REVIEW : Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp (PC)
The success of multiplayer dating sim Monster Prom has pushed a sequel that’s leading us into the summer of love. Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp puts you on a bus full of mysterious and bizarre beast teens and sends you off to camp, where your aim is to get a date to the meteorite shower. Fewer things are more romantic than stargazing, and you’ve only got a few weeks to make some magic happen.
This One Time at Monster Camp…
Monster Camp’s single-player mode provides you with the choice between a short, 30-minute game and a longer, 60-minute run. It’s mostly a narrative game with little to do other than reading dialogue and click around, so most of your participation will include answering multiple-choice questions. When you step onto the bus taking you away to summer camp, you’ll meet six separate eligible beasts, all of whom have unique artwork and characters. After you receive introductions to these characters, listen to a little contextual narration, and pack your backpack full of items like pocket therapists and competitive tarot decks, you’ll be asked your first question.
Your answer to this problem pairs you with the romantic suitor who best suits your answer, and this match will be the star of your story moving forward. The first issue I received asked me what my beloved animal was, and naturally, I said badgers, because they don’t give a fuck. I was immediately set up with Damien; the hot, bad-boy demon with a love for chaos and disruption.
Though there are six distinct eligible monsters, there’s little you can do to control which one you end up with. You’ll have opportunities to sit next to the others around the campfire at night, but the communications triggered are usually platonic, and they’ll seldom show up in your scenarios during the day. It’s a little unlucky that the game drives you in one direction with no way to diverge from it, but it’s effective in reeling you back in to play various rounds to encounter new characters.
Graveyard Smash
Chapters in Monster Camp are broken up into different “weeks,” which are just mornings, afternoons, and nights that are spent around a campfire. During the day, you get to choose from the five places on the map, which include places like the lake, the woods, and the camp dome. Scenarios of varying involvement will trigger from there. Certain situations will prompt long-winded conversation where you get to make choices, and others will simply award you with points just for existing that go to your stats.
Your stats consist of sections such as Smarts, Boldness, Creativity, Charm and Fun, and the way you answer to the different scenarios can either beef up your stats or decrease them significantly. Because your romantic interest in the middle of nearly all these events, you will have to choose the answers they like the best, and in return, they’ll give you stat points. I found that it was pretty hard to pick the wrong answer, but in general, you’re not even asked too many questions to begin with. The bulk of this game really is reading and sitting idly by, so don’t expect much thrilling gameplay.
Your most active participation happens around the campfire. After choosing a seat and conversing with the other monsters nearby, you’ll play a drinking game. It takes a little while to figure out exactly how the minigame works because you aren’t given a comprehensive explanation upfront, but it’s quite simple. A board with various drink cards will be shown, and you’ll have to choose a drink without actually knowing what it is. Other players will try to bump you off your square, and after the time limit is reached, whatever card you land on will be the juice you receive. Each drink has various stats, and the more you play, the more easily you will become with which ones you want to go for. It’s a nice change in pace from the narrative nature of the rest of the game but it could stand to require a little more from the player to make it feel more appealing.
Replayable Adventure
If you enjoy narrative games or dating sims and require one that you can also play online. Monster Camp offers plenty of different situations and stories that you’ll rarely experience twice.
There are nearly 350 different events to experience, not including the secret events you can open, and over 1,000 total outcomes to witness.
REVIEW : HyperBrawl Tournament (PC)
