The Mermaid Mask

I liked this one more than Tangle Tower. It is a definite evolution of the previous game, and I hope to see more like this one day. In fact, all deduction games should learn from this one.

I played The Mermaid Mask with both my partner and my kids, as we are all fans of deduction mystery games. Although the focus was solving the murder, the style and subject matter surrounding the murder were only spooky rather than scary. Plus--being the follow-up to Tangle Tower, which we also all played through together, meant this game was going to get played by all of us one way or another.

What I Didn't Like

Leaps in Deductive Logic

I feel that this isn't a problem with this specific game but rather with the genre of deductive reasoning games.

There were a few times that we were very confident in our answers only to find out that we were wrong, and there was another leap in logic we needed to make.

This sort of thing is common in deduction games. In fact, I would probably argue that it is meant to be part of the experience. But, it's just not my thing. I laugh it off and it doesn't take away from the experience for me, but I find it a little frustrating.

The Ending

I will not elaborate on this. However, Tangle Tower ended in a similar way, and I didn't like that either.

Endings are up to the author, and clearly the authors of these games have a particular way of ending them. I can understand why they ended the games the way they did--but I would have preferred them to end differently.

What I Liked

Visual Style

Something about the look of this game really vibed with me. When I reviewed Tangle Tower, I noted that the art reminded me of Day of the Tentacle and was child friendly.

The art hasn't evolved much, but enough that it feels like it flows together better than it did previously. The animation has more polish to it, and each character has a unique style that fits together well with the rest of them.

After completing the game, you get to review some of the notes from the developers and see how the art evolved into what it is. Reading through the notes and seeing the drawings, you get the idea that the team working on this had the necessary experience to make the game they wanted to make, and based on my simple opinion, it shows.

Clue System

The Mermaid Mask has a few clue systems to nudge you in the right direction, depending on what you're doing in the game.

I like to think of these clue systems as the way to adjust the difficulty level of the game. You can turn some or all of these systems off, but I wanted to keep them on as I am not a big fan of sifting through all the clues looking for the needle in the haystack that I missed along my journey. Or, even worse, that I drew a wrong conclusion and now I need to rewire my thinking to find a new conclusion and lose all my momentum while sifting through all the clues for the fourth time.

I play games like this for the puzzles and exploration and deductive reasoning, and although I don't mind rethinking things once in a while, I really dislike losing all my investigative momentum.

I realize that plenty of people love doing that--but that is the sort of thing I do in my day job and I don't want to spend my spare time thinking like I do at work.

Balanced Subject Matter Delivery

Although the topic of murder is heavy subject matter for anyone, it is a very good and traditional mystery storytelling device that I enjoy in stories I read, watch, or play. The way the developers have delivered this story about solving a murder balances not trivializing the severity of the crime with not focusing too much on the scary parts of it.

It is hard to explain, but I can say they balanced the narrative well to make it as friendly as it needed to be. More storytellers could learn from these folks.

The Conclusion

I really enjoyed playing this game with my family.

It was family-friendly enough for everyone to participate and presented in a delightful way that is able to go from light-hearted to heavy as necessary.

I highly recommend playing this in a group if you have your own team of investigators, but even if you are a hard-boiled one-person detective, The Mermaid Mask is a fun one.