Monaco 2

Monaco 2 was provided by Humble Games for review. Thank you!

Monaco 2 is the latest entry in Pocketwatch Games’ stealth-action series, published by Humble Games. It follows up on 2013’s Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine with some striking visual upgrades, opting for a 3D isometric view instead of the prior 2D visuals. There are also plenty of gameplay upgrades, most notably, introducing procedural generation within its levels. At its core, though, this is still a game about heists, sneaking, and fast-paced getaways. Let’s see how it fares on the Steam Deck and how it elevates a well-respected and loved formula!

Like its predecessor, Monaco 2 is all about executing high-stakes heists with a colorful cast of characters, each offering unique abilities. This time around, the codename characters now have actual names, and interesting designs too. On top of this, each character is well-voiced and has some nice depth.

In Monaco 2, you navigate through 3D isometric environments, such as hotels, museums, and high-security buildings, to avoid guards, pick locks, and gather as much loot as possible before making your escape. However, unlike most traditional stealth games where the goal is to remain unseen, Monaco 2 seems more focused on speed and coin collecting. The game doesn’t seem to concern itself with how you do it, but essentially, get in, grab everything in sight, and get out.

With that in mind, the difficulty leans heavily toward the easier side, allowing you to pace from room to room, mostly passing guards quickly enough to prevent the guards in said room from being alerted, at least in the main story mode, it plays like that. Even when you do get spotted, you rarely feel overwhelmed and in danger, especially in the first half of the main story.

Most levels allow for quick getaways, and while obstacles like locked doors or complex layouts occasionally slow you down, as long as you keep moving (even just circling the same room until you make a choice on where to go next), you never truly feel at risk of failing. That said, if you’re the kind of player who thrives on leaderboard competition, the real challenge comes from optimizing your runs to be as fast and lucrative as possible, getting every coin, diamond, and item possible.

If you are defeated, life will be lost, and you will return to the character selection screen, requiring you to select someone new to take over and “rescue” yourself as well as complete the task at hand.

Adding unique abilities to each character on top of their default quirks is a great addition to add more reason to jump back into past levels and collect those diamonds! These abilities drastically change the way you approach each level. For example, Sake’s dash ability will help you get from A to B super fast, especially in guard-heavy areas, whereas using Uma completely flips the script and now allows you to beat up any enemies in your way and stun them. 

During each level in Monaco 2, you can also pick up items such as lockpicks to help unlock doors and cases quicker, crossbows to stun enemies from afar, or smoke bombs to help you get out of a sticky situation. Adding these and deciding which to equip and when to use can help you slide by trickier portions of levels with ease. Smoke bombs especially feel really overpowered. Even if you have multiple guards on top of you, dropping a smoke bomb leaves them clueless, and you can just slip away with ease.

While there are plenty of levels, all with varying floors, layouts, and sizes, the environments don’t evolve much. This is even more prevalent on repeat playthroughs in the other game modes. The levels can be procedurally generated, but each run feels largely the same, even with minor layout shifts and different character choices. I found myself asking: beyond leaderboard climbing and grinding for diamonds to unlock cosmetics and abilities, what’s the real incentive to replay old missions? The procedural generation is a fun mechanic, but its impact on overall replayability is questionable.

Once you finish the main campaign, you unlock Daily Heists, a mode that reintroduces story levels but with a higher base difficulty and randomized enemy/item placements. It’s a great way to shake things up, but locking this mode behind full story completion feels like a misstep. It would’ve made more sense to unlock the Daily Heists for each level as you progress rather than all at once at the end. It adds much more challenge, but unless this type of game is your jam, you may be a bit burnt out by the time you reach the best mode of Monaco 2. 

The solo experience here is fine, but I think games like this thrive in co-op. I managed to get a decent amount of time in couch co-op with my wife, which elevated the game tenfold. We picked our characters to complement each other and communicated constantly, splitting up when available and supporting each other in trickier situations. During one level, I had run out of smoke bombs and tripped a security camera. Thankfully, my wife had a smoke bomb on hand to save the day, and we both escaped smoothly. The chaos of coordinating break-ins and getaways adds an extra layer of fun, even if the overall experience remains fairly straightforward.

Monaco 2 - Steam Deck Performance

While Monaco 2 is playable on the Steam Deck, it is not the most optimized experience. The frame rate fluctuates heavily, jumping between 25-55 FPS depending on the action on screen. The best solution I found is to lock the frame rate to 30 FPS for a smoother experience, keep the Textures on Medium, and disable MSAA. You can get away with High Textures early on, but it does seem to cause issues on later stages, so you might want to stick with Medium throughout.

Each level is a complete roll of the dice on whether the Steam Deck will be able to provide a smooth performance, but with these settings, most levels were able to hold at 30 FPS, with a few dips here and there.

Alongside this, Monaco 2's gameplay just isn’t suited for the Steam Deck’s smaller screen. The game’s isometric perspective works well in theory, for the objective of the game, but in practice, smaller details like guards, items, and some interactable objects are tough to spot in its structure. This is partly by design; many elements are meant to remain hidden until within your character’s line of sight, but the small screen size amplifies the issue. Zooming in is possible, but it then restricts your view and ability to plan ahead. I think this is where the switch to a 3D isometric look has harmed the overall experience compared to its predecessor. 

If the Steam Deck is your only device and you are desperate to play Monaco 2, my recommendation is to play docked or on a larger display and pray the next level you enter isn’t going to fry your frame rate.

Load times are another weak spot. They’re surprisingly long, and where the temperature tends to spike the highest (around 65-70C), especially when starting new levels. This is pretty frustrating and negatively impacts your enjoyment when you’re eager to jump back into a heist.

Battery life lasts up to and around 2.5 hours on a full charge, which is plenty of time to jump into a handful of heists, whether solo or with a friend.

Despite the screen size issues and frame rate inconsistency, everything else seems to work nicely on the Steam Deck. Controls are mapped nicely, and battery life, again, is fine. It’s just a shame that its biggest drawbacks are the biggest factors when considering if something is suitable for the Steam Deck.

Accessibility

Currently, there are no real accessibility features available in the settings. Given the game’s high-speed nature, clearer UI scaling options and customizable text sizes would be welcome additions. If you struggle with small on-screen details, playing in docked mode is suggested.

Conclusion

Monaco 2 sticks to its heist-based roots while adding procedural generation and a fresh coat of paint, but doesn’t do enough to capture my attention for more than a level or two at a time. The main story feels too easy, with little sense of danger, and while randomized modes add variety, levels quickly start to feel repetitive. Daily Heists offer a tougher challenge, but locking them behind full completion limits their impact.

On the Steam Deck, performance is mixed. Frame rates swing drastically unless locked, small details are hard to see on the screen, and long load times break the flow. It’s playable, but not very well optimized for handheld gaming. If you’re set on playing, docking to a larger screen is likely the better option.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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