Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp Review
Before you read any further, I want to give you a heads up. The game I’m reviewing this week is chiefly about romantic and sexual relationships. While not sexually explicit, it is certainly salacious. If you’re not interested in that sort of thing for whatever reason, or if you’re a child, I think it’s best if you stop reading now. If you’d like, I have plenty of other pieces for you to read, or you can just come back next week.
I don’t imagine anyone thought this week in America would go much differently than it has been for months now, but it’s still heartbreaking to see it go that way. The tragedies continue and at the heart of it is the system that’s supposed to serve the American people. A Philadelphia man suffering from mental illness was shot 14 times after his family had called for an ambulance so he could get medical assistance during his episode. Then, during the protests rightfully spawned by this egregious murder, the police attacked a car, beating the woman inside and taking her child to be later used in anti-protest propaganda. In Texas, police assisted in voter suppression by escorting a group of right-wing supporters through a predominantly black neighborhood, making special effort to be near a polling place. And, because there is always something worse, one of the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor is now suing her boyfriend. It’s starting to get to a point where, regardless of how the election goes, I might put my reviews on hiatus and spend some time on some political volunteering. But, I’m here for now, and I think we all need some way to escape the stress of existing in America, so let’s talk about being a horny monster at summer camp.
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp follows some of the characters of Monster Prom after the events of the first game as they spend summer vacation at Spooky Camp. Officially, Spooky Camp is a place for young monsters to learn valuable skills and become more acquainted with nature, but in practice it’s mostly about escaping adult supervision and hooking up with crushes. To that end, one to four players will take on the roles of monsters attending the camp trying to earn the affections of their desired peer, chosen from the six most desirable monsters at camp: a powerful witch, a cursed half-monster adventurer, a sentient computer, a very stylish grim reaper, and two rival demons. To win their hearts, players will improve their own abilities, as well as spending time with their crush and helping them with a wide variety of absurd problems over the course of six to twelve turns. It’s like Mario Party but at the end you win a chance to smooch a hottie.
Whenever a game I like gets a sequel, I have the same two questions: “how will the new game improve what the first game did?” and “what new things will the sequel bring to the table?” I was delighted to see one of the changes Monster Camp makes is replacing the shop system from the first game with a new drinking mini game. I never cared for the shop, Valerie Oberlin notwithstanding, because it required players to sacrifice a turn and a large portion of their Money stat to interact with, and only gave the player either a small stat boost or a chance to potentially experience a secret ending. Instead, every six turns in Monster Camp sees players visiting a mixed drinks roulette hosted by Juan the Small Magical Latino Cat. Juan, a wizard in training, prepares a selection of potions that can change a number of things in the game, including a player’s name, a player’s stats, and even the rules of the game. I liked this for several reasons, the first of which was because it allows players to get a fun bonus without losing any progress in their quest for love. Every player visits Juan at the same time, so no turns are lost, and it doesn’t cost the player anything to get a drink, so no valuable stats a player might need to woo their crush are traded away. Another reason I liked the drink system was the way players pick their drinks. Drinks are chosen in either a mad shuffle mini game or through a Let’s Make a Deal-type game show. In the former, players are given a five-by-five grid of drink silhouettes and must ensure their cursor is over the square of the drink they want at the end of 30 seconds. However, other players and AI cursors can push players off their choice, so it’s in a player’s best interest to carefully defend their choice or disrupt another player. The other option has Juan offering each player individually a choice between a revealed drink or a mystery box. If the player doesn’t like the presented drink, or just likes to gamble, they can take the mystery box which can contain any drink from Juan’s repertoire and must drink whatever is within, even if it’s a glass of deadly poison. Both options are a fun and refreshing change of pace from the rest of the game.
Another change from the first game is the tone of the writing in Monster Camp, but this isn’t always as positive a change as others. As players make their way through a game of Monster Camp, they will typically follow one overarching plot as that player hangs out with one of the six main romance options. I was surprised to see how wildly these different arcs varied. A good chunk of the writing for the stories are well done, with suggestive, flirty dialogue that compared favorably with the writing of the original Monster Prom. There was even one story with Milo the reaper that was genuinely touching in a way I very much didn’t expect. Then there are moments that are so blunt and unsubtle, it borders on a Mitchell and Webb sketch. I know it’s unrealistic that everyone be a suave charmer, but at a certain point it sounds like a person writing just to seem edgy. People have different tastes, so this might not bother some, but it struck me as immature and poorly executed.
The last thing worth mentioning about Monster Camp is that it seems to have shipped before it was totally finished. This is present in a few ways but the most obvious one to me is the total lack of a gallery. In Monster Prom, as players saw new stories and found new endings for who to go to prom with, they unlocked new things to view in the game’s gallery like the polaroid pictures that accompany endings or hidden events. It was a fun way to look back on what the player had accomplished and relive those memories. However, Monster Camp has an option in the main menu for the gallery but it will apparently be added at a later time. This absence isn’t a deal breaker but I do miss it, because it was fun to see those moments again and also was a great way to prove to my friends and myself that I had found a new secret. On top of this, the game has quite a few typos. This is even less of a big deal than the lack of a gallery, but it does mar the experience a bit when a romantic chat between your zombie and his demon crush stumbles over some messed up grammar.
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp has me in an awkward situation when it comes to rating. On one hand, I absolutely believe that it's worth $12, because a game would have to be pretty miserable to not be worth $12 and Monster Camp is an above average, sometimes great game. But on the other hand, I think there are better ways to spend $12 on video games, ironically including the original Monster Prom. Thanks to an admittedly overly generous strategy of releasing nine free content updates for the first game plus a well written and graciously priced paid DLC update, Monster Prom stands head and shoulders above Monster Camp. So if you want to pick up Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp, I won't stop or judge you, though I think you'd be better off playing the original and waiting for Monster Camp to get some more attention from the developers.
Buy this game at full price
It’s worth every penny they’re asking
