14 DAY TRIAL // The Internet casual gamer market is booming these days, and more so on the Mac since many of the major game producers have always steered clear of our beloved Macs. To many of us, some of the best games we've ever played have been shareware. Kill Monty is one of those games that like to keep things simple and fun.
Two words The story of the game is a complex plot, full of intrigue and unexpected turns of events: "Kill everything!" That's right... there is no real story to speak of. You have to kill everything using whatever methods are at hand. The goal of the game is also its name, "Kill Monty!"
There is a little backdrop though. You are Jen, and you are caught in a room with eight doors through which hoards of enemies pour, usually through two opposing doors at the same time.
What kind of a game is this? Much like the popular arcade classics of the early '90s, Kill Monty revolves around moving and shooting, and lots of gibs flying about.
The action is seen from a top-down perspective, as if viewed through a camera that was secured to the ceiling of the room. You move the character with the directional keys and aim as well as shoot, using the mouse. If you don't have a mouse, or don't want to use a mouse, you can make use of the numeric keypad to aim. If playing from a PowerBook, you can also make use of the trackpad. Unfortunately, the game does not support gamepads, which is a real shame since this kind of game plays best on analog controllers.
Since I am on the subject of controls, I will mention that since there is no concept of ammo, and you are firing all the time, there should be an autofire toggle. Holding down the mouse button for extended periods of time, while moving the mouse about in a frantic manner is like begging for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
Tools of the trade Since Kill Monty is all about killing things, the weapons you can play with are the actual 'meat' of the game. The starting weapon can best be described as a pea shooter, firing about as fast, and with the same power as a slingshot whose rubber band has gone brittle. From here on things get better.
There is a spread shot gun that fires three ways at the first level and upgrading it adds more directions. Also, the closer the cursor is to you, the more spread out the shots are, and the further away it is, the more focused the shots are.
The next weapon is a machinegun which has just enough spread to cover one of the eight doors. This is one of the easier weapons to use since the fire rate is fast enough to mow the enemies down fast and the spread serves to make it more efficient in the constant chaos.
The laser gun has the potential to be the most devastating weapons in the game. It passes through enemies and damages everything in its path. Unfortunately the lower tiers of this weapon have a very, very narrow beam that makes it hard to kill with. Once upgraded, this is the most devastating weapon of all, but you have to be crazy good to manage to upgrade it.
The mine launcher is an interesting twist. This is not a weapon in itself, but more of a power-up, upon picking it up, for a short duration, you will drop little mines wherever you walk. These will explode if triggered, taking out hoards of enemies, but, since you can only drop them in the safe area, where there are no enemies, they are hard to use efficiently. The best approach is to just drop as many as you can and cleverly use a grenade to set off a chain reaction that will obliterate everything on the screen.
The rail gun functions exactly like its Quake III counterpart, being devastatingly powerful but needing precise aim. This is perhaps the weapon that requires the most skill, but, it pays off, being absolutely marvelous against the bosses.
The flamethrower is for those who like get close and dirty. It has a very small range, but, if you like the smell of cooked Monty wafting up your nose, you are going to love firing up the napalm and going out to cook some burgers.. er.. I mean Monty.
I almost forgot the grenade. The grenade is your trusty secondary weapon, it recharges over time but the slow recharge rate is more than worth it. You can use it to trigger chain mine explosions, take the juice out of a boss or get that monster mob off your tail.
Sometimes, the rare Armageddon "X" Laser comes up, which looks like something straight out of Final Fantasy or DragonBallZ. It's basically like a HUGE laser that rips everything it touches apart, molecule by molecule... or pixel in this case. As expected, the ammo only lasts for a few short seconds, but if you luck out and have it drop at just the right time it can save you from a nasty beheading.
Monty??? What about Bill? Kill Monty feels a lot like the videogame version of Kill Bill. It has a very manga like look and feel, from the little Asian symbols that sometimes appear when you kill things, to the excessive amount of blood and amputated limbs that fly about the screen. Also, the Carnage Meter, that slowly fills up the more you kill and the faster you kill, which makes powerups drop much faster when it is full, urges you to let things hoard on the screen and to take them out at the same time for bigger bonuses.
To add to the game play, there are also two special kinds of monsters: the red, exploding ones, which go 'boom' when they die, which can be used as mine triggers; and the blue, almost transparent stealthy ones that sneak up on you, which is a hard thing to do in this kind of game.
Bite sized Perhaps the best aspect of the game is that it can be played in small bursts, whenever you have five minutes to burn. The Survival mode throws the mobs at you at a much faster pace and surviving five minutes is a feat that few will accomplish. You can even unlock new flavors of the main character and stages as well as the superior difficulty levels, which adds value for those 'collector' types out there.
The Good Fast, frantic arcade action, manga flavored, in easy to swallow bites. What more could you ask for?
The Bad There should be an autofire option, since there is no ammo, I can't see why there isn't one. Also, game pads should be supported as this sort of games are a shame to play with anything but an analog controller.
The Truth Freeverse has once again shown that it can make cool games and make them well. Kill Monty is pure fun, which, after all is what a game is supposed to be about. But don't just take my word for it, go try it now, even if you don't really have time to play or are not into this kind of game.
Here are some screenshots of Monty murdering madness:
