MONITOR

I came across this on Steam some time ago.

I was looking around for something to pass my time and picked this up and another free new Steam release. I am pretty sure that I either completely miss the point of the other game or it’s just that bad, so I’ll just be talking about this one instead.

In MONITOR: The Game, you play as the Journalist, who somehow ended up in a dingy little room with a filthy mattress and monitoring equipment. You are tasked with listening on the conversations in the Lynx’s Crown, the getaway retreat of the Emilio Bell, CEO of Dolos Pharmaceuticals, by a mysterious individual you called “phone guy”.

There is this giant electronic device with six monitors on it, each one reflecting the status of the audio bugs in six different rooms. A blue static background indicates that no one’s there, the greenish-yellow bars indicate that the bug picked up noises and you can click on that screen to listen to the conversations in that room. The blank screen indicates that the bug is malfunctioning and you need to fix it. You can only fix one bug each day, because I assume that the phone guy doesn’t have enough money for multiple repairs or better, more robust bugs. It’ll certainly explain why he kept you in such a run-down location.

You are tasked with listening on the conversations between Emilio and his guests, and try to piece together the mystery that surrounds them. Throughout the three days that you are supposed to eavesdrop on them, you learn more and more about who these people are, what they are planning to do, what happened between them in the past and what they were there for. And remember what the phone guy said: you are only supposed to listen. Do not interfere.

And at the end of each day, all the clues you’ve gathered will be collected in the binder at the monitoring station. At the end of day three, if you do as you’re told, you will have understood what happened, and you’ll be released from your room into the world.

However, that is only one of the ten ways these three days can end.

You can learn more. There are more thing to find out. There is a reason why you aren’t confined to a chair before the monitoring station, and that’s not for no reason.

Being a game that seems to have minimal gameplay, some may wonder why this isn’t a video or some short story online. The interactivity, however, is key to the story’s presentation. It adds an element of discovery, which engages the player more. Not to mention, the act of eavesdropping adds to the atmosphere of trying to discover something that you probably shouldn’t if you aren’t held captive by some weird guy.

The voice acting for this game is pretty good. As for other sound effect some of them do sound slightly … off. I can’t really put my finger on it, but they sounded a bit too exaggerated. I suppose when there’s no visuals, the audio does need to be much clearer in conveying what’s happening, but it feels a bit weird for me.

So far, I have yet to comment on the story. It’s pretty interesting. And since story is the main meat of the game, I won’t want to spoil it for anyone. So that’s all I will say on that.

Overall, MONITOR: The Game is a mystery story presented in a rather intriguing way. There is no reason to not try it, especially since it has a price tag of $0.00 and is available on Steam. Do give it a try here.