Mesmer

I love the theme, the atmosphere, the story... it's just so unfriendly to the player. After the first day you don't get any tutorials. You get told to go to a location which doesn't get marked on your map. You're told to get to a different part of the city, all of which are through checkpoints and I have no idea how to get through those as bribing guards for passes never seems to work. Being chased by the guards at night is a pain. It's a series of wonderful ideas let down by hostile game design which seems to want to put roadblocks in the players way. For example: I get told to go to the Mindbender Acadamy. My character says she knows where that is. Neither character tells me, and it doesn't get marked on my map. So. What am I supposed to do with the information? Wander around until I find it? It's probably in a different bit of the city so I'll just wind up arrested. It's unbelievably frustrating as this is the game I need from 2020 - participating in a righteous uprising against authoritarian rule? Yes please! Arbitary hostile game design? No thanks.

The concept of this game is really interesting. I like the way the world won't bend to your every need, and move on with or without you. The game Pathologic does something similar, but the vibe here is entirely different. Mesmer is bright and colorful, almost to the point of being garish, but this style contrast against the more oppressive themes in an interesting way. I appreciate the character designs and I love how you get to know the people of the city. I did have some performance issues. Loading the game took me about five minutes the first time, but the game ran fairly smooth when finally loaded. Sometimes conversations would bug out, and selecting interactables would at times be a bit of a hassle. Overall I'd say give this game a try. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed my time with it!

I have been looking forward to playing this game since I first heard of it. The concept is quite original and really entertaining: Start a revolution! Recruit people for strikes, make grand speeches, run errands / do quests, collect information about people and use it for blackmailing, sneak around at night while trying to avoid the police. And every choice you make (as well as your mistakes) have consequences. I also love exploring the city and patting all the cats :D

I really wanted to like this game. It has a neat concept and enough lore to pull you into the world. Unfortunately, the game is bogged down by poor controls and arbitrarily timed quests alongside needless time management. Those things paired with no explanation of how the game works at all, is detrimental to the fun that could be had exploring this charming world.

Mesmer is a rough diamond in the best tradition of early-to-mid oughts console games I remember with great fondness (the same era is also evoked by the visuals) - janky but idea-rich with interesting design ideas that don't neatly fall into pre-existing gameplay formulas or a meets-meets equation ("it's like game X meets game Y"). Occasionally rough and coarse, Mesmer is worth your time and patience (the tutorialisation is relatively weak, but on the flip-side that encourages curiosity and exploration about the game systems that the right kind of player will find satisfying). If you do give Mesmer its chance to shine, the game proves to be a real jewel.

Lack of tutorial is one thing, making the gameplay predominately fetch quests is another and leaves the gameplay pretty dull. Anytime you want to complete something its a fetch quest.

I want to like it but it is just too vague and convoluted for me to stomach. If I just had instructions and the game was not seemingly missing functionality I might have kept playing and enjoyed it. The game is comprised of fetch quests to collect wealth. Talk to people in town to swing deals. Problem is the minigame for this makes no sense to me. Multiple wheels pop onto the screen and pressing the A button stops all of them with each pointing to a value separately as they are not synced with the other wheels. I can do missions for them instead, with no way of knowing if I can accomplish it before I accept it, or add valuables to have more wheels on the screen. But it did not change the fact that I did not understand what the game was supposed to be or how I was to play it. Am I supposed to be focusing on the top left one? Is there a different button to do one at a time? I got down to the last hour before curfew and trying to do my night missions for people but had no way to pass the time. The town becomes still with no one around to interact with. There were only the officers that are now walking their paths. So I spent some time learning the route I would need to stay out of their sight. I tried waiting for about another ten minutes and had to assume time does not pass without interactions. There is no button to skip forward in time, no menu option, seemingly no items, no objects in town, no way to night. So I tried going to my house in the hopes for an option there. Going to my house forces the day to end, starting a new day, bypassing night, in where I am given some sort of freebie to do a speech in order to earn more faction. It is a game with three statement options which give and or hurt faction with different groups. The option pool is tiny and hardly regulated forcing me to be redundant and discrepant in my speech. At this point I had enough of the nonsense and quit.

Definitly worth playing especially for this price. It's a very unique and interesting set up. Altough i wish their was a bit more context at the start and a bit more tutorial.

A really fun game hiding a pretty serious topic. I've known and loved Rain Games ever since I played Teslagrad way back when. World to the West followed with a whole new gameplay which must have been a challenge after making such an excellent platformer. Now with Girl Genius on the way, Rain Games are a force to reckon with ! But back to Mesmer. It's beautifully made, with quirky characters, an artictic direction that only they can deliver. It's very easy to pick up and you'll find yourself doing tons of stuff in no time. It's got a bit of a roguelike element to it, so don't be surprised the first time you lose ! And finally the music. Once again Jorn Lavoll delivers a truly varied soundtrack, masterfully executed. I have the utmost respect for his work and I've had the privilege to chat with the man. I actually got the key from him, and no I'm not saying all this stuff 'cause it was free. I've got the whole Rain games collection, even bought the soundtracks on bandcamp, and kickstarted Girl Genius. I could go on, but maybe it's bet if you just play it !

This Game is criminally underrated! It's a beautiful blend of Strategy, Adventure, and even minor dungeon crawling! Lets start with the Positives about the game. Music? Atmospheric, unique to each district and definitely carries the tone of each faction and their respective beliefs. Music is fantastic. Graphics? At first one might not be used to the more obtuse (unusual compared to other games) graphics and renditions, but once you look past that, it really sells itself well. Additionally, if you're familiar with Teslagrad [/spoiler TeslaDAD amirite?] and World to the West, The character design is a return to form and stays true to the world-building that Rain Games has done. Gameplay Loop. Bear with me as I'm not the most articulate. You run around the various districts of Mesmer fulfilling favors, missions, negotiating, breaking in, blackmailing, riding hogs, grapple hooking thru the areas, or sneaking thru the night (more on that) Each of these tasks is self-explanatory. The Game gives you DISTINCT locations where to find what you're looking for or WHAT area you're needing to be in. Clues are within the text of the mission given. Breaking in is a treat in itself. You have a lock-picking mini-game which, once you figure out the trick, is no trouble at all. The fact that each house that you CAN break into has it's own thematic approach is beautiful. Blackmailing / Favors are a way of ensuring that your needs are met albeit with some additional steps or with a little bit of loose lips. Each of these elements leads to the "revolution" sim as it's been dubbed. The Grapple hook mechanic is also very nifty and is VERY WELL outlined by the blue boarders on the mini map. I think the one thing that gets me is the sneaking around at night. It is VERY EASY to avoid the guards, (and avoid being caught while chased) but sometimes their light source radius isn't telegraphed enough or it seems as if they see me when I'm several stories down (looking at you canaries area / Aesthetica stairs) Additionally, if I don't have the hog OR a grappling hook, I don't think you can escape unless you make it to the under-city which can be difficult in itself. Camera - Good The camera is fantastic and does well to follow you above head or over the shoulder. there ARE some minor camera snafus like when on steps, but this is mitigated if there are no bluecaps on the steps to cheese you. Otherwise great work is done to showcase the richness of the City of Mesmer. UI - Mixed If I'm being honest, I have some misgivings about the UI. At first I felt it was rich and vibrant, useful and easy to use but when I started acquiring more and more goods, It became overbearing on my actual screen. I like that it's nice and organized for the type of goods I have. Blackmail, Foods, Drinks, Money, Art, but after awhile it just takes too much real estate. If they could be decreased in size, I would have WAY more fun sneaking around at night. Additionally, It would help with the mission details (if you choose to get all of them at once, don't. You'll fail more that way) also tend to take up real-estate on your UI and they could benefit from taking a tone-down in size. I would like to say though, The Stacking of same items (The passes / Coercion) Is a great idea and should be applied to all of the items so they take up less room on the UI. Now. Lots to enjoy! Game-play elements! Lets talk about what I didn't like. Tutorial. There is none. You're fresh off the boat making revolutions now and chances are, from this lack of info, you're going to fail several times in your initial runs. While this is immensely frustrating at first, once you get the hang of it, you are REWARDED QUITE WELL. I would say that if there was A LITTLE BIT of hand holding, it would benefit from it greatly and people wouldn't be turned off almost immediately. Glossary. I would LOVE for there to be a glossary so I can keep track of all the cool stuff I've broken in to, seen, heard, about people. Not only would it add some nuance to it (such as showing characters preferred tastes and their characteristics) But it would nudge people more so into successful revolutions. Load Time / Transition Screen At the initial Game state, there is an almost 5-6 minute load time (I timed it, it was 5 minutes 54 seconds) Now, in the world of 2020-2021, This isnt okay. HOWEVER. I realize that this loading time, loads THE ENTIRE GAME. There are virtually NO load times within the entire game whatsoever and after playing thru several runs, realize that this is probably for the better. I think, if there was a disclaimer about this specific load time, or whats happening in the background, it might add to the play experience for people. Bugs. There was a bug that I encountered, I was carrying a cake to the house of teri (This should be marked on your map btw at all times, please add it) and interacted with a cat. I was stuck in the animation until I instructed Teri to try and open a chest / door in which she automatically dropped it and I was free to move. I can see this being a problem through if it was at night and Blue-Caps were chasing me. There was also a 1 time occurrence where after getting caught by the police and enjoying their free social housing, The music was playing in the background but the game wouldn't move forward until about 3-4 minutes later. For me this is minor but for others, they may not have the patience and assume the game crashed.