I’m a few hours into A Monster’s Expedition now, and I am stuck. I’ve been stuck lots of times already, of course, because that’s the nature of puzzle games – but not this stuck. This one’s a killer: I’ve ended up on an island which looks much simpler than most of the scores of others I’ve been through, but I’m stuck in a sort of micro one-way system that is impossible – I’m telling you, – to get through. You have to push down a tree in a specific direction first – there’s only one direction you can push it from – and then that tree is in the way of the other one I need to use as a bridge to where I’m headed next. But here’s the real problem: I’m not certain this is the only way. On this island is a post box. Post boxes let you fast travel to other post boxes (don’t think too hard about it) and I can tell, on the other side of this little island, there’s much more land. Maybe I’m supposed to go solve another island somewhere else, and get to this one from the other way?
A Monster’s Expedition reviewDeveloper: Draknek and Friends, Alan Hazelden, Pip Warr, Adam deGrandis, Benjamin Davis, Eli RainsberryPublisher: Draknek, Alan HazeldenPlatform: Reviewed on PCAvailability: Out today on PC and iOS
So off I go, teleporting around A Monster’s Expedition’s wonderful not-so-little map solving every last half-puzzle I’d left unsolved. , I say maybe out loud, maybe not, . One of them needs to get me on a raft, up the top, round the back, to that other island instead of the post box one where I was stuck. I’ve tried that one for hours and there simply cannot be another way. Impossible. Impassable. I’ve spent too long on it and I am not that stupid that I’ve missed something here.
Reader, I won’t tell you the solution but I will tell you this: when in doubt, you are always that stupid.
A Monster’s Expedition – launch trailer Watch on YouTube
Such is the joy of A Monster’s Expedition! A good puzzle game is a reminder that you are always the idiot – never the puzzle – and A Monster’s Expedition is a very good puzzle game. It’s the latest from Draknek, a small indie team with a history of great puzzlers in Sokobond, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build and Cosmic Express, and in the developer’s own words it’s a little longer than any of those previous ones, but the spirit is the same. This time, you are a small monster with a nice backpack, who arrives on one island and must, essentially, push down little trees and roll them into little bridges to cross to new islands and explore. Each island is its own conundrum, but every couple of islands you pass through has a little exhibit to break things up: assorted items from the long-passed human world, with accompanying curator’s description that never quite gets it.