MONOLYTH
Press for points in prophetic polyomino play
Designer: Phil Walker-Harding | Publisher: CMON
Monolyth is a fairly simple concept to explain: build a square tower out of 3D Tetris-style pieces, aiming to beat your opponent at building certain shapes, completing layers and finishing off the whole cube. Along the way, try to predict the colours on each side of your tower for extra points.
If you hadn’t told me anything about the creator of Monolyth, after playing it once I would say they’d had two key influences; the piece selection and tetromino placement from Patchwork, and a varied range of point awards with steadily decreasing value from Bärenpark. Turns out my instincts were at least partially right, since this is the latest project from Phil Walker-Harding, the actual designer of Barënpark, and someone who quotes Patchwork as a major inspiration.
Please don’t mistake me here; this is not a copycat; Monolyth stands on its own two feet very capably. The three ways to earn points tug you in every direction at once, and that balance seems to be nearly perfectly honed. I’ve played many bouts of it, and I’m no closer to a win-every-time strategy.
It’s always fun to build a little tower of blocks, but there’s tactics beyond the tactility too. Choosing your prophecy tiles is always a difficult balance; too early and paint yourself into a corner, or too late and all the achievable options have disappeared.
It’s also one of the rare games that offers easy handicaps for playing with younger children. My six year old just builds layers as fast as he can, whilst I battle at structures and prophesy predictions with my eleven year old, levelling the playing field without making everything dull for the adults.
My criticism of Monolyth is mild, but still worth making. It’s a good game – without a doubt – but is it worth £50? Is there more fun to be had here than in two smaller games of a similar vein? Hard to say, but I don’t think it provides quite enough gameplay to merit the price. If it added a campaign option, or a few different game modes, I think we’d be there, but without it, I don’t believe it has the replayability to match the pricetag.
If you love the idea of multidimensional Tetris (well, three dimensions is “multi”, right?), then Monolyth is already in your ball pool. The addition of a tight, fun game that’s great for a highly competitive thirty minutes is icing on the cake.
CHRIS LOWRY
WE SAY
It might look a little like Jenga, but the dexterity here is all in the nimbleness of your mind, and on hoping your opponent doesn’t pick up the exact piece or prophecies you have your eye on.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗4 Colours sets of polyominoes
◗6 Player boards
◗ Central play board
◗56 Level, structure and prophecy and reward tokens
◗12 Structure cards
◗ Crystal standee
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED KINGDOMINO…
…The “brain-feel” of building your Monolyth is strangely familiar, and Kingdomino’s quest for combining specific tiles and groups into patterns would be the perfect preparation for a new game.