Mask of Mists

Review

 “This story begins with another job challenge. You were asked to find the missing person. It was nothing unusual except for the fact this person was an Archmage of the Academy and, as you know, untraceable disappearances are extremely unusual for Archmages.  Archmage Crowl conducted his research on Infected Territory – the area of fierce battles during the last war with the Empire. The amount of magic that fell on this land was so huge that it weakened the barrier that protected us from the Abyss and many of its inhabitants filled this area. You were promised a triple-size fee in case of success and the Archmage’s colleagues kindly offered to teleport you directly to your destination. You enter the portal after hesitating for a few moments...”

You start your adventure off in a small ruined building; heading outside you notice an arch with some sort of forcefield blocking your path. On each side of the archway are two status plinths with red tags but there are no statues on the plinths. This is your first puzzle to complete, after which you’ll be allowed to pass through the arch. You will then come across an Abandoned Fort which you make as your base. Once at the fort you can open a passageway to your Workplace where you’ll be able to create potions and you may find some information which will help you on your adventure in finding the missing Archmage.

As you make your way through the area, you’ll find Notes laying around; these can give you hints on what to do or where to look. One of these Notes is called The Gap, it details that you must find six Navigation Crystals before you can open the Gap safely as the last owner disappeared through the Gap after losing a battle. These Navigation Crystals are normally found underground, usually close to the Gap. The Gap is made up of a stone circle inside which are six plinths with a larger plinth in the middle. Each time you activate a Navigation Crystal you activate a plinth in the Gap which is indicated by a pink flame shooting from the top of the plinth. Once you have activated all the Crystals, the plinth in the middle will open, allowing you to proceed in search of the Archmage.

There are other puzzles to complete which may open up new areas, or you may require something like an axe in order to proceed to a new area. Scattered here and there are some Chests; opening these will give you some items such as Health Potions, Ammo or Weapons. Also scattered around are items like flowers, mushrooms etcetera; you will be able to craft these items back at your workshop. You will also find some large stone plinths with neon green hole and cracks, activating these will increase your overall health limit. Your health is displayed in the top left corner; it also displays the health potions and ammo you currently own.

There are creatures you will come across and you’ll be able to slash away at them with your sword; later on you may find new swords and a gun. Although your gun will have limited bullets, more can be found in chests; I’d say use them sparingly but you can get by without them should you run out of bullets. You will collect Rubies, Sapphires and Emeralds; Rubies can be used to buy items from the Leprechaun if you can find him.

In the options you’ll find settings for Language (English, Russian and Chinese), Resolution, Full Screen, Graphics Quality (Low, Medium and High), Camera Shake, Camera Sensitivity, Invert Camera, Sound and Music Volume Sliders.

I like the games graphics, sounds and music. However, to begin with I did have some problems with what felt like micro stutters. My PC is more than capable of playing any game on Ultra settings, but in Masks of Mists I had the game set to High, and then I tried lowering the settings to Medium and Low, but still had the problem. I messed around in Nvidia settings and eventually found that I had to turn off G-Sync before the stuttering went away. Other than this problem the game ran fine; it isn’t very hard to play and will only take a few hours to complete.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!