A Monster’s Expedition (Through Puzzling Exhibitions)
iOS, PC
Assembled with trademark elegance, Alan Hazelden’s latest puzzler serves up a generous helping of serene Sokoban-style challenges while taking a sideways look at humanity’s little peculiarities. A light-hearted museum tour set among a series of archipelagos, it stars the monster from Hazelden’s A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build – but if the affectionate embraces in that game suggested a gentle giant, it’s clear they’re no tree-hugger. The conifers here are swiftly uprooted with a sharp shove, becoming logs, which can be rolled or pushed to form a bridge to the next island. With two, you can make a raft; push off from a rock and you’ll sail to the next area.
Like any good museum, you’ll constantly find yourself distracted. Unexplored islands are shrouded by clouds, and your eye will be drawn by exhibits poking out, encouraging you to find a way there. The wonderful display descriptions, meanwhile, offer extra incentive, playfully imagining how common objects might look through alien eyes. A climbing wall becomes a human storage rack, while a zoetrope, brilliantly, is “the earliest known perfectly looping gif format”.
All the while, Hazelden teaches you the finer arts of log rolling with extraordinary subtlety. You’ll push one into another to nudge it into position, flip one up onto an exposed stump, and use a longer trunk as a bridge for a smaller log. You learn almost via osmosis – until you approach the end and realise you’re using more advanced techniques without really thinking about it. Late on, as the circuitous route to the exit leaves us moderately stumped, we revisit some earlier areas and fairly breeze through a selection of optional challenges. A few others off the beaten track take a little more chewing over, though that’s to be expected. Yet while the branching structure is mostly welcome, it’s perhaps too easy to stumble into a set of puzzles before you really have the mental tools to beat them. Wander too far from the critical path, meanwhile, and it might take a little while to get back where you really need to be, though red post boxes – their letter slots sucking you up and spitting you back out again – provide a delightfully efficient mode of fast travel.
Besides, who hasn’t occasionally got a little lost on a museum trip? Hazelden and writer Philippa Warr give the player ample encouragement to keep going, while composer Eli Rainsberry’s delicate soundtrack soothes the anguish of the umpteenth do-over during the most testing bonus challenges. Despite the posthuman setting, these puzzling exhibitions are gently life-affirming, offering warmth and ingenuity in equal abundance.