Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom

I can't even get the title to Launch with a controller, Steam Deck verified?! HOW!??!?!?! I've tried both Steam Deck and Desktop, I keep getting a message after the introduction screen. "You Must be online in order to play Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom" I've tried going offline literally, I've tried two devices. Its a single player game!! So I don't understand, super disappointing can't even PLAY IT.

After the initial cutscene it throws up a dialogue box saying "You must be online in order to play Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom" and doesn't progress further than that. It seems you had to play the game around the launch time/year, (I got it back in 2020, I can't remember if it was a bundle, freebie or if I bought it directly) if you plan on purchasing it now, I'd highly advise against it as you very likely won't be able to play it either. Internet restricted DRM for a single player game is nasty. To make matters worse, I was online every time I tried to boot it up. It's a shame because the game does look appealing. I should also note, I tried running this on the Ally+SteamOS. There is a guide out there on how to run this and bypass the DRM but A) that shouldn't be necessary and B) I couldn't seem to download the file even through desktop.

Crashes on startup unless a controller is connected, and not labeled as controller only (in fact, other than the startup crash, it is playable with kb+m). Camera is too close during battles, it's easy for the important fist icons to end up outside the screen (and the battles get repetitive very fast). The platforming segments aren't much better - the camera swings around wildly, making it easy to suddenly change direction and take a bath. The cinematics and the concept are good, but in total, this game is more broken than fun.

[b]Edit: Neurolyses has posted a simple guide on how to get this game to work.[/b] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3253211760 Crashes at start, saying: "You must be online in order to play Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom" despite being online. Apparently, plugging in a controller fixes crashing, but it doesn't for me. Also, it says it's Verified for Steam Deck, but it doesn't work on there either. Been wanting to try this game for a long time despite it supposedly being flawed, so I finally got it, just to find out I can't even play it at all. Despite the fix, I'm leaving this review as negative because this never got fixed and developers/support ignored my e-mails and other ways of me trying to contact them. Even though the game may be fun and looks interesting, a bug that prevents you from even starting the game is too critical to ignore, especially if most players are affected.

Darn.. I think this game might be some fun if I was ten years old.. No offence to ten years old's, those are good times. But seriously.. I think this game is meant to be silly but fails on every count.. If I had not gotten this on Humble Bundle I would not have bought it or would at least want a refund. Not worth anybody's time

Don't let the colorful graphics fool you. This game doesn't follow it's own rules and is the one of the biggest piles of garbage on Steam

一款动作冒险游戏 漫画风格的画风比较让人眼前一亮，但游戏内容真的不怎么样 怪物种类少，每关就没几种，攻击方式也非常单调就是普攻、然后等待时机防反 更重要的是这游戏清理小怪毫无乐趣，也不掉东西，杀了也不增加自身能力 唯一的乐趣可能也就每关关底的BOSS，但你又不能直接跳过前面那堆小怪

The game is a nice 3d plateform with a correct fightning system, but the game crash everytimes i play level 6, can't launch the level or crash between the level, also the game don't have save between the level, so you have to start from the begginning, so can't play the rest of the game ...

absolute garbage. red flag!

I really wanted to like this game, I honestly did. It's silly and quirky, and I appreciate the cut scenes and artwork. The problem is that the game is, well, broken. To begin with, the game doesn't want to load properly unless you have a controller plugged in. So I hope you don't plan on trying to play via mouse & keyboard. Once you do start the game, you will quickly realize the camera movement is just a tiny bit disorienting. It's an unusual complaint, I know, but it's just a bit *too* responsive. Nothing I couldn't (kind of) adapt to, but it was still a pain. But the most egregious problem is that the controls are totally broken. Once you get into a fight with more than one or two enemies, good luck having your character do anything you want him do. Enjoy running around in circles even ten seconds after completely releasing the controls. Enjoy massive delays from when you press the melee attack button. Enjoy repeatedly losing what SHOULD be fairly easy fights, merely because your inputs have virtually nothing to do with what the character you're supposed to be controlling actually does. I left a message on the forum about this nearly a week ago, hoping someone would chime in with a fix or an explanation as to why this was happening. So far, it's be nothing but crickets. So I strongly advise against buying this game for any price at this time. I will change my review if the situation changes, but for now I'm not holding my breath.