Created: October 28, 2022

Mask of Mists

An absolutely delightful and short first-person adventure. It features metroidvania-like exploration, environmental puzzles, and simple but effective combat. A wonderful way to spend a lazy, stress-free weekend day.

Puzzles are logical and easy enough that most people will figure them out by themselves. Occasionally you may get stuck not knowing where to go or what to do next, but combing over all areas again will reveal an opportunity. The world is small enough that it's not too tedious to go through it completely. That said, if you want all achievements you may need to be more systematic. (Non-spoiler hint: each dungeon contains one mask, so make a note to yourself if you haven't found it, so you can look for it later.)

Anyone experienced with first-person combat would find it easy here. There are only a handful of enemy types and they can be defeated as a puzzle: they all have predictable behaviors. You have both melee and ranged weapons, but I was able to complete the game almost entirely using melee, and never died. And I'm not some kind of FPS master p0wner. And, you can save and load whenever you want. As I said, it's all quite stress-free.

Presentation and controls are generally good. My one request is for more configuration options. I would like to be able to configure the buttons (I used an Xbox controller) and also change the field-of-view, which I felt was extremely narrow. The default stick sensitivity was also insane, but luckily that can be configured.

The story is rather simple but does the job. Well, except for the ending(s). It felt rushed and anticlimactic, but I guess it works considering the length of the experience.

For those asking if this game is like Supraland or Journey to the Savage Planet the answer is yes, but this is much more limited in scope. I love these kinds of games and can't wait to see more of them from 9 Eyes. There's enough talent and imagination there to reach for a bigger and more complex game based on this foundation. Thank you!