On an expedition through a long-forgotten temple, an archeologist and his brawny companion are separated by a massive rockfall. Now, Monsieur PAF must find his way back to the professor or forever call the catacombs of the temple his new home. Playing as the muscle man and titular Monsieur PAF, players must punch, lift, and push their way through diabolical puzzles. However, these puzzles require more brains than brawn, and can most certainly cause the player, and Monsier PAF, to lose their way.
Monsieur PAF is the isometric puzzle-platformer brought to life by developer Ernestine. Players are first met with cute and quirky handrawn cutscenes followed by beautiful voxel environments filled with puzzles. The puzzles are unique and sometimes very challenging to solve due to their clever design. Monsieur PAF is a fresh take on the puzzle game genre as it never reuses the same puzzle, and it rarely uses the same puzzles that are seen in other games. The puzzles make great use of the player's limited abilities, and the ancient tech found within the temple adds new layers to Monsieur PAF as the player progresses.
Sadly, the game starts to break down almost immediately after the player gains control of PAF. Playing on mouse and keyboard is nearly impossible as Monsieur PAF is stuck to a horizontal grid. This is to match the voxel layout of each room, but after several hours of playing it still doesn't feel natural. This unintentionally makes the first puzzle figuring out how to control PAF, and the answer is a controller. This isn't really a fix, it just makes it less difficult to control PAF. The player-character being fixed to a grid feels very outdated and letting PAF free roam the map wouldn't take anything away from the puzzles. In fact, it would add a massive quality of life improvement, especially when tackling platforming portions of the game.
While the levels are beautiful to look at, they are also hard to decipher. In some parts of the game, telling the difference between the background and the foreground can be impossible. This also makes it hard to gauge the distance between jumps as some platforms appear closer than they actually are. Preparing for jumps is also difficult as being stuck to a grid makes it impossible to fine-tune the character's placement. A step forward is a step forward: there is no in-between.
There are portions of the game that can best be described as broken. Players can progress through certain points of them before they are meant to. This can cause players to soft-lock themselves into an area forcing them to restart the game. This stems from the greater issue of not giving the player direction. Some games attempt to hold the player's hand which is equally as frustrating as no direction at all, and unfortunately, Monsieur PAF falls into the latter camp. Monsieur PAF relies heavily on environmental clues, but in a lot of instances those hints fail to land. Items can be collected with no text to indicate what they are used for, and there are no indicators for which way a player should go first, or when they should leave an area. Oftentimes it feels like walking through a maze touching the right wall hoping for an exit to appear.
All-in-all, Monsier PAF has its flaws, but it is a pretty solid puzzle game. It doesn't offer much in the way of replayability, but the experience is enjoyable. The puzzles are unique but could be designed better. Completing some of the puzzles reward the player with a sense of accomplishment, while others feel too simple. For a puzzle game connoisseur or those who are looking for a bite of fun between AAA meals, Monsieur PAF may be just such a game - just pick it up as an appetizer, not a main course.
Monsieur PAF is available on PC. A digital Steam code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.