Platform: PC Steam 

Developers: Monuments Game and Game Incubator

Sometimes you want to take a refreshing break from the fast-paced genre of games and life itself, a Cup of tea in hand (In my case, hot chocolate), and wondering what game to play that will make you feel that little bit more relaxed. Well, Monuments Flipper does just that and more!

What does Monuments Flipper entail?

You play the role of a professional Monument Flipper, where you restore the most outstanding monuments, such as Saint Michel d'Aiguihue and Notre-dame de Paris, to their former glory—along the way, learning a little bit about architecture and history itself.

Well, what can I do exactly?

When flipping the monuments, you have a great selection of tools to use, which in the tutorial will guide you through restoring your first structure. However, you aren't just fixing the structures themself, oh no, no, no. You are also tasked with restoring items you put on display once the construction is completed and cleaning and tidying the place up.

You can expect to rebuild walls with the stones collected around the area. Remove debris from the floor. Remove any unwanted rubbish and send things to be cleaned so the materials can be reused on the monument; mop the floor and fill in cracks in the wall. As a Bonus, you make money as you progress. 

Is it easy to navigate the game?

Short answer, yes. 

Initially, during the tutorial, I did get a bit confused. At first, I didn't understand the point of AR mode as I just felt it was a pointless step in navigating the game. I quickly realized how wrong I was.

You might be wondering what AR mode is. When you turn on AR mode, it highlights the objectives for you. For example, when picking up all the stones to put in the box to be sent to be cleaned. If AR mode is turned off, it will not highlight these objects for you. Another reason you would need it is to build scaffolding, which is essential for tall structures.

I preferred to keep AR mode on as some objects were hard to see due to being small. But if you want to make it a bit more challenging for yourself, then you can turn AR mode off when it is not needed.

Navigation overall is very easy. You need to remember only a few buttons, and following the objectives is very straightforward. 

What about the Graphics and Gameplay itself?

Graphically it is pleasing to the eyes, and the surrounding views and atmospheric sound complement the area you work on. I think that the developers were trying to go for the realistic approach for the design of it and to a point, it does look slightly realistic. However there could be improvements, but it isn't an AA game so I didn't have high expectations when starting up the game. I was still pleased with the overall look.  

Gameplay-wise, there is plenty to do. As you progress, the buildings get bigger and better in my opinion. All told there are nine monuments, and I felt there could have been more. Such as having more historical monuments like Roman buildings or greek buildings. That being said, yes there are only nine buildings but it takes a lot of work just to fix one monument. As I mentioned above, you aren't just rebuilding the monuments. You are also collecting materials, cleaning the mess, and restoring artifacts. Which mounts up after a while. 

I would have liked to have seen a showcase shown at the end of the restoration of each monument, seeing the before and after of what it looks like. Unfortunately, that was not implemented and was a missed opportunity in my humble opinion. 

Overall

I always gravitate toward simulation games out of the many genres. Especially where building and flipping is concerned. So for me, this game certainly ticks those boxes. 

It's one of those games where you can get lost in that world and bimble along at your own pace with no stress to contend with, which you would sometimes associate with games.   

There is undoubtedly a charm to monument flipper. It's a hidden little gem that I think a lot of players could be missing out on. Therefore, I give it my...

Stamp Of Approval