... more helpful.

I found the game to be enjoyable, but slow. The story was okay. I thought it was going to be a deeper story about the brothers, but it seems more like a game against big business, big brother, and the greed and tyranny that they produce. The story is not told in words, but rather the gameplay so it is possible I interpret this differently than the game intended. I felt the music was good, but the problem is that it seems to rarely be there. Sort of sets a very boring/quiet tone. But when the music plays, it really seems to enhance the experience.

Out of the 4 hours I played to beat it, about a third to a half of that time was waiting on loading and death reloads. Oh, I didn't mention the game takes about 30 seconds to load inbetween each death. Maybe this is just me, but my computer can run games like the Batman Arkham series with very little loading, so why does this game take more than 5 seconds to load? And you will die alot due to trial and error, a format I don't mind, but don't think I should die about 10 times in the same spot and wait 30 seconds each time.

The character feels sluggish. Not sure how to accurately describe it other than saying that the control of the character seems imprecise. Since I also played Never Alone, a game about the Alaskian native tribes, I would recommend that game over this to get a similar experience. And the two play differently, but I feel Never Alone is the better game in the genre, even though I ran into a few bug that didn't break the game.

I don't feel this is worth the retail price, though it may be a good for some at a steep discount.

Monochroma is a very interesting platformer. Without any story told, you will pickup your little brother and help him go through all the obstacles you are facing and escape from bad people.

Pro:
-Graphics: The graphics are REALLY good. I love the black'n white with hint of red style. Feels reqlly unique (despite this is not the first platformer who offer this, check out Limbo an excellent platformer).
-Sound: The music is really good, feels like 1950's musics, with a bit a jazz, it is a good experience for your ears.
-Puzzles: Puzzles feels rewarding when solved, almost all of them are well designed, there some that could use a visual hint or two (like the double lift, I was looking at the wrong solution for quite a long time, had to look up for the solution as I couldn't see it but just the one I was trying which at some point seemed possible). I tink sometimes visual hints to go backward could have been good.
-Story: Despite being without any background, this is a success I think. You understand things one bit at a time, the background is the narrator. The story told here is not very big, it rely mostly on helping your brother. You get attached to that task.


Cons:
-Controls: Controls are sluggish at time. It is not that important except when you need to do timed jump, and at that time the game gets frustrating. The tutorial was not clear enough about the jumping system, as I was succeeding all my jump, I didn't give any thought at first, and then you are in a chase scene and you need to do thing fast and it is not well responding, then you start yelling at your jump. Specially on the achievement Conscience to save a robot from crushing under a press. Looked up a playthrough online, and the layout of the button was different from mine (perhaps a different build than the final one), You have to do some timed jumps and be very reactive, I was trying really hard for at least 15min, then doing more or less the same thing as before, the jump activated as wished and I was able to complete it.
I should'nt stop you from completing the game but a bit of polishing on the control would have been good.
-Bugs: I found some bugs, mostly collision, when that happens you are a bit in a bind as you have to restart the whole checkpoint, despite them being well spread it's still a bummer.

To conlude:
I finished the game in about 4h (a bit more with the achievement of the robot), found 9 out of 16 secrets (I will probably look up for info in order to get them all).
Will you, like me, help your brother? I do hope so.
I do recommend this game to people who like platformers (specially if you liked Limbo, this one should be in your taste).

Luuna.

This is a lovely platformer with a great idea, solid execution which sets the mood right. It's similar in its execution to limbo gives more focus on logic and physics puzzles. Couple of pros anc cons:

Pros:

- Imaginative use of physics to solve puzzles
- Chase scenes where you are trying to escape the foreman are quite well executed and built tension
- If you die or get caught you will restart fairly close by so its not frustrating
- Dull grey scenery is very well accented by reds and along with background music sets the mood

Cons:

- Controls can feel at times sluggish, this is mostly evident when you are trying to time a jump but you get used to it and overall not a big problem
- The game does not try and hold your hand, you have to figure out how you can use the environment to your advantage. Not necessarily a con, just could have been handled/introduced a bit better.
- Bugs! I've encountered a few and save for the last one on the very last level they are not blockers on making progress. That said on the last level I had to die and restart because the game simply did not position things right

Overall, great game with some flaws. Still recommend a playthrough for people into platformers. 7/10

Monochroma is more like a sleep-time story for adults. Its mostly dark, a bit melancholic, "monochromic". Also Monochroma achieved to tell itself without any word, just events. Atmosphere is extremely good, with its "black-white-red" art style and great soundtrack. If u wanna play a puzzle-platformer with good story-telling and solve some medium-level challenging puzzles, dont miss it.
8/10

unfortunately I cannot recommend this game on Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit with Nvidia GFX-650. 20% of the way through the game it no longer starts. just crashes the game and sometimes locks up steam and the computer as well. I reached out in the forum but have not heard from the developer with any ideas, just silence. up to that point it was pretty fun but since I can no longer play it and it crashes steam, I cannot recommend it.

I just heard from the developer, they are aware of the issue and are trying to find what is causing it for Linux users. I have sent whatever info I can to help so hopefully this will be fixed soon. If I am able to continue playing with no more technical issues I will definitely recommend the game as I don't have any controls issues etc, that some are claiming.

I cannot recommend this game because I found it much more frustating than anything else.

There are some quite good things about this game:
* the art style is quite reminiscent of Limbo, largely murky greyscale (not much use of sharp contrasting black and white) with and the ocassional splash of red which makes it a bit less dull. The game is a 2d platformer but the background and foreground that you can't interact with are used well to conjure the world and tell the story
* the menu allows you to revisit bits of the game that you've already completed, so if you've missed collecting secrets or want to replay a bit you liked then you can do that without needing to replay through from the beginning.
* check points are spaced fairly closely together, so when you die you usually don't lose too much progress.

But mostly I'm afraid that I found it a frustrating experience, without much fun.

* No attempt to develop connection to brother
The main gimmick of this game is that your brother has broken his leg, and cannot walk so you must carry him everywhere, and because he is afraid of the dark you can only put him down in (very infrequent) spotlights. Because do not spend much time with your brother before he breaks his leg you don't develop much connection to him. He makes you jump less high and he basically just feels like a burden, because he does nothing for you, and doesn't interact with you very much.
The story would have much more impact if your brother had more depth, if he had a personality and you could develop a connection to him, instead of just feeling like he's a burden.

* Long reload times and not infrequent deaths
Each time you die it takes about 5 seconds to reload. That is quite frustrating in and of itself, but it is also quite easy to die, some of the jumping puzzles require a fair amount of precision, and some of the puzzles require a bit of experimentation to see how things work, so unless you are pyschic you won't work out how to solve it without dying at least once.

* Bugs - not many
The game is a little buggy, a few times I have passed through walls and floors that I shouldn't have been able to, but it doesn't happen so often that this is a big problem. Dying takes you back to the latest checkpoint which isn't far away, and solves any problem that the bug would have caused.

* Slow and unfun controls
Platformers often have characters who are very nimble and are fun to control, and much of the fun comes from the sense of agility that the game gives you. In this game your character is a bit slow, and while you are carrying your brother you can jump less high.
In Limbo, and to some extent this game, the unfun controls to some extent serves to make you feel less powerful than you normally do in platformers. In Limbo that feeling of powerfulness and lack of fun emphasises what the game is about. Here it also makes you feel not very powerful, but less so than Limbo because you can still make a jump equal to your height even when carrying your brother. So while there are design reasons for these limits on your abilities the effect makes you feel weak, but not really that much, and is still not fun.

* Punishing puzzles
Almost all of the puzzles are not very difficult, and can be solved mostly through trial and error, but some are rather fussy about their timing and it often feels like the fault of the controls that you fail.
In a lot of platformers you have a range of abilities and solving puzzles involves combining them in an interesting way. Here you can only run and jump, which limits the range of puzzles/challenges to timing/precision based puzzles (which the slow controls don't really lend themselves to), and interacting with objects.

As I said above the puzzles often require experimentation, which is okay in and of itself, but you will die quite a few times because of this and the slow pace, unfun controls and long reload times make the puzzle solving feel more chorish than fun. Often you quickly workout the key idea of the puzzle, but sorting out the details involves dying a few times, and repeating the bits you've already done.

* No camera control
It is quite helpful in platforming games to look up or down, so you can tell where you need to go next, but here you have no control. So sometimes you make leaps downward to explore and maybe find a secret, but you just die.

* Short - I completed the game in 7 hours
I do not think that this is a big deal: Short experiences can be much more rewarding than some longer experiences. But some people do think this important, so I feel it should be mentioned.


This game is by no means terrible, and if you can forgive unfun controls for pretty art and an okay story then it might be worth getting this game. But even then I think there are games out there that do that better.