“A whacky and hilarious adventure of clowns and magical balls”
I always love playing games that are wacky and goofy because it’s a nice change of pace from flying through space firing rockets and flaming hammers at giant alien Gods so I was pretty glad to get my hands on Masquerade, an action-adventure game with a cartoony feel which is as wacky and goofy as you can possibly get. Whilst I do kind of miss my super badass space aliens it’s always nice to get hold of a game in which you can play it and not really give a toss about being serious or sitting around for several hours whilst other members comment on how your gear is too low for you to do the next raid, even though you’ve just done it several times and you’re always at the top of the leaderboard… Okay, grudge over, so let’s get on with the review.
Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom is the new release by publishers and developers Big Ant Studio which was released on Steam, the PS4 and of course Xbox One on the 20th April and is set in the most original name for a city that I’ve ever heard… ‘The Realm’. Whilst the name of the city may not necessarily leave much to be desired the game can be forgiven for being too original by having you battle for some almighty Druid Orbs whilst beating the living hell out of an army of maniacal clowns, so I think we’ll give the developers a free slide when it comes to originality because they’ve just shoved it off a bridge, laughing and painting pictures of butterflies on their faces.
You see these are no magical balls, these are the most mightiest balls on the planet. Balls that make Michael Jordan look like a weeny boy in shorts. They’re so powerful that they can freeze anything just by touching them… a little bit like min… we’re getting off track. Seems over the centuries the balls have become so coveted that everyone now wants to find them including the Clown family who will stop at nothing to get their hands on those delicious balls so that they can take over the realm. Fortunately it’s up to you, the Jester Jaxx, with your rock hard abs and oversized mallet to claim the orbs for yourself and stop those naughty clowns.
If you’ve seen any images of the game then you’ll know it’s got a very cartoony feel about it and the whole storyline and gameplay is centered around that. It’s a game which prides itself on being as funny and wacky as possible and this really does shine through when playing, whether you’re watching one of the sequences or actually playing, you’re guaranteed to get a cheap laugh or two, if your like me and have no emotions anyway, chances are you’ll find this game incredibly amusing and the developers have done well to create a game which is as funny as it is.
The graphics during the video sequences are incredible and really do put this game in the top leagues as one of the most beautiful games I’ve played. It’s full of detail so right from the beginning you’ll know exactly what’s going on, whilst still being, well just downright hilarious. Whilst the graphics can be somewhat blocky when playing it’s not particularly an issue and doesn’t de-rate the game in any way. The game still comes across visually appealing and through the minor cracks it shows it still has a great core element of gameplay.
The sound compliments the game well and leaves nothing to be desired. The setting is that of a fantasy realm so be prepared to listen to some fantasy medieval type background music and some very “marchy” tunes. The voice acting works well too and each of the characters sounds just like they should, although one of the guards does sound very similar to Kermit the Frog, it may not make you laugh but it certainly gave me a cheap chuckle, especially when I pictured his little arms flailing around trying to catch this crazy Jester. Furthermore the sound effects are all timed beautifully with the game to give one really epic cartoon feel for it so hats off to the audio team for doing such a great job with this one.
The game is your typical action adventure platformer. Run around, come across enemies, button mash the main attack button whilst hitting another attack button to create a finisher attack and collect the drops. It’s been done time and time again and whilst it’s not the most original of game styles it’s been tried and tested and works well. I can’t really imagine Masquerade being anything other than it is and the fable / crash bandicoot type of feel to it works well with what it wants to accomplish.
As you run around, destroying the massive amount of clowns standing in your way of true glory you’ll come across lots of different goodies to get your hands on which are really your standard drops for this kind of game. Jester Juice restores most of your HP and the clowns will drop red noses, which when you collect enough of them will give you some tasty rewards, the first of which is a devastating super move which will fill up as you defeat enemies.
There’s lots of objects to interact with as well as a heap of different enemies and bosses and lots of things to keep you interested such as mini quests which will reward you with some nice things. The game constantly keeps you on your toes with new things to peak your interest so that you don’t feel like the game is being overly repetitive.
The game really starts to shine in the form of the combat through it’s slow motion finishers in which you can watch yourself brutally destroying a clown and get a very nice sense of satisfaction from it. If you’ve never seen it and I would doubt that you have unless you’re a sadistic monster such as myself then I’d seriously recommend you watch a Jester destroy a clown with a mallet, there’s something oddly peaceful about it, or maybe I just need another trip to my psychologist again.
As a whole, Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom stands up for itself. It may not be the most original of games when it comes to the combat but the story line certainly doesn’t love much to be desired and is just downright hilarious. It’s a game which once you start playing you won’t really want to stop until you’ve seen everything that it has to offer, it’s just a case of when you decide you’ve seen everything it has to offer.
Games like this tend to come and go, but I have a feeling that Big Ant Studio are around to stay a little while and whilst Masquerade may or may not be the big hit that they have been waiting for it’s certainly a positive and very welcome addition to the roster. The developers should feel a sense of accomplishment with what they’ve made and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more from them in the future.
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