Museum of Monoliths

Good walking sim game with interesting environments

Museum of Monoliths is an interesting if not relatively simplistic (graphically, aesthetically, mechanically) liminal experience that demonstrates the fact that not all liminal experiences need resemble the backrooms. Fortunately, what MoM lacks in visual complexity it makes up for with a truly impressive series of seemingly interactive soundscapes. Nevertheless, I definitely did not feel like i was "creating my own unique sound" for each of the "abstract locations". It just seemed like different sounds would dominate my (in-game) hearing based on my location within any particular level. To put it plainly, the closer i stood to certain sound-emanating objects/areas, the louder they were...like in the real world. To state that one is creating their own sound within the game would be the same as saying "i adjust the volume of my radio by moving further/closer to my ear" or "i create my own sound when i listen to the tv and the radio at the same time by physically standing in between them". I understand that different tracks are added according to which monolith one selects but unless one plays through the game more than once (although i did feel that my choices had more of a profound effect on the soundscape of the red desert level with the cyberpunk donut in the sky), it would be difficult to tell. In this regard, i felt that devs really missed the opportunity to make the selection of each monolith (aka additional track) more profound and apparent. Despite these flaws and the arguably misleading advertising, i enjoyed the experience - especially the breathtakingly beautiful visuals of the final level. However, i do not think that folks looking for a musical or spatial-sound-editing experience should expect much from this title. p.s. the giant robot romance was a nice, if inexplicable, touch.