Monster Mop Up is a first-person cleaning simulation game where we play as an employee of the Ministry of Monster Concealment. Our mission is to go out into the human world, catch adorable monsters called Ragamuffins, and clean their mess without leaving a trace.
Introduction
The Monster Mop Up demo features a headquarters room, which we can clean (or mess up), and one away mission, which we can complete or at the very least try to. Early on, we are informed through a Notice of Employment that we are playing as the new Custodian. We are also introduced to our handler, Lucy, who maybe will be featured more in the complete version of the game. For now, we get just this note from her. We are also told that our mission is to rescue the above-mentioned adorable monsters and clean their mess.
Gameplay
In the Notice of Employment, Lucy apologizes for the state of our headquarters. Our main room is a mess, allowing us to try our tools and understand how the game works.
When you are ready to start your (first) mission, you enter the magical glowing wardrobe. You are then placed in a house with several rooms and stairs, which you must clean. In the living room, you are surprised by one of the monsters; it’s orange, fluffy, and frankly too cute, considering the mess it’s making. When done with your mission, you exit the same way- through the wardrobe.
The Cleaning Process
We have three options of tools, rubber gloves, a mop, and a trap. What the first two do should be pretty obvious. One thing to note about the mop is that it comes with a bucket of water, which gets dirty after a certain point. To get clean water, you must take the bucket into the magical wardrobe or find a pure water orb lying around the house, a glowing blue one.
As for the third tool, the trap- it’s to trap the monsters. That, however, is not precisely explained in the demo; it’s more of a trial-and-error process to figure out how it works. You must put it on the floor to activate it and somehow shepherd the little menace onto it to trap it.
I suggest doing that first because every time the monster moves, it leaves behind more mess. As mentioned above- you can mop up the mess with the mop. The rubber gloves are used to collect stinky orange orbs in a cardboard box or throw them directly in the fireplace. Also, if you try to put anything else in the fire, it won’t be destroyed. Putting the monster in the fireplace will create an enormous amount of stinky orange stuff.
After cleaning everything up, it’s a good idea to tidy up as well- pick up furniture that has fallen over, that sort of thing. It helps with your final score when you finish the mission.
Atmosphere
Monster Mop Up is a cheerful and colorful 3D cleaning sim. The music is quirky and changes when we are near a monster on the loose. The mess itself is, at least in the demo version, orange. The interiors are well done, with a fantasy theme. It looks a little empty at this stage, but that will probably change in the final version. I imagine this game will be fun as a VR experience if the developers decide to go in that direction.
Controls
In Monster Mop Up, the controls are mostly intuitive- we move with WASD, and the camera/ point of view is adjusted with the mouse. The tools are assigned 1-2-3 and are used with the left mouse button. I did find moving furniture around a little tricky. And trapping the Ragamuffin monster took me an embarrassingly long time.
Future
The Steam store page of the game promises customizations for our main room. In the demo, besides cleaning the room, I didn’t see anything else. However, that will probably change in the final game. When we catch a Ragamuffin on one of the missions, the little monster ends up in our main room. Presumably, sometime in the future, there will be enough things to make a cozy home for the Ragamuffins and us.
Final Thoughts
Monster Mop Up is shaping up to be a fun experience, and I’ll be checking the final product for sure. For the sake of new players, I hope the developers will include more explanations about game mechanics in the final game. I hope to see some difficulty adjustments as well- that little monster was challenging to catch! All that aside, I wholeheartedly recommend checking the demo on Steam.