Also On: PC
Publisher: Nowhere Studios
Developer: Nowhere Studios
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: T
In a way, I kind of feel sorry for Monochroma. If it had come out a couple of years ago, it probably wouldโve garnered some attention for its stylish visuals, sparse score, and challenging puzzles. Instead, coming as it does now, itโs doomed to be written off as a Limbo clone.
Admittedly, this is because it is a Limbo clone, when you get right down to it. The visuals, while a little more colorful than Limboโs black and white palette, still owe a pretty clear debt to Playdeadโs smash hit. Likewise, while the game may have added twist of an extra character you need to lug around, thereโs a pretty straight line going from the 2010 gameโs puzzle-platforming to the gameplay here, right down to the abundance of opportunities to die in all kinds of fantastically morbid ways.
So Monochroma isnโt going to win points or awards for originality. But so what? Iโve always thought that originality is highly overrated. What matters is whether developers can do something interesting with what theyโre drawing inspiration from, and on that front, Nowhere Studios do a pretty decent job.
Take the graphics, for instance. Yes, Monochroma borrows pretty heavily from Limbo (or Badland, or Nihilumbra, or any other of the other sparsely-colored games of the last few years). But that doesnโt mean itโs any less effective in creating a visually-striking world. Splashes of red can trigger all kinds of different emotions, while the use of light and shadow give everything an eerie, unsettling vibe. Whatever Monochroma may lack in terms of originality, it more than makes up for by being hauntingly pretty.
Likewise, the gameplay will seem awfully familiar to anyone who played Limbo at any point on any platform since its release in 2010, but Monochroma still does a good job of providing players with a puzzle-platformer that doesnโt skimp on either side of that genre name. Itโs a game that challenges you to think everything through, giving just enough hints that nothing ever seems impossible, while at the same time throwing in enough twists that it wonโt seem like a total walk in the park. The latter is particularly important since, like Limbo, this is a game that wants to kill you in all kinds of ways, whether itโs by drowning or fire or falling from a great height (among other things).
Itโs important to note that for all the areas in which Monochroma borrows from other games (er, game), thereโs one facet in which it excels entirely on its own: its music. True, it didnโt come up with the concept of a sparse score on its own, but that doesnโt make its minimalistic use of sound any less effective. Thereโs a skill to using musical cues at just the right time, and Monochroma has that timing down pat.
Of course, for most people itโll be easy to overlook that one thing Monochroma does well on its own in favour of focusing on all the ways the game benefits from reflected glory. And while I canโt say that this viewpoint is without merit โ after all, even Iโd concede that this game owes its very existence to Limbo โ I will say that ignoring the game entirely because of that would be pretty foolish, too. Ignore Monochromaโs provenance and forget about its place in a broader context, and just focus on whatโs here โ and on that count, it delivers.