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Genre: Open world Strategy
Developer: Rain Games
Publisher: Rain Games
Release Date: October 16th, 2020
Edited by AlexKnight2005
Mesmer is an interesting title from Rain Games. You take on the role of a Hero returning to your nation. The main thing is all is not well upon your arrival. The king has been growing a mysterious crop outside of town and has been using it to take over the minds of citizens that do not obey his will. This action is called Horsing. So your adventure begins as you try and start a revolution to take over the government and right the wrongs of the King.
Gameplay consists of a few types of basic missions. You will go up to people and try to convince them to join the revolution. People of different classes have different point values you have to reach to get them to join. You can bribe them, give them food/items, intimidate them, or go on a mission for them to get them to join. Missions consist of going to retrieve an item, settle a dispute with someone, or generally doing something that a person needs. You can also perform speeches in different spots throughout the city to gain followers. The twist is as each day moves on, the government slowly finds out about you. So you have to play a cat and mouse game of getting more people to join and keeping your standing up, or it’s Game Over. The characters are creative, and all have their own unique wants/needs to join the revolution. For example, early on, you talk to a character who wants lunch to join your cause. You go over to the food cart and buy him a sandwich, and he joins afterward. Another worker tells you his lunch has been stolen and you will have to talk to the person who did it. You will also recover items people lost or sold. You also can put things up to chance and spin a wheel. By choosing to bribe, giving items, or intimidate, you can increase the chance for that spin. Characters will have a point value you have to meet to get them to join the cause. If you spin a lower number than the required point value, you have to do their mission. You do have to be careful, as there is a curfew every night, and you have to be indoors before then. The threat of the police catching up to you and being horsed is always present. Though so stay on top of your missions and manage your time, everything should end up alright. If you agree to more than you can chew though you will disappoint people and lower your standing. All these different elements combine to make an interesting and tense gameplay environment. A few downsides are the types of quests that are awesome at first do start to feel repetitive as the game heads towards the end.
The game has a nice top-down pseudo 3d appearance to it. Exploring the town, you find various business people and all sorts of different districts where people reside. A downside I’ve noticed is that you do not get to see the interior of businesses. It loads a shop screen showing the business owner instead of being a full shop to interact. Most of your time will be spent in front of a dialogue or shop screen talking or convincing people to join your cause. You won’t find voice acting as dialogue is all text, but that’s part of the charm. Music and other audio elements are well designed and give off that medieval charm of a town and with a feeling that everything isn’t as it seems.
I had no crashes or anything that stopped me from enjoying the game. The settings menu consists of a basic assortment of settings. You have options like Shadows, resolution, and various audio settings. There’s also a section for the controls which allows you to remap any of the buttons on the keyboard. Unfortunately, there’s no gamepad support, so you will have to play with a mouse and keyboard.
So if you want an interesting experience of trying to right the wrongs of a corrupt government, then check out Mesmer. There’s a ton of awesome interactions and creative characters. Just remember there’s no voice acting, and you will be doing similar quests throughout the game, which can get repetitive as time goes on. I enjoyed my time with Mesmer and look forward to seeing what Rain studios put out in the future. You can find Mesmer on Steam for $14.99. It’s worth checking out.
Pros:
Interesting world
Always active police creating a feeling of suspense
Creative characters
Enjoyable soundtrack
Cons:
No Voice acting
Limited Graphics options
Repetitive quests as the game move on
Blindpcguy gives Mesmer a Drastik Measure of 7.5 out of 10.0 (75)