A Monster’s Expedition

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Draknek and Friends Puzzle Bundle, along with Sokobond, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, and Cosmic Express. It is also in Draknek & Friends Puzzle Bundle (5 Games), along with the above mentioned games as well as Bonfire Peaks. Additionally, this game is included in Draknek & Friends Puzzle Bundle (6 Games), along with all of the above mentioned games, as well as Bonfire Peaks and Patrick’s Parabox. However, none of those bundles are currently available, although one bundle that is still available is Draknek and Friends Puzzle Bundle (2024), which contains all of the games named above plus Sokobond Express.)

A Monster’s Expedition, alternately known by its longer title, A Monster’s Expedition Through Puzzling Exhibitions, is a family-friendly Puzzle game first released on PC and mobile devices in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game puts players in the role of a cuddly black “monster” wearing an orange backpack, who is visiting an outdoor museum of sorts on a chain of islands, and must figure out how to topple trees and push around their logs to form bridges to other islands.

A Monster’s Expedition features a simple presentation, using simple, cartoony 3D models for the character and brightly-colored environments, with a few nice effects like some nice-looking water and clouds. This is backed by a dreamy acoustic soundtrack that perfectly fits the relaxed nature of the game, and responds to the gameplay with players’ actions producing the game’s music, which has a lovely effect of immersing players deeper into the gameplay. While the overall presentation isn’t necessarily impressive, it is nevertheless endearing in a way that suits the game very well.

However, one of the more delightful elements of the presentation here has to be the “exhibits” scattered across the game’s islands, relics of a human society (that the monsters call Englandland) that seems to perplex the monsters, who often misunderstand our society in wonderfully amusing ways, or simply make things up out of whole cloth.

The very first exhibit, for example, is a model of a human museum that the monsters have apparently puzzled over – why is it indoors instead of outdoors, like the monsters’ museum? They conclude it must be in order to hide all of the stolen property contained inside. This satire continues throughout most of the exhibits, such as deeming an exercise bike as an elaborate clothing storage device, or presenting players with a pile of unread books representing a purported “I-want-to-be-the-kind-of-person-who-reads-this-but-it-turns-out-that-I’m-not-and-I-feel-bad book amnesty”. These amusing snippets give players a fantastic incentive to press on and see more of the game.

As for the gameplay itself, A Monster’s Expedition starts off with an extremely simple concept – you can break down any tree and push its log, and the wat the log moves depends on whether you’re pushing it from the end, or from the side. This gameplay is simple, but with puzzles that are well-designed enough that they’ll keep you interested. However, this is just how the game starts. Without spoiling it, I’ll say that the game introduces new mechanics as you play through the game that open up new possibilities for exploring these islands, with the game’s full map being surprisingly expansive, and not always linear. Thankfully, players regularly encounter mailboxes they can use to fast travel to different areas. There are also completely optional hidden areas, so players have plenty to do if they’re the sort to sniff out secrets.

This game’s scope is surprising given the extremely bite-size nature of its puzzles, with the game taking an estimated 10 hours or so to complete, and as much as twice that much to unlock all of its secrets. However, the heavily-segmented nature of the game’s puzzles makes it well-suited to the Nintendo Switch, as you can easily pick the game up and play a few puzzles, or spend hours exploring.

There are some complaints I have about the gameplay – it can get repetitive at times, with long stretches that don’t introduce new gameplay elements. Also, it’s unclear at times whether a nearby island is unreachable, something you’ll come back to later, or one you can get to now if you just solve the puzzles the right way, and this can lead to players wasting their time trying to get to places that are currently unreachable. For the most part though, this game is a delight to play.

One more note before finishing up. This game does have optional touchscreen controls that work pretty well, though some interactions still require the use of buttons. Personally, I found I preferred traditional gamepad controls, though it’s nice that this option was included.

In the end, A Monster’s Expedition is a delightful Puzzle game that starts out with a modest premise but builds on it beautifully, and makes things even more enjoyable with a pleasant presentation and some witty satire with a great sense of humor. The game can get a bit repetitive at times, and its design encourages players to waste time trying to reach unreachable islands, but overall this is a fantastic Puzzle Game and If you’re a fan of the genre, this is definitely one worth getting.

tl;dr – A Monster’s Expedition is a family-friendly Puzzle Game where players take the role of a cuddly monster exploring an outdoor museum of humanity. The puzzle design is good and becomes more involved over time, the presentation is lovely with particularly good sound design, and the clever satire caused by monsters trying to understand humanity is excellent. The game can feel a bit repetitive at times, and it’s not always clear where you can and can’t reach just yet, but overall this is a superb Puzzle Game well worth playing.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Sound Design – Few games in 2021 really seemed to put a focus on their sound design. However, A Monster’s Expedition uses its sound to help bring the player into the world of the game, having their actions become the soundtrack for the game, in a manner of speaking, which does a great job setting the tone for this game’s humorous observations on humanity.

Runner-Up: Best Puzzle Game

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