An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF is a beautifully put together isometric platform/puzzle game with hints of old platformers like Q-Bert meets Sokoban. Using 2-dimensional levels that are all handmade, An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF gives a feeling of 3-dimensional movement and depth while maintaining a retro style and feel.
Couple the platforming mechanics with some well thought out puzzles and you have yourself a fun and equally frustrating game. An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF has really hit home in the retro vibe, making me feel as if I’m on my mum’s couch in the ’80s playing a game on our Commodore 64.
Mr PAF however is a lot better looking.
An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF Review
Between key rooms and levels, players are presented with beautifully hand drawn animations. They’re very reminiscent of Tintin and give you a little more of an explanation of the story and building onto the base game.
The points at which these occur are almost a reward and feel like a prize for completing a challenge. There could have been more of these cutscenes as they’re a delight but happen too infrequently.
You play as the titular Monsieur PAF. A shirtless beefcake who uses his book smart muscles to push and pull blocks, punch giant rocks to dust and to throw blocks around to interact with the level. Progressing through the levels gives access to even harder puzzles and more detailed environments.
At the end of some puzzles or rooms, you are rewarded with gears, after collecting a number of these you can use them to unlock doors to continue. There are no lives in An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF, in fact, you cant die. A “death” here would be just missing a jump or falling off a ledge and having to climb back up again.
So although frustrating you can keep trying, this makes An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF a very easy game to pick up and put down. Play for a bit or for a lot, it’s up to you.
The first set of puzzles are a well thought out tutorial. Giving you enough information to have to think about what you need to do whilst at the same time introducing the skills of Mr PAF at a rate that won’t overwhelm you. But from there on out I found my self forgetting buttons and would have to load my settings to read them again.
Your skills don’t really change as the game progresses but you are able to do things differently. The puzzles in this game will have you tearing out your hair at points. Which is great! What’s the point of an easy puzzle.
The only issue I have with this game is the control layout. Unlike most games where you move in an up, down, left, right movement plane in An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF you move in an up/right, up/left, down/left, down/right, which is a great shout out to games of old which did this, however, it just doesn’t seem to translate well here.
You can change this in the settings to do up, down but the levels are designed with the diagonal movement in mind and doing so makes it even odder to move. This movement system may work better on a gamepad.
Overall, An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF is a strange, enjoyable puzzle game with enough originality and puzzles to keep most players entertained.
An Interesting Journey of Monsieur PAF was reviewed on PC using a digital copy provided by the developer.
