A Monster’s Expedition

I'm a sucker for a good puzzle game that explains the mechanics through the puzzles themselves. This is one of those games. Some puzzles I ended up brute forcing and then had to work backwards to figure out why a solution worked. Sometimes, this is when it was trying to teach me a new quirk of the mechanics I never considered, or it was a case where I was just overthinking. Generally, though, I was able to use my expanding understanding to solve things intuitively. And the game generally does a great job telegraphing the intended goal of each island, which helped a lot.
I also like when a puzzle game isn't level-based or when it feels like a cohesive game space, which this does by the nature of it being open world. I never felt too frustrated with the puzzles because of how calm and relaxing the vibes were. The way this game strings you along island to island was really well done and got me interested in uncovering more and more of the map. This is one of those games that sucked me in, playing every day until I rolled credits.
The biggest downside for me was the underlying story and theming, which, although cute, were mostly uninteresting.

This is the most fun simple game I've ever played. No major plot, just genuinely relaxing. First goal is to go from island to island and get back to the ferry, second goal is to see all the exhibits, and the best goal of all is to hug all the snowmen. To do so, the game allows you to use very simple rules to create complex setups in order to move from location to location and get where you need to go. I beat this game with zero guides, and I genuinely feel like it helped my creativity and logic skills to beat it. I'm going to recommend this game to just about anyone who enjoys relaxing puzzle games. 10/10.

Really exceptional puzzle game.

For the main story (and the museum-exploring portion of post-game) it's almost like a lighter Stephen's Sausage Roll - a fairly straightforwards at first set of block-pushing mechanics that evolve creatively over the course of the game, adding new mechanics not by adding previously unseen objects but instead having the existing objects and mechanics interacting in increasingly complex ways, and that impressively keep you surprised with new interactions all the way through the game. It leads to a real sense of discovery to the puzzle solving. But it's largely at a very user-friendly level of difficulty (not super hard, but definitely not too trivially easy) that keeps it very engaging.

My main criticism would just be that there's a few too many islands (mostly throughout the mid-to-early main game) that can feel like filler, where it pretty much just feels like a puzzle you've already done and that there's not exactly anything new you're picking up on or exploring. This gets better as you get further through the game and into the post-game stuff, however, as the increasingly complex mechanics allow for more and more interesting interactions to create puzzles from.

Also - and this isn't a really a strike against the game at all to me since I had 20+ hours of great playtime before ever really trying to engage with this part of the game - there's another set of post-game puzzles about that for me are just a bit too hard/annoying in the wrong way. What I enjoyed about the rest of the game is the self-contained creative puzzles where you understand the pieces you have to work with and the goal and it's the rest of it you have to figure out. These other post-game puzzles just felt way too much like staring at a huge area of land around where you're trying to reach with no real idea of where you're meant to even begin, so I stopped even trying fairly quickly, even if the few puzzles and solutions I have seen seem somewhat interesting. But I totally get why they're included and see why they might appeal to people, and can applaud that they're so clearly telegraphed in-game as being in this separate category of puzzle so that players can enjoy completing what they want to and judge themselves what they'd enjoy.

The concept of a puzzle game being 'relaxing' (without being downright easy) seemed like a contradiction to me, but I get it with this title.
In most puzzle games, you chug along solving puzzles, eventually hitting a wall when you get stuck on some puzzle that needs to be completed to progress. Then, you choose between either i) bashing your head against the wall until you finally solve it, ii) looking up the solution and cheating yourself of some of the fun, or iii) quitting the game for the day (or possibly forever)!
What stood out to me in this game, was that it took me ~20 hours to clear the main game (doing a ton of side puzzles along the way- it took me a while to finally notice the game gave hints about which puzzles to do to reach the end of the game, and even then, when I got stuck on those puzzles I'd swap over to side puzzles for a while), I never once hit the point where I needed to look up a solution to a puzzle. The most I needed to do was occasionally use the hint feature, which I think is one of the better hint systems in a puzzle game (it tells you the goal condition for the island, but not how to get there).
Based on the experience of the main puzzles (I am yet to finish all of the side and bonus puzzles, but I have done a fair number of each so far), this has been one of my favourite puzzle games yet. I'd strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys puzzle games, especially if you tend to find sokoban-like games frustrating and are on the fence due to this game being about 'log rolling' (which is actually quite distinct from block pushing).

I "beat" this game a few years ago. I was trying to finish up all the secret stuff and for whatever reason, I got sidetracked, and never finished it. Or reviewed it. Which I feel bad about, because it's so good. This is one of my favorite developers/publishers, I've completed everything they've put out. In a weird way, I'm kinda glad I didn't finish it, as this is one of my favorite puzzle games, and I typically don't revisit games. Everything about it is so perfect. The music, the sound effects, the game world, the silly bits of lore; the game is just very charming. I'm glad that I got to experience it again almost brand new.
The puzzles are also great, and while often quite simple, some main islands can be complicated, and getting to secrets can be pretty crazy. But, I don't think that is what this game is about. It's not even necessarily like some games where a singular puzzle blocks your progression and requires hours of attention to break through. It's about the interconnectedness of a messy world that makes it unique, interesting, and challenging. It's just so intricately and lovingly crafted.
I just finished Stephen's Sausage Roll before this, and I think that's what reminded me that I need to finish this game. You can tell that SSR probably influenced this game. I know A Good Snowman is Hard to Build technically came out before SSR, and that these are all Sokoban inspired, but sometimes I couldn't help but see the trees as sausages. SSR is also the opposite of this. This game is really chill and has a lot of very easy things to do and a lot of really hard things to do. SSR practically has a difficulty curve after the start menu.
The controls are very good. It's simple and grid based, but feels so smooth. The noises the occur when pushing a tree down or undoing moves are great, and the celebratory music when entering a new island, though simple, felt triumphant. If I needed to go AFK, I liked to sit down on the edge of an island and let the monster just enjoy himself a bit while I get to listen to the chill music.
When I had originally played the game, there were no solution hints, and no friend hints. I knew about the implementation of friend hints through an announcement/discussion about the game, but this was around when I backburnered the game. I did not know about the solution hints this go around though, and discovered them while fat-fingering the key. While I preferred not to use them, it was nice that it's there, and used it a few times, just to confirm I knew what I needed to do. Due to this game's intentional unclear trajectory, there were times I would spend a long time looking for a solution to go the wrong way. It's not like a puzzle game where you know exactly what your end goal is at all times. It's not, I just gotta beat this level to get to the next level. It's a giant maze that can go any which way, multiple ways, sometimes one way, and often the path is complicated to reveal and complete. I think the friend hints were helpful, but even then, for some of them, I had no idea where to make the solution. I wish there were friend hints similar to the regular hints, which basically give you a starting point. I ended up looking a few up, just to see where I needed to build, because I would spend a while trying to build in the wrong spot. But yea, I think this was a really great addition to help keep the pacing going when I got REALLY stuck. I'm quite stubborn with puzzle games, but sometimes I'd rather keep a game moving so I can get to the next one. There are so many good games out there and I want to experience as many as I can.
I am shocked that this game has a recent score of 85%. Granted, it has a 95% overall. Still, it's the type of game I would assume would be 95% recent as well. It's just so damn good. The gripes I read seem unfounded. If you want to be handheld, I'd say puzzle games in general aren't for you. If you think the game is too easy or uninspired, try 100%ing the game without any hints (I certainly needed a few), because you will find some insanely complicated and creative solutions to some of the secrets. My first playthrough took 50 hours to get 85% of the islands and 1/3 of the secrets. This playthrough took the same amount of time. So I think an honest first playthrough for me would have taken around 70 hours. Some of the negative reviews are after a few hours and at that point, you've only scratched the surface.
That isn't to say there aren't many who put in plenty of hours and still disliked it, and I think that's fair. I just think these people are looking at the game through the wrong lens. Take a game like SSR. 99% of SSR is linear. Yes you can do pockets of the game in any order you chose, but it's all progressing linearally through each area towards the end. This game doesn't really have an end. I mean, it sort of does, but the game is barely starting at that point. The point of this game, besides being fun and challenging, is to figure out how to get to every island and get every secret in this giant mess of interconnected islands. There were plenty of forks in the road where I could have gone one way, or another, and I doubt anyone's playthrough is remotely similar.
But yea, this game is great. One of my favorite puzzle games. The asking price is more than fair for what you get. If it's on sale, it's a steal.

LOGical puzzle with no anaLOG
Monster's expedition is my new favorite sokoban game. Previously that title was held by Stephen's Sausage Roll, but it gets beaten in almost every aspect. They are somewhat similar so I can't help but compare the two:
Expedition has better learning curve, starting from too easy and ending in very difficult. There is often something to do or discover even if you get stuck in one area of the map. And the areas don't feel like prerequisites to each other as they explore different mechanics. Sausage is more linear, starts harder but does not get way more complex.
The mechanics are also simpler, but deeper. Sausage had puzzles with several elevation levels, here everything is done with just two, but it is explored way better: things interact, combine, move, shift and transform. The goal was clear there, but figuring out what is required to progress is part of the puzzle, and sometimes it's the most difficult part. In Sausage, you just grill.
The humor is better too. Sausage aesthetic can be viewed as something funny, and it had some story, but here we get pieces of human lore as a reward for progression. At first I thought it was a misinterpretation of our civilization by aliens, but things got weird. Better discover them yourself.
Most importantly, it has open world, so all the puzzles are part of one area and not levels inside a map. I'm still not sure how it manages to hold together without breaking, and I don't remember this being done to such quality anywhere else. The puzzle pieces themselves are simple - logs - but have more depth than sausages, in spite of similar shape. This needs to be studied.
I expected it to be similar to "A Good Snowman is Hard To Build", and, to some extent, it was. But while I spent 3 hours on that game, I finished this one in 75. Speaking of Snowmen. This game has one of the best advanced puzzles, and each one was a joy to uncover, along with some small personality. All can be done without guides, following game rules. The game has hint system, but I haven't used it. And there is even more depth to it, like uncovering unintended solutions, I even found one! By the end of the game it will be testing the mechanics, intentional and not, to the limit.
The only downside is a global map, viewed from afar it lags and just does not look good. Otherwise, it is a perfect game, best in its genre.

This game is dangerously addictive for puzzle fans. The open-world design makes it so easy to do "just one more island", and then suddenly another hour has passed. The designers have also managed to serve up quality AND quantity in terms of puzzle design, which provides a supportive learning curve, and allows for casual sessions.
The main reward here is the self-satisfaction of completing the many clever puzzles that the game has to offer. There's no story, or character dialogue. However, the strange museum placards do provide some surprisingly funny musings. Good humour is very rarely found in video games, so I was pleasantly surprised that this game had some genuine chuckles to offer.
I got the game on sale, and it took me about 13 hours to reach the credits, so I definitely got my money's worth. I did activate the hints feature early on, so that made the game easier. And even though I've reached the credits, there's still so much more that the game has to offer. I could spend several more days trying to uncover everything. I may dip back in occasionally, to seek out the last exhibits, but I don't think I quite have the dedication to uncover everything, and I'm okay with that. I've had so much enjoyment from it already.