Have you ever wanted to spy on people for a shadow organization? Well that’s what Do Not Feed The Monkeys 2099 is here for! Releasing in Fall of 2022 Don’t Feed The Monkeys 2099 developed by Fictiorama Studios and published by Joystick Ventures is a game about you being accepted into an “exclusive club” which wants you to spy and pry into “caged monkeys” life’s. Using what you find through the cameras as well as things that you can find on social medias, wikis, websites and more.
I got to play the media demo for this and I was not expecting what I got originally going through and playing it I could not figure it out. I actually did end up “losing” on my first attempt at playing. After relaunching I took a little more time to try and figure out what I was doing and how I was doing it. After learning that there is more than just the panel of screens in front of you and that you have a sleep and hunger bar I promptly figured out how to take care of those, and as well as doing that I learned that you need to work quick dead end jobs that can make you some money to pay for your food and upgrades to your screens.
The whole spying aspect depends on you watching the cameras and finding keywords that you can use to look up more information and using that to do with what you will. The “Club” want’s you not to interfere with what you are watching, but you could also use this information to extort or expose them for what they are doing. I personally didn’t do anything with the info just watched along with what was going on and looking up the whole web of information I could find. I did find it a little underwhelming when it came to this portion however… I tried to balance learning about more than one at a time but you just miss too many broadcasts for this and I never really got tied to one particular characters story or doings so watching one screen at a time for this was a big of drag at some points.
Another thing for me is atmosphere. I know that you are suppose to be living in a sort of run down living space, but the whole lack or anything except the 2 different screens you can look at for me was a bummer. Looking at my pc or my fridge, front door and bed was a tad too little. There is no getting up and moving its drag left or right and that’s it. I wont say that I hated it as it does give you the feeling of being in a tiny little apartment for sure, but over time this became a bore. Talking about atmosphere the sound track for this game leaves probably the sourest taste in my mouth. While there is a soundtrack it is very very muted and distant sounding which again is probably done on design to make you feel more distant from others and alone.
I really think that for me this game missed the mark by a lot. Going into this I thought that the whole thing would be a lot more involved when it came to getting the story from each camera, and all of that but I just could not get into it. The game does a great job at making you feel like you are cramped up in a tiny apartment and that you are just a creep going through cameras for sure, but this did not carry the experience for me at all.
With all of that said is it the worst game I have ever played? No.
I do think that this game has an audience out there with the humor and stuff you get but I just couldn’t find a great selling point for myself after playing through it.
I give Do Not Feed The Monkeys 2099 a 3 out of 10 you can also play the demo on Steam Now!
FrankenCulture 