Reviewed on PC Getting attentionWith triple-A games costing ever more, budget outings like Marlow Briggs are getting more and more attention. As they get more attention, their budgets get bigger and the quality of budget games gets higher.
Marlow Briggs is also playful and varied as a game, exploring territory beyond the jumping and brawling typical of its genre. In the end, though, there's no getting around the fact that Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death just isn't satisfying to play.
This is, in my opinion, a very good evolution as budget games and indies are the only ones experimenting with ways to further our beloved medium with new and creative ways to blow our minds interactively. Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death blew my mind but not in a good way. It blew my mind in a “I think I need to lie down and rest for a moment” kind of way. It blew my mind out.You play Marlow Briggs, an American fire-fighter who flies to Central America to visit your girlfriend who works as a translator of ancient texts for a wealthy Chinese man. When your girlfriend tries to quit her job as she begins to understand the destruction that the knowledge translated by her is causing in the hands of that maniac, said maniac decides to kill you with an ancient weapon found in one of the ruins to change her mind.
That was a big mistake as you wake up imbued with ancient powers and a death mask whispering in your ear. The weapon used to kill you also comes in handy as you slice and dice through hoards of henchmen as you race to save your girlfriend and, if you get around to it, the world.The bad bitsThe game isn’t all bad, but as the most important thing I have to say about it is, I’ll start with that. In the early parts it is completely void of pacing.
The first two levels feature fight after fight with some simple platforming and turret sequences in between but as the greats of the genre show, those platforming segments should be quiet time. Your brain can only take so much stimulus before it becomes tiresome. In the first two levels of this game, even during the platforming segments, things are blowing up all around you, the camera is shaking, and you feel extremely pressured to move things along. Any design intern could have informed them that during those segments, they need to get the player into a relaxed state in order to allow them time to think and get their minds working on analysing and solving the platforming puzzle. A moment to relax also serves the purpose of giving the player respite from the barrage of action and make them less likely to start to resent it.
That is something Nathan Drake has mastered, and Marlow Briggs hasn’t.As a classic hack-and-slash action adventure Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death features an on-rails camera, light and heavy attacks, dodging with the left stick, and multiple powers and weapons that unlock along the way. As with most games in the genre, the camera can sometimes be a problem.
On occasion, you’ll find yourself running in circles trying to find where to go. Then, of course, there’s the classic “fighting enemies that are out of the shot because you started running out of the scene” annoyance. The fighting becomes monotonous after a while and, even though you do get more weapons and powers as you progress, the first two weapons are the only ones that feel good to use. After I received the whip with the blade on the end (which suffers greatly from bad handling, especially in its heavy attacks) I kept wishing I could change back to the previous weapons. Some fights feel way too long and suck the energy and excitement out of the game, such as the tediously long turret sequences and the scorpion fights.The good bitsNow onto the good part. The story isn’t half bad and the humorous banter between the mask and Marlow made me chuckle on multiple occasions.
The voice acting is actually pretty good, the setting is absolutely beautiful as you fight your way through the colourful forests and the mask reminisces about the good old days of eating human hearts served by the victims’ spouses. The game does have some major plot holes, however. Marlow’s girlfriend leaves him notes as he chases her and, in the harvester level, each talks about how she is being taken from ruin to ruin to translate different hieroglyphs and texts.
It only takes you ten minutes to get from one letter to the next, so it’s pretty obvious that she is on the harvester the whole time.Throughout the carnage, you will gain experience by killing enemies, completing challenges, and punching small yellow whirlwinds. Health and Mana can be replenished by picking up red and green masks in the environment and experience boosts are picked up through yellow masks. The yellow masks and the tiny whirlwinds look very similar to one another, however, so you will often start punching a mask mistaking it for a whirlwind. This could easily have been rectified by altering the colour or making the whirlwinds look a bit different.
Cheap, elegant solutions that would have made a big difference in the over-all experience.Cheap releaseMarlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is an action packed, brain-dead, budget thriller and if you are looking for a cheap release for all that repressed adrenaline, you will definitely be able to find worse things to do with your money. If, however, you are looking for a challenge to your intellect or a test of your skills, look elsewhere. The only thing Marlow Briggs will challenge is your patience.
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Marlow Briggs is a dumb game. Thankfully the developers knew this coming in and made the most of it. Spouting cliché one-liners and destroying everything in his path, Marlow Briggs is the budget God of War game it sets out to be. There is nothing unique or original about what developer ZootFly has crafted here. Instead they decided to focus on poking fun at genre tropes and crafting a solid title that was entertaining from beginning to end. While there are a few hitches along the ride, Marlow Briggs might be the best, worst-named game of the generation.
Things start off like any other character action game. There is a defined villain, Marlow has a love interest that drives the plot, and there are plenty of henchmen to dispose of. The opening cinematic also sets the tone for the ridiculous. Marlow is quickly murdered and then resurrected by an ancient mask that dubs him the “Sacred Warrior”. From here it is a mish-mash of goofy dialogue from both Marlow and the aforementioned mask. It feels like a cheap action movie, and it works.
Don’t look down.
Marlow will spout off eye-rolling comments such as “feel the burn” when something is on fire. He isn’t the only wise-cracker though. The mask accompanies Marlow throughout his journey, offering up advice and tips, as well as a fair amount of ridicule. Fall of a cliff, the mask is there to poke fun at your skills. Again it is cheesy, but it never feels forced or out of place. Everything feels deliberate.
There are also plenty of jabs at game clichés such as conveniently placed turrets, or walled-off areas with waves of enemies. Marlow loves to point out the action which his game is built upon. Thankfully underneath all the satire is a pretty solid action title. This is by definition a God of War clone in every sense of the word. There are two attack buttons, mixing up their inputs result in new combos. Weapons and magic are earned throughout the game, and a fixed camera showcases the insanity of the action. Dodging is mapped to the right stick, and even the pickups are separated into three neat colors for XP, magic and health.
I HOPE they will continue to challenge themselves to IMPROVE this app. Zillow homes for sale near me.
Kratos is likely blushing right now, but again it is never a secret what ZootFly is attempting to achieve here. The locales remain fresh, the action never tires and the dumb jokes never wear thin. I enjoyed the experience from beginning to end; it just never excels at any one thing.
Combat is a simple two button formula with magic and new weapons tossed in throughout the surprisingly lengthy campaign. Combining buttons will result in named combos that even display on the screen. Some enemies can also be executed with the tap of the B button for quicker dispersal. Boss battles are more drawn out and less exciting than I had hoped for. Again, they copy Sony’s flagship series by concluding with button prompts, but feel less epic than likely intended. Magic plays a considerable role in wiping out screens of enemies. I also enjoyed the diversity of the weapons, though again they feel like the textbook set of blunt devices.
The upgrade system is bare bones. Weapons and magic can both be upgraded three times, with mana and health also receiving a boost with each tier. XP is gained from fallen enemies, as well as yellow pick-ups around the world. It felt like I was hitting my upgrade of each weapon/magic right as the new one was introduced, so there was never a need to decide what to upgrade next. This makes the system feel almost pointless, and tacked on as simply another checkbox.
Not everything in Marlow Briggs is mindless fun though. The camera angles are sometimes more of a hindrance than anything else. There is also an issue of some of the platforming segments and one-hit deaths that served to be some of the only places I died. These are frustrating to say the least. I am also not a fan of the Matrix-style cut scenes where action progresses through still motion scenes. They were novel at first, but boring by the end.
The visuals here are about what I would expect from a title of this caliber. Some of the locales are really well-designed, with others feeling like the typical industrial hangouts. Animations are sometimes good, and other times awful. The speed up animation when traversing ropes or ledges is downright laughable. The menu structure also feels bare-bones and stale. The voice acting has its moments of greatness and not-so-greatness. The dialogue is always cheesy, but some of the performances clearly outshine the rest.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death sounds like a straight to VHS (DVD or Blu-Ray for the kiddies) action movie starring a washed up 80s action star *cough* Carl Weathers *cough*. But this doesn’t make it any less fun. In fact for anyone searching for a quick God of War-type fix, I can’t recommend it enough. I had fun from beginning to end, and the cheese was just the right amount of thick.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
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Ken is the Editor-in-Chief of this hole in the wall and he loves to troll for the fun of it. He also enjoys long walks through Arkham Asylum and the cool air of Shadow Moses Island. His turn-ons include Mortal Kombat, Metal Gear Solid and StarCraft.