Empty and lifeless cities are often associated with crisis, terror or a viral outbreak in games. As you make your way through these desolate cities, you communicate with survivors or individuals who tell you their story as you start to piece small segments of information together by interacting with the inhabitants. Monochroma, the latest release from Nowhere Studios, tells the story of one boy and his struggle to try and escape a dictatorship which has seen a vast city lose all hope for a normal way of life.

As the game begins, you assume the role of a young boy who is caring for his younger brother and you have no idea where you are heading or what you are doing. All you know is that you won’t get far standing still and you need to explore further ground. For a game which attempts to tell the story through environments you come across, you would expect there to be a lot of objects telling you what has happened or leave it up to you to put the pieces together with certain events, but there isn’t much of this at all. While not being very informative at the best of times Monochroma does provide some decent narrative moments throughout and sets the tone early on.

One of the sections at the start comes as a complete surprise and is harrowing to say the least. Without spoiling anything, it comes out of nowhere and makes you wonder how this fits in with everything else. With the game having a similar art style to Limbo and a similar story telling method to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and Limbo again, it isn’t as effective as these games and you are still left with a lot of questions at the end. For a story which had previewed as being focused on a compelling story, it seems as though this aspect reduces Monochroma’s story delivery.

Monochroma is a 2D platforming game, but it also heavily relies on intricate puzzles to challenge the player and certainly accomplishes this. As you progress through each area, you have to move through the level with your younger brother on your back. As you carry his weight, you can’t jump as high or as far as you would normally. This means that you need to place your brother down in order to complete certain puzzles. One of the stipulations is that he can only be placed in direct light and, although this isn’t explained, it’s something you adapt to quickly.

Some of the puzzles do require a lengthy thought process as you have to take so many things into consideration, especially later in the game. Many of the puzzles see you using your younger brother as a weight or object you require to reach another area and this is one of the finest aspects of the game. Unlike dedicated puzzle games which see you constantly using the same tactics, Monochroma uses various ideas to use your brother to make your journey easier so that both of you can survive. As much as the puzzles are a strong point for the game the platforming leaves a lot to be desired.

Up, down, left and right keys have never had the same reliability as a controller and Monochroma is no different. You use the keys to move in the mentioned directions but it ends up feeling like a sluggish and delayed platformer in this regard. It reminded me of the recent Castle of Illusion HD remake where the button presses seemed to be delayed compared to Mickey’s movement. I don’t think the reactions in Monochroma are as bad as this, but they are far from perfect and often proves to be a stumbling block. I can think of numerous times where nothing less than perfect was required and it all depended on luck rather than skill in various areas. One occasional event you have to deal with is that you are chased by a man is a striped jumper and vehicles as well. Some of these set pieces are well constructed but some come down to sheer luck.

As I have been reporting on the development of this game, I was well aware of the focus on the art style and how wonderful it looked. As I mentioned, it is reminiscent of Limbo and it would be hard to say that Nowhere Studios weren’t influenced by aforementioned game. The only colours used in Monochroma are black, white, grey and red and the vibrant red certainly stands out. The protagonist constantly wears a red scarf and your attention is drawn to it when looking at the main character. The rain is pouring down more often than not and it does look great when considering the simple colour palette. The sound design is wonderful as well and adds to the harrowing feel of the environment and adds to the panic when you’re being chased down by enemies. With the platforming mechanics being frustrating, I did find that the music did become annoying around the 8th time I retried one section. The sound effects are still great, but the lack of narration does affect how much the story meant to me.

From preview stage, it seemed as though Nowhere Studios were onto a winner with Monochroma as it had everything going for it. Sadly this hasn’t passed onto the final game and it’s a great shame. You can see just how much the game meant to the developers who took the setting and story from their own experiences but it doesn’t all add up. A wonderful looking game filled with intricate puzzles is marred by poor controls and a story which leaves you asking plenty of questions rather than reflecting on an excellent experience. Hopefully Nowhere Studios can learn from this game and their next title can be something special; the signs are there, but Monochroma isn’t all it could have been.

Monochroma is available now on Steam for £14.99.

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