After playing the second interval of this monster multiplayer dating simulator the humour and excitement is still ever present for this great game.
Monster Prom 2 was only released recently on the 23rd October (2020) by the indie developers Beautiful Glitch and naturally from being a big fan of the original Monster Prom which I can confirm I have many hours in I needed to get my hands on this game as soon as it was released.
What is Monster Prom?
Beautiful Glitch claims the Monster Prom series may be the only one of its kind and I feel that I’m inclined to agree with them. This humorous beautifully crafted dating simulator where you have a set number of weeks to swoon the monster of your dreams is both whacky and excellent.
In Monster Prom 2 you once again get to choose from the four player characters who are all monsters themselves you can change their name or their pronouns to fit who you wish to play as. Once you have picked this character the game begins of trying to win over one of the six possible monster dating options.
These options are:
· Joy Johnson-Johjima: the leader of the Coven who are a trio of witches destined to save the world.
· Aaravi Mishra: first known as The Slayer who was an antagonist of the first game but now a love interest along with her cursed necklace sidekick Hex.
· Calculester Hewlett-Packard: a library computer who became a sentient robot and a fan favourite of the ‘Second Term’ DLC from the original game returning once more to have his non-existent heart stolen by the player once more.
· Dahlia Aquino: a blue buff demon lady who was originally a minor character added in the ‘Second Term’ DLC returns to compete for the players love.
· Damian LaVey: the hot-headed red demon of Hell with a love for arson, he is the most loved character in the whole of Monster Prom.
· Milo Belladonna: a non-binary reaper and social media influencer, they are a new edition to the game ready to not only take your soul but maybe also your heart.
Play on your own or with up to three friends and work your way into the lives of these monsters, remember only one of them will go to the meteor shower with you.
I must note that there is however a lot sensitive topics mentioned in this game for comedic purposes this includes: drugs, the mentioning of bad people, violence, intimacy and toilet humour, Beautiful Glitch have made it possible to censor the majority of this content however this does make up the majority of the game.
Mechanics
When playing the game solo, you can choose between two set game modes ‘short term’ which takes around 30 minutes to play and ‘long term’ which can take around an hour to complete, these times are increased depending on the amount of people you are playing with.
After you have chosen who you wish to play as you will then be told to pick three items to pack these items will give you certain boosts to stats at the beginning of the game. For example, a magic mirror would increase your ‘charms’ and ‘smarts’ skill.
After you have chosen three items you will then be given a question with six answers depending on what you answer as can change whose route you are on to try and date them. This differs from the first game drastically as you would take a ‘pop quiz’ which would determine what skills were boosted and give you two romance options to pick from.
You then have 5 weeks with each week including a morning, afternoon, and evening to increase your skills and get on the good side of the monster you wish to see the meteor shower with.
Each monster prefers a certain skill and therefore you must go to certain places to increase them. As you can see from the image above Smarts is increased by the Woods, Boldness is increased by the Manor, creativity is increased by the Scout HQ, Charm is increased by the Camp Dome, and Fun is increased by the Lake.
As you talk to your dream monster these skills will be needed in order to gain the hearts you need, succeeding dialogue options may also increase the skills which are needed to charm that character while failing will cause you to lose those skills.
Every evening you will get to sit around the campfire with these possible romance options there is also a moth monster who loves to spread gossip he is incredibly useful when playing multiplayer as this is a good way to hinder the progress of another player.
Two times within these campfire meet-ups you will meet Juan, the Magical Latino Cat, now before you question his name, he is a bartender who can serve you and the other players magical drinks which can have a various range of effects on the game from boosting a stat to changing your character’s name to Nick Cage.
Colourful and in-depth
Everything in this game appears to have been hand-drawn by some excellent artists similar to the first game. The art style is so colourful and vibrant that it really makes playing the game a pleasurable experience just to see the different character models with different expressions and outfits.
I believe the art style of this games really helps making the monsters you can date even more appealing as they are all so different and beautifully designed. As the game currently has 27 secret endings they each have their own drawn ending relating to what was said in the dialogue, I really enjoy this as it gives me a visual I can save from my completion of that secret ending.
In the first Monster Prom I was provided with a gallery where I could see all of the ‘polaroid’s’ I had obtained through getting certain endings while also giving me a sneak peak into how the game was designed. Unfortunately, this has yet to be added to the second game meaning I cannot look through the endings I have already completed, this is something which has been planned to be added and so I hope my current ones have been saved.
Monster Prom 2 succeeds on adding onto the characters the fans like me already loved such as Damien and Calculester but also making us fall equally as in love with the new characters we are allowed to romance. They all have individual personalities and interact with both the player and other romance options differently.
I loved getting to know these characters through their funny banter and wild ideas, I even started to form favourites such as being utterly obsessed with the grim reaper Milo or the incredibly aggressive Dahlia and now after I finish writing this I might go romance them all again.
As I mentioned earlier there is some sensitive humour in this game however I believe that it truly adds to the humour of Monster Prom, its silly statements make this game so much more entertaining as I found myself giggling at the silly toilet humour this dating sim prides itself on.
Missing pieces and poor choices
My biggest issue with the game currently which was an intentional choice on the developer’s part is to do with being locked into a romance option from the very beginning of the game. As soon as you have answered the question at the start of the game which determines which character you will be going after you can’t attempt to romance anyone else during that play of the game.
During my first playthrough I wanted to romance Dahlia however when answering that question it trapped me with Damien at the campfire scenes I would talk to Dahlia but it felt like it had made no difference and in the end I ended up picking Damien just so I could get a successful end.
This is unlike the first game where it felt quite easy to change who you wanted to go for early on in the game by deciding to sit with a different group of people at lunch. This meant you didn’t feel as trapped to go with the monster you may have got in the ‘pop quiz.’
Although the game is released there is still some missing elements as I mentioned before one of these elements is there is currently no gallery to see your unlocked endings. The second missing elements is some of the characters such as Milo have no voice actor.
The characters do not read out the whole of their lines, but I do enjoy hearing the character shout one of their ‘iconic lines’ or laughing at something which was said.
This doesn’t bother me too much however it was incredibly noticeable during a dialogue between Milo, Aaravi and Hex as Aaravi and her cursed necklace Hex both have voice actors so each time their dialogue popped up they would have a vocal response meanwhile Milo was silent it felt a bit strange.
I believe this is something which will be improved in the future when all characters finally have a voice actor but if you feel that this is something which might bother you then I suggest waiting until the game is completely finished.
So, all in all...
I believe that Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp is an excellent follow-on of Monster Prom, the funny humour and beautifully designed characters make this such an enjoyable experience where I can sit back and relax while trying to romance these peculiar high school monsters. I am looking forward to what they do next with the game after they have revealed that there will be more Monster Prom games focusing on the others of the main six characters of the original Monster Prom which I am incredibly looking forward to. As this game has only recently been released I know that Beautiful Glitch will do everything in their power to improve on the game and provide what the fans want.
After Playing this hilarious game for almost 6 hours and only obtaining a few of the possible outcomes and endings I am going to rate this game a seven out of ten. This is an amazing offspring of the original Monster Prom however I don’t think I will ever be able to rate it as high as the first one as that truly holds a dear place in my heart. I really look forward to the future of Beautiful Glitch as they work towards making even more of these freakytastic games!
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
Rated: 18
Price: £9.99 (On Steam)
Platform: PC