Mask of Mists review for PS4, Xbox One, Switch

I?m half-tempted to compare Mask of Mists to games like Skyrim or Breath of the Wild. I mean, all three are fantasy action games where you travel around a magical land, fighting monsters and learning potions and discovering new areas and whatnot. As comparisons go, all three games are at least in the same ballpark — it?s not like we?re comparing, say, Tetris to Mortal Kombat or something.

Of course, there?s a massive gulf in quality between Mask of Mists and either of those other games. They?re all-time classics, and you can tell they were made by huge teams with big budgets. Mask of Mists was made by a tiny studio in Russia, and while I wouldn?t say it looks bad, it?s certainly never going to be mistaken for a AAA game.

But that doesn?t mean that Mask of Mists is bad — far from it. It?s a small, brightly-coloured world with a few nice visual flourishes here and there. The map is pretty sparsely populated, and none of the enemies are all that tough (in fact, they all seem to be variations of mushrooms), but they still keep you on your toes a little. Likewise, there are lots of riddles and puzzles scattered all over the place, but none of them will tax your brain all that much.

I do have one major complaint, though. There?s no map here, at least as far as I could tell, and seeing as lots of the areas look similar and the game requires a lot of backtracking, you can see how that might get annoying pretty quickly. There were plenty of times where I knew the location I was looking for, but without having any way to mark it off, I was basically just wandering until I stumbled across it again. Thankfully, enemies don?t respawn once you?ve killed them, so you never have to worry about fighting the same mushroom monsters over and over again.

Regardless, though, there are worse games to be stumbling around in. Mask of Mists is certainly nowhere near as good as its influences, but it?s still a pleasant way to pass an afternoon.

Sometimes You provided us with a Mask of Mists PS4 code for review purposes.