Monaco 2

After reading a bunch of reviews on this I didn't know really what to expect but I was very pleasantly surprised. I have fond memories of playing the first game and this one does feel like a better version of it. The game is absolutely worth the $10 bundle price that I paid. If you haven't played the first one pick up the bundle and play both. They're very different games but both are great in their own ways.
Some of the levels are WAY too long though if you're playing them solo. Which, unless you have friends to play with, you'll be doing pretty often since there's not anyone online.

Like Monaco 1, great game. The 3D perspective with semi-new classes is a great idea for a sequel.
Like Monaco 1, it takes a bit to get used to - it can be tricky to track coins in the new perspective.
There is a planning stage at the beginning, and you can refer to your map at any time, but planning seems completely pointless at the beginning for everything but story atmosphere (which ends up being a negative - a bit of a "duhh let's just go" moment every level). The map works to find leftover coins later in the level which is great. For some reason, if your character is looking at the map and you're attacked or killed, you will not be warned or jolted out of the map - you'll just be none the wiser until you exit the map. I left feedback about this on discord 3.5 months before this review, and it's still in the game like this.
Like Monaco 1, you play as one of 4 classes in every level and these get mixed up depending on the level - love it, classic Monaco feels. This time around they get trinkets to further uniqueify them, and you unlock trinkets by playing levels with shorter times and more coins.
This progression falls over a bit here, and the most effective way to progress is a hard grind of the very easy first level using the new procedurally generated alternative seeds (which is very cool, albeit subtle). You get a new trinket with an alternative way to play your class at 1 gem, 2 gems, 5 gems and 10 gems, in that sequence. So to get the last skill-based trinket, you need to spend 19 gems per class, over 8 classes. The first level takes 3-10 minutes as a sort of tutorial level, and from about the third level onwards, you can expect to play for an hour or two depending on your speedrunning skill. I don't think the extra gems you get are worth the extra time and effort you spend on those much more difficult levels.
Importantly, the trinkets don't seem to get better with each tier - each character's trinkets are very hit and miss. Some you'll probably never want to use unless you want to challenge yourself, and those aren't the highest-level trinkets. It's not like you have a weaker trinket at tier 1 that you'll use until you unlock a better trinket at tier 2. What makes this stranger, is that every trinket has a health-based penalty, with higher tier trinkets costing as much or more health than the last tier. This would only make sense if the higher tier trinkets were always better.
There's multiple better ways to have done this, like just having the option to unlock any trinket at any point once you have enough gems (let's say 4 gems per tier). Then unlocking more trinkets would feel less like something you have to do and more like a bonus for experimenting as long as you like.
One character in particular seems to have no value at all. Her ability is a dash, but it barely moves you out of the way of whatever you're dashing away from or towards any faster than walking, and she has trinkets that are as expensive as any other character to do things you'd expect her dash to do - like dodge damage. Every other game has a dodge roll, why do I need to spend 19 gems to do that with this character? That ability should be free, and this highest-tier ability should be replaced with something else. Let me ricochet ranged attacks back to my attackers during dashes or something.
Probably the best thing about Monaco 2 is that (most of) the new classes feel a little overpowered in some cases, except that when you bring them into a game, you still feel like you're having fun with it and you still feel challenged by it.
There is a particular issue, a victim of the 3D perspective I think, where usable items are placed too-close together, and only one becomes accessible at all. The prison level has a computer with a vent right next to it, and the computer is completely unusable because pressing E near it (in any position) triggers the windup to enter the vent instead. There's seemingly unavoidable situations like this all over the game anytime the pickaxe is used to create a new interactable.
Overall, the game could use some fine-tuning but I'm still regularly itching to play Monaco 2 just as much as I ever did with Monaco 1.

The original stood out with its unique blend of top-down stealth, co-op heists, and character-driven class abilities. With this sequel, the developer takes the concept further, experimenting with procedural generation and a new 3D presentation, while holding onto the chaotic charm that made the first game a favorite among co-op players.

The core idea remains the same: assemble a crew of specialists, infiltrate locations, and pull off daring heists while avoiding guards, cameras, and alarms. The shift to procedurally generated levels is the biggest change. Instead of hand-crafted maps, each mission is dynamically built, which boosts replayability but sacrifices some of the clever, puzzle-like design the first game was known for. The game retains the class system, with familiar roles like the Locksmith, Cleaner, and Hacker, each with distinct abilities that make teamwork essential. AI guards are smarter than before, responding more dynamically to noise, suspicious activity, and player mistakes, which adds intensity to each mission. Monaco 2 swaps the flat, colorful 2D aesthetic for a stylized 3D isometric look. While it loses a bit of the original’s minimalist clarity, the new style makes environments more detailed and immersive. Sound design is once again excellent, with reactive jazz music that ramps up as the action escalates. The frantic piano riffs returning mid-chase are a nostalgic highlight.

Just like its predecessor, co-op is the heart of the experience. Playing with friends, planning (or failing to plan) a perfect heist, and adapting to chaos on the fly is where Monaco 2 shines brightest. Solo play is possible, but without teammates, missions can feel more punishing and less entertaining.

Monaco 2 is both familiar and experimental: it captures the anarchic joy of botched heists with friends, but trades the original’s handcrafted brilliance for endless procedural variety. If you loved the chaos and camaraderie of Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine, the sequel is a worthy successor—though it may divide fans who preferred carefully designed levels over endless randomness.

8/10
DISASTER | BAD | MEDIOCRE | OKAY | GOOD | GREAT |AMAZING| MASTERPIECE

Reviewed on: Win11 Home 64-bit, Intel i5-11600K, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB TUF, 32GB DDR4-3600 RAM, 2 x Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, Internet Broadband 1000/1000 Mbit

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Huge fan of the first monaco. I was somewhat reserved about the idea of the new art style and all that, but I have 0 regrets! Buy this game if you want to have a fun time!
I'm only about 3 missions in but already having a blast solo and trying to convince friends to join as I know Monaco gets better with more friends. Some small but powerful improvements I am already noticing are to the weapons/items. I love that they have been balanced out. Having a ton of smoke grenades in the first game felt unfair now you can only have 2. The lockpick gives a chance to do things quicker but not instantly. Being able to hide bodies in dumpsters is awesome!
Also love that there is an alternate costume of the original Monaco characters! Can't wait to unlock them. Thanks for making this great game!

MIXED REVIEWS: They are crying about how they wish the game was. That aside I have only found one bug in the game and it wasn't all that bad. I had to restart the level because I dropped off a ledge and fell into an out of bounds area. Aside from that I haven't noticed any issues with the game. Just make sure when you drop off a ledge you drop into an in bounds area and you should be fine.
Now for the game: You play as thieves, each of which has a different type of specialty. You can use your specialty skills to sneak past guards, Hack computers, The larger woman is all brawn and she beats down anyone who gets in her way. There is a woman with a dog who charms people which allows you to slip past them unnoticed. The over all concept is to steal every coin in the level and leave with the main treasure which is different in each level. All of that aside there is a scoreboard between you and your steam friends to try and compete for times on each level as well. Of course there are also global score boards but naturally they have cheaters who finish levels in 3 seconds.
So what are you waiting for? Come beat my times!
Rating: 8/10 - People have been complaining about the 3d views obstructing their view of where things are but honestly there is an x-ray style map that shows you where everything is on every floor so if you use that properly you shouldn't have any trouble finding things.

Planning, Chaos and Fun with friends. What more could you want?

Better, bigger, theftier. This is.... MONACO