There Lurks a Monster

It doesn’t take much to come up with a great video game idea, especially if you listen to the market and pay attention to what gamers want. Granted, a bit of talent and know-how is still needed to design a polished product, but that’s easier than imagining new gameplay mechanics. On the other hand, most new things are either hated or loved, so it’s quite the risk.

There Lurks a Monster is a short, yet very fun experience that allows you to feel big and imposing, while also being relatively easy to play. In fact, the gameplay mechanics are as simple as they can get, not to mention the fact that there is very little content. On the other hand, you can have a lot of fun with the game if you don’t go in expecting to be entertained for hours on end.

As such, you control a person playing on an arcade machine, and the game in question is about a huge monster walking through a densely populated city. The goal is to take every step by controlling the monster’s feet, although it’s not quite as difficult as QWOP, for example. In fact, it takes a couple of seconds to learn how to walk properly, after which everything is a breeze.

The only way you can keep track of your progress if by looking at the score, which is actually the amount of damages you’ve dealt to the city. The city gets more complicated the more you walk, which means that buildings, people and cars make an appearance later on. On the other hand, the game is incredibly short, even for an indie production, which might be a bit of a bummer.

As for the graphics, they are about as simple as they can be, especially since the whole game can be reduced to only two colors. Every object and character is but a handful of pixels, although you can tell what is what without problems. The controls can be a tad intimidating at first, as mentioned before, but they are not as bad as they could be.

There Lurks a Monster is over too quickly to be a memorable experience, but the twist at the end might make it worth your time. The game could be turned into something a lot nicer with a bit more work and some extra content.