Monaco 2

While I ultimately enjoy this game (finished the game right before writing this review), at least solo I think this game is good, with some features missing that would get it towards great (and I am pretty sure if you played it in coop it would be great once those features are in). If they are added in or I get the chance to play some coop, I will update this review accordingly.
Gameplay wise, this is your classic stealth game. Learn movement patterns, circle around objects that breaks line of sight, use gadgets to evade suspicion, classic stuff. Guards have typical stealth game brain syndrome, meaning they lose you around corners extremely fast and the level resets back to the previous neutral state (unless you got the objective, causing them to move around way more erratic). Each mission, you have the choice between 4 different characters for the mission. Unlike Monaco 1, where each character felt like having an advantage with a core gameplay component (collecting coins more easy, having a natural disguise, picking locks faster), this game gives your characters that feel like they are breaking the base systems, especially with some of the trinket unlocks. Which is generally fine, but makes some feel underwhelming and some really cheesy (Jobbie, a character you unlock about halfway through, can abuse his disguise passive to trivialize any part of the game, for the probably most extreme example). The character design is good if you enjoy tropey character design. However, while we are on the characters, this is one of my first complaints. The story is middling at best. Heist games and movies don't need a super in-depth story, but the characters are all extremely one line paired with terrible accent and nothing else, which isn't helped by the extremely small amount of unique voicelines, making some characters feel actively annoying to play. While the first game also wasn't a narrative masterpiece, it still did far more interesting things with its cast and the whole "tell the story from multiple perspectives" and ended up being a more satisfying game.
While it is in comparison to the first game, this game is also missing community made levels and the campaign missions tend to be on the rather long side, especially if you want to collect all coins. You can speedrun them all into 10 minute levels, but if you play one for the first time, it is a serious commitment to take on, for me often taking 40 to 50 minutes. Fantastic setpieces with an artstyle I personally find appealing, but it just feels a bit tedious on the gameplay side. Also, some rooms just are.... not great, and one of the early levels, the Prison, is genuinely one of the worst stealth game levels I have ever experienced.
Coins are also one of the quality of life feature this game badly needs. It is extremely easy to miss them thanks to the perspective, safes can blend into the environment and even on the map, they can be just in really inconvenient places. It doesn't help that you no longer see how many coins are on each floor, and most of the later maps have you revisit the same "floor" even though it is a completely different part of the map, resulting in the coin indicator covering way too much space. Multiple times I have been missing one coin just to find it in the weirdest spot. Since they are relevant to scoring at the end, there should be an option to aggressively highlight them on the map, and also separate distinct parts of the map, even if they are technically on the same floor.
There is also some minor issues. Keybindings are a bit all over the place in the menu, where ctrl is going back, space is continue and holding space is skip, while in a mission, ctrl is skip and space is just normal continue. A bit weird and I often waste time by accidentally leaving the story parts instead of skipping them. Loading times are also quite bad and the animation during it is extremely choppy, giving it a rather unprofessional appearance. Small nitpicks, but they do add up together with the main issues. Then there is some additions that would be great, like allowing people to play all characters for the unreliable narrator missions.
Lastly, having played some of the randomized missions now, they are ok, but ultimately it is a remixed level, featuring the same or very similar tiles in slightly different positions. Surely fun to play occasionally, but not something wildly exciting. While I can imagine it was genuinely a hard thing to implement and make work well, it feels a level editor, even in very basic form, would have been a far better feature.
This is one of those games I wish I could give a mixed rating. A good game that I think is worth the asking price if you enjoy this type of game, but that is overshadowed by its 12 year old predecessor in many ways. While this review was mostly the negatives that I experienced with the game, I do genuinely like it, I just want it to deal with its glaring issues first before I can completely recommend it.

As someone who was obsessed with the first Monaco when it came out a little over a decade ago, I was delighted to discover this during the steam next fest. The game takes the fun approach to stealth, i.e., it's semi-optional, but if you don't use it at all, you will struggle immensely.
This leads to some hilariously chaotic gameplay, particularly when playing with friends. That leads me to my only concern: this game is far better with friends, but at a $25 price tag and with no multiplayer discount bundle, it might be hard to sell new players on. I promise you, this game is a blast, and you wont regret getting a group together to play it with. There's a lot of focus on replay value with this one too, with the randomized levels, so it's definitely worth the price, imo.
TLDR: To use an old slogan from Monaco 1, Pac-man meets hitman with friends, and it's a blast.

I'm a huge fan of Pocketwatch Games and enjoyed years of rowdy heists with the original Monaco. I've been looking forward to the sequel for quite some time, and it finally released today! Here are my initial thoughts on Monaco 2 after completing the first mission and poking around in the game for a bit.
Monaco 2 feels like a natural evolution from the first game. First of all, it's gorgeous, lush and visually engaging. The intricate 2D maps of the OG Monaco have given way to expansive, 3D multi-level locations. It uses the same color palette as the original game and it just FEELS like Monaco through and through.
Plenty of classic heist tropes and challenges have been incorporated in well-considered ways. The thieves are all smugly competent at their tasks, and the guards are still utter buffoons who think they're much smarter than they actually are. Locks, alarms, laser tripwires and who-knows what else are scattered through the maps, and defeating them feels as satisfying as ever. The sound is entertaining; rummaging around with locks, rustling through air ducts and grabbing loot sounds appropriately cartoonish, and it seems right at home when paired with the adaptive Monaco score that accompanies you everywhere.
The gameplay is well crafted; the maps feel large and complex enough to pose a real challenge while still offering plenty of potential approaches and strategies. Stealth is always viable, as is confusing the guards and using their behavior against them. And in classic Monaco fashion, chaos is always an option, whether as an intentional choice or as a result of your plan going off the rails. There's an excellent 3D map that can be used at any time, and the game helpfully offers up a group planning session at the beginning of every job.
These days I mostly play on Steam Deck, and have had a couple good years of couch coop hangs with the OG Monaco; it's great on a large TV with friends! Today, I docked my Deck to my TV to test Monaco 2 and it looks wonderful & works perfectly on the big screen. Controllers function flawlessly right out of the gate. I'm already looking forward to inviting my heist comrades over and tackling some of these missions with a crew.
The dev team deserves some serious recognition for Monaco 2; it feels fresh enough to avoid seeming like a retread of the first game, but it still hits all the classic notes that made the OG Monaco an instant classic when it came out years ago. It's all just dripping with style, wit and humor.
If you're into heist films like The Italian Job, co-op with friends (on the couch or online) and sticking it to those fat cats who hoard all the best treasure for themselves, this is the game for you. Give it a shot, you won't be disappointed.

This game is misunderstood, while it's far from perfect, it's a very good game, richer than the first one, but also much harder to master.
There are those old players who expected a clone of Monaco 1, I understand why they can be disappointed. On the surface it looks like Monaco 1 turned 3D, it seems to share the same mechanics and everything, and yet all the changes on level design, on how things work slightly different, result in quite different game.
What the game lack the most is a proper tutorial, the 4 first missions are quite easy, but they're not a proper tutorial, they don't explain to you when you should walk and when you should run to handle guards, how to use items properly (or even what they do, the dynamite can destroy a lot of things but the description won't even tell you!), or that you have to look for the green key(s) first, as they open the door for the yellow key, which are the ones which allow you to get to the next section of the level.
This is not helped by the UI sometimes, for example when a guard notice you an interrogation mark "?" start to fill up red on his head, you mays think once it's 80% filled up it's time to run. But that 80% is wrong, you still have a lot of time because that last 20% will fill up very slowly, the guard will call you, walk toward you, giving you time to lose him in a corner or with a door.
I believe this kind of things is why the game get bad reviews, I mean the most voted bad review currently is completely absurd, each character has their own power, with 4 unlockable ones which can change or improve the existing one.
Why would someone take the one who can leap forward ? Because she's the fastest, maybe ? And if you don't like that you'll be able to leap through lasers with her second unlockable, or hide instantly with her 3rd unlockable.
No, prisoners will not fight guards, you have to unlock the security doors to proceed forward, which unlock the prisoners who can attack you. It also mean you can first visit safely the section, then you'll have to go through it with ennemies, it's not logic yeah, it's game design.
To sum it up there's a lot of complain about the difficulty, I blame the lack of tutorial and players' assumptions, yes this is a stealth game, but no you will never get through it while staying hidden, you have tools, and a guard AI easily exploitable, it's up to you to find a solution.

I absolutely adored Monaco when it first came out and have been excited to try this new one for some time. It's got the same charm as the first, but I do think the visual style to be more cluttered and cause more confusion than the art style of the first game. That's my only complaint. The music is similarly excellent to the first game and the gameplay goes from controlled and tactical to pure panic at the drop of a hat!

A huge fan of the first game, I've given this a fair shot. My opinions of the game is mixed, leaning toward a negative overall experience. For now, I'm leaving this as a "positive" on account that this was a gift and I would like to see the devs, who had placed so much love into this craft, succeed. (However, there is insufficient communication.)
The game has a great base but is bogged down by many design choices. Perhaps a lack of development time or funds. As a review, the target audience of Monaco seem to be a niche within a niche. There are aspects (speedrunning and improving strats) that I found much more rewarding than it's predecessor. But for many, it is unlikely to be a game I'd recommend in it's current state. (Relation to finding multiplayer groups below.)
===Recommended===
Monaco 2 has quite a bit of depth and requires strategy/planning. It's a double edge blade where levels play like a series of mini-puzzles to overcome with limited options. I found "smash and grab" (not collecting all coins) particularly fun as it allows slight freedom and creativity in how a level can be traversed. There are nuances to character traits and mechanics. Since many segments are better suited for certain traits, it emphasizes on working as a team. (Or in single-player, swapping classes at checkpoints for efficiency.)
Speedruns have been rewarding due to the depth of choices. There is a high skill-ceiling to optimize runs. (Changing classes, re-spawning, trinket-choice, data-hacking) Most trinket has great uses in specific sections, none are "bad". (Some trinkets break segments of the game. For example, Cosmo's ability to control gimlet nulls the difficulty of collecting Safehouse end sequence coins.) That said, due to how trinkets are unlocked. It is a time investment that players might never get to.
If you like breaking levels down and strategizing, this may be a fun experience. I'd imagine it would be a blast with a team!
===Not recommended===
I share similar sentiments with several others. Several other points have been brought up in the discussions or reviews. What breaks the game for me are minor-design choices that accumulate and work against the crafted levels.
Visibility
Visibility in the game is poor even on lowest resolution and fov settings. The game's brightness an eye-strain and I installed reShade to make it bearable.
Allies have no header UI and can be hard noticing when being beside.
Acquiring map information takes time with the visual glob. The Blueprint is tiny due to character-centered camera (instead of scroll top-down zoom). Being at an angle obscures the coins, and there are times coin spawn overlay map markers (e.g. door). Markers (safes/cashiers etc) look similar to other icons due to excessive detailing and top-down distance. The is no information on coin-count to infer what is missing.
Due to linearity of level design, missing a safe may result in 5 minutes of backtracking through "chokepoints". Together, collectibles being hard to notice made it unfun.
Level Design
Linearity isn't inherently bad. It made a tailored experience of "puzzling" through levels. The trade-off: Damage is often unavoidable without items when guards are alerted. There are aspects of levels which are non-linear and work great, but the negative impression left by several maps were most prominent. (Perhaps there will be updates that address some. A well-placed door/staircase would go a long way.) As above, what bogs Monaco 2 down are minor-mechanic choices that work against it:
---Losing aggro---
Unlike the first game, ducking 90degs into a room from alerted guards doesn't work. (Guards take notice after a moment.) 'Juking' has to be done around two corners, something that linearity does not help with. There is often nowhere to run to.
---Forced warp---
The game warps the player back when going out of bounds. Some windows to dead-ends/corners can't be utilized as hiding spots without "return to mission" forcing a warp. (It feels arbitrary which can and cannot be used) This inclusion punishes creative play.
---Turrets, re spawn invulnerability---
Monaco 2's turrets are a questionable design choice. Unlike the first game, it mows down an entire team in seconds if the trap is triggered. On one hand, it forces careful play and resource management. The reason it flops: 1) Latency of any player in a team triggering it gets everyone killed. 2) It's sometimes placed in "puzzle-rooms" where there aren't many strategies to overcome it and items/computers that do, are situated far from it.
Miscellaneous
- Predetermined character choices each map restrict playstyles and favorites. The random generation of daily allowing differing choices show that the limitation was unnecessary.
- Smoke bombs have to be used preemptively, guards will shoot into smoke bombs once or twice after it's been triggered. They may bump into the character while smoked too.
- Snipers have a near instant aggro meter that does high damage from across the map. The placements of some contribute to rigidity.
- There are bugs that forces re spawn, anti-speed running. Thus far, I've gotten stuck opening cakes, using pickaxes and tranquilizing with Ciero.
- Gimlet's third trinket occasionally stands about.
- The lack of in-game keybinds. As a leftie, I used auto-hotkey to rebind keys. This made in-game text-boxes impractical. Chat is limited by 32 characters and disappears after some time. It can't be viewed when opening the chat box again. The font is tiny and hard to read.
===Game state===
There aren't many players and due to aforementioned design choices, high latency is not a good experience. (Turrets, aggro, tracking, warps etc.) This was manageable in Monaco 1. There aren't many players in Asia where I live. Given the length of missions, spectating can take a long while.
My experience has been being kicked after waiting/spectating or timing out. While no fault of the developers, it is a negative experience. If you're achievement hunting, "Greedy time" may not be possible on several maps on Single-player. At present, I do not recommend this for someone living in Asia, would like a multiplayer experience and haven't found a group to play with.

I remember loving Monaco to death when I was younger and I'm so happy to see that this style of game isn't extinct. Stealth-focused games are hard to come by nowadays, let alone local co-op. Games like this remind me of a somewhat lost time of old school 4-player multiplayer. It's so nice to have one of my top games from way back when get some much needed love. Also huge props to the music team, I'm a sucker for jazz but this is just on another level. If you're getting a team together or heisting solo, I think $25 is well worth the experience.