Do Not Feed the Monkeys

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Do Not Feed the Monkeys is a Graphic Adventure where players take the role of a new inductee in something called The Primate Observation Club, which is another way of saying a group of people who have installed hidden cameras in various private homes and other places and use them to spy on random people. Players are tasked with voyeuristically snooping into the lives of the people appearing on multiple screens while at the same time maintaining their own personal lives.

This game makes use of a pixel art style that works well enough for the game, and all of the characters you see are pretty distinct and memorable. The game also does a good job mimicking a computer interface, and while it’s mostly devoid of music, you’ll often have environmental sounds or muffled music playing in another room to heighten the sense of realism.

The gameplay here is interesting, and fairly unique for the genre. It makes use of elements of old FMV games like Night Trap that have you multitasking between multiple channels, but makes things a bit easier on you by notifying you when an event is happening in a location. Events aren’t just one-time affairs, either – most of the people you’re watching fall into a routine, and as such you can usually glean information from that routine on any given day. However, that’s not your only source of information here – players are encouraged to take down notes both regarding what’s visible onscreen as well as highlighted words from conversations, and these terms can be searched individually or in pairs on the game’s facsimile of Google to find more information. They can also, upon discovering contact information, break the Club’s cardinal rule: “Do not feed the monkeys”, which is their way of saying that you’re not supposed to interact with the people you’re spying on.

For the cautious or ethical among you, I’m going to save you some trouble and headache right now – this purported cardinal rule is one you’re pretty much always intended to be breaking. Each of the rooms you’re spying on is largely a self-contained vignette of sorts, and often the only way to see it through to conclusion is to do something that involves interacting with one of the characters within it, usually by contacting them directly via phone, E-Mail, or instant message after digging up their contact info on the search engine.

One other bit of headache-saving advice: before this game starts, players are given an optional checkbox to click that can ease up on the resource management side of the game. Unless you’re a pro with Graphic Adventures looking for a challenge, go ahead and click it. See, while you’re spying, you also have to take care of eating, sleeping, maintaining their general health, and keeping track of their funds. Not only does your landlady demand rent every three days (Seriously? Every three days?), but The Primate Observation Club hates stagnation and will cancel your membership if you do not consistently spend in-game money to purchase additional “cages” (read: buy access to more hidden cameras). Players can take side-jobs to earn cash, but this eats up valuable time. Clicking this checkbox before starting can make this part of the process feel less like a frustrating chore (though it won’t remove these requirements outright).

If you go in knowing this stuff, I feel like you’ll have an easier time getting into this game, and there’s a lot to like here. The scenarios you become privy to are varied, interesting, and feature good writing and characterization. However, there’s a fair amount of frustration that goes along with this as well. It can often feel like stabbing in the dark to search for terms or combinations of search terms, many of which seemlike they should come up with something worthwhile, but end up leading nowhere. This can lead to players feeling frustrated at not knowing how to move forward with a story and properly “close” it.

Another source of frustration is that many of the camera images players are given will be pointless and show nothing of interest. On the one hand, it’s nice that they add variety, and things are already busy enough without every screen lighting up with activity, but it seems to run counter to this idea that you’re paying for access to hidden videos of people who don’t know they’re being watched when those videos can depict a chicken coop without any people, a fully-automated factory, or a remote wheat field. I feel like, if I were the sort of person to pay for hidden cameras, I would demand my money back for this junk.

One other issue of note here is the controls. They’re not good. It’s pretty obvious that this is a game originally intended for use with a mouse, as the player simulates mouse movement using the analog stick. Players can also hop between selectable options using the D-Pad, but their layout on-screen is often such that it can be difficult or even impossible to choose the one you want this way. In addition, the button assignments are a mess, assigning the same button to “close window”, “close program” and “open notebook”, which repeatedly led to accidentally closing programs when I meant to do something else. I should note that this game does make use of touchscreen controls in handheld mode, but they’re extremely finicky and require absolute precision or you’ll select the wrong thing.

I’m not gonna’ sugarcoat it, Do Not Feed the Monkeys has loads of problems, and it would have been nice if more work had gone into addressing these various issues. However, having said that, the premise here is excellent, the writing is good, and the varied scenarios you’re presented with are tantalizing enough to make you want to push past these frustrations to see more. If you’re new to the genre, definitely click on the option for easier resource management before starting, definitely don’t feel like you have to follow the rule about not interacting with the “monkeys”, and probably feel free to consult a guide online if you get stuck. Fans of Graphic Adventures, however, will find this a refreshing and clever take on the genre.

tl;dr – Do Not Feed the Monkeys is a Graphic Adventure that has the player joining a club of voyeurs spying on people via hidden cameras while managing their own day-to-day lives. It’s a clever spin on the genre, and features good writing and interesting scenarios, although it isn’t without its problems too – the controls are terrible, and sometimes digging for information can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, overall the good qualities outweigh the bad, and fans of the genre should definitely give it a look.

Grade: B-

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