Glass Masquerade
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When I was sent over Glass Masquerade, I didn’t know what to expect from this jigsaw puzzle style game from Onyx Lute. I had seen some bits of it here and there, but it didn’t really appeal to me. I like all manner of games, I’m as happy playing FIFA 17 as I am playing Civilization VI as I am playing Star Wars: Battlefront, but a game like Glass Masquerade? I honestly would have just let pass me by without much of a second glance or a second thought. Having played the game through, I can honestly say that I was wrong in thinking that. Not all great games have to be blockbusting ones that have multi-million dollar budgets, or a grand narrative, or hugely competitive multiplayer – they can be small, humble with a single goal in mind that it sets out to achieve and does so in a simple but very effective manner. Glass Masquerade, is one such game.
The gameplay of Glass Masquerade is simple – it is the same premise of games that you would have played in kindergarten on the play-mats, it’s the same as your Grandmother plays whilst watching re-runs of Diagnosis Murder. It’s one of the oldest and most classic game types in the world: the humble jigsaw-puzzle. The way you play the game is as simple as you’d expect, just drag and drop the pieces along the sides onto where they fit on the clock-face until you’ve put all the pieces in their places to create a beautiful looking stained glass inspired image.
There isn’t any kind of time-limit, but when you’ve completed a level it will record your time and then when you play it again you can try and better it. The pieces along the sides are silhouetted so you can’t see until you’ve picked them up what part of the overall image it’s likely to be and you have the option when you start to have a few pieces to start you off that are highlighted red and will attach to a corresponding dot along the edges which can be a good way to start off if you’re struggling or feel like you need a bit of a kick-start. As you complete levels, you then unlock more levels until you complete all 25, and there is no real set way that you have to go about completing them. Each level has an image that is inspired by the country that that level is based in, so the British image has Big Ben in the background and Sherlock Holmes in the foreground whereas the Japanese level is inspired by Japanese art and features a Geisha girl with hand-fans. The full list of countries included are:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Brazil
- Britain
- Canada
- China
- Egypt
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Greenland
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Italy
- Japan
- Madagascar
- Mexico
- Mongolia
- Portugal
- Russia
- Sweden
- Tanzania
- USA
The graphics within the game aren’t anything groundbreaking, they aren’t going to require you to have the latest NVIDIA graphics card overclocked by any stretch, but the images that you’ll create through the puzzles are stunning, and can take a while until you finally get that “penny dropped” moment where you say “Oooh it’s a…”. There isn’t much more to say from the graphics point of view of this game, other than perhaps sometimes pieces of the puzzles you’ll think won’t fit where they’re meant to which can throw you off a little and prevent you from advancing quicker than you’d like – but this is very few and far between and only seems to happen with pieces that are meant to fit into thin gaps.
There is no narrative to Glass Masquerade, however it’s strange how when you play it you feel somehow transported to another place. Whilst playing this, my wife was happily watching (for seemingly the billionth time) The Hunger Games, a film that usually draws my attention whilst playing even narrative heavy games or games that require constant focus, but I found myself not even noticing she was watching it until about 20 minutes from the end, the whole time I was concentrating on getting my puzzles completed and happily lost in this little world of stained-glass window themed puzzles. If I had thought even a week ago that I would be waxing lyrical over a game such as this, I would have said you need your head sorting out, but like I said before – I was wrong.
The sounds within this game are as simple as the premise itself, but what really shines within this game is the soundtrack. It’s as peaceful and serene a soundtrack as I’ve heard in a video game, it’s even available as a separate download of it’s own for $2.50 from the composer, Nikita Sevalnev’s, website where you can listen to it online for free. A big part of the way Glass Masquerade seemingly transports your mind to another place while playing the the music within the game, open the link and have a listen whilst reading the rest of this review or looking around Real Game Media and you’ll soon see what I mean.
At first glance, Glass Masquerade doesn’t look as though there’d be a lot of replay value to it, it’s a jigsaw puzzle game with not many other gaming options like time-trials or even a vs. mode, but again it’s the game’s simple way it goes about its business that shines through again. There doesn’t need to be a multitude of game options or anything like that, the replay value comes in the same what that a normal jigsaw puzzle in a box would, it’s just the simple pleasure of completing the puzzle; the challenging side of it comes from trying to complete the puzzles quicker than you have done previously to set yourself new records. Otherwise there doesn’t need to be anything else that this game needs – they’d be nice I suppose, and perhaps welcomed by a number of gamers, but it would be to defy what this game is – simple and humble, and for that it deserves a great deal of respect.
Overall, Glass Masquerade is a beautiful little game to play whether you’re a young kid (my 9 year old daughter loves it) or a seasoned hardcore gamer or even someone who “doesn’t do games”, and every other demographic in-between. Its simplicity is key and proof that bigger isn’t always better, that you don’t need a twisting tale or graphics that push boundaries in order to make a game that is incredible, that can pull you in and that could score almost perfect 10’s across the board. Glass Masquerade is a wonderful little game that is definitely worthy of more than just a second look.
Have you played Glass Masquerade? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments below, the RGM Forums or on Twitter. If you like what you’ve read then feel free to share this article on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest or Reddit using the buttons available!
