Tower of Mask

[h2]El Miedo No Está Delante de Ti. Está a Una Casilla de Distancia[/h2] Hay juegos que intentan recuperar géneros clásicos. Y luego están los que parecen sacados de una época que ya no existe… pero entienden perfectamente qué hace falta cambiar para que siga funcionando hoy. Tower of Mask entra en esa categoría. Desde fuera parece uno de esos dungeon crawlers retro que solo van a conectar con quien creció entre cuadrículas, pasillos estrechos y mapas dibujados a mano. Pero bastan unos minutos dentro de la torre para entender que aquí hay algo más raro: una mezcla entre survival horror, exploración clásica y combate en tiempo real que consigue sentirse sorprendentemente moderno sin dejar de parecer un juego perdido de finales de los 80. Y cuanto más avanzas… más entiendes que el verdadero enemigo no es lo que vive dentro de la torre. Es el espacio que tienes para reaccionar. [u][b]Una torre que no quiere ser conquistada[/b][/u] Hay algo muy especial en cómo Tower of Mask construye tensión. No utiliza sustos constantes. No necesita llenar la pantalla. No intenta abrumarte. Te encierra. La propuesta es sencilla: avanzar por una antigua torre infestada por figuras enmascaradas mientras exploras, resuelves puzles, administras recursos y buscas la manera de seguir subiendo. Pero lo que realmente vende la experiencia es la sensación de vulnerabilidad. Los pasillos son estrechos. Las distancias importan. Y el hecho de avanzar casilla a casilla hace que cada error se sienta mucho más cercano de lo habitual. No hay comodidad. Solo movimiento. [u][b]Combate: cuando una cuadrícula deja de sentirse rígida[/b][/u] Aquí está probablemente la idea más interesante del juego. Aunque utiliza desplazamiento basado en cuadrículas, el combate ocurre en tiempo real y permite mover cámara libremente y apuntar ataques. Sobre el papel parece una mezcla extraña. En práctica funciona sorprendentemente bien. Empiezas a pensar diferente. Ya no se trata solo de pegar más fuerte. Empiezas a calcular espacios. A esquivar. A anticipar. A decidir si merece la pena avanzar una casilla o mantener posición. Y poco a poco aparece algo que muchos dungeon crawlers modernos habían perdido: la sensación de estar sobreviviendo dentro del escenario y no simplemente recorriéndolo. Incluso parte de la comunidad lo destaca precisamente por eso: por sentirse menos como un heredero directo de los clásicos por turnos y más como una reinterpretación centrada en combate activo, puzles y lectura del entorno. [u][b]Exploración, puzles y recursos: la torre siempre gana si juegas con prisa[/b][/u] Otra cosa que me gustó es que el juego entiende muy bien algo que este tipo de experiencias necesita. Explorar tiene que dar un poco de miedo. Hay armas. Hay equipamiento. Hay secretos. Pero nunca aparece esa sensación de abundancia que convierte la tensión en rutina. La gestión del inventario y el desgaste mantienen una presión constante. No es un juego enorme ni pretende serlo. Pero sí consigue que avanzar unos pocos metros se sienta como progreso real. Y eso vale mucho. [u][b]Presentación: retro sin convertirse en nostalgia vacía[/b][/u] Visualmente no busca impresionar por fidelidad. Busca atmósfera. Y funciona. La estética recuerda a los dungeon crawlers clásicos, pero hay suficiente detalle moderno para que no se sienta simplemente como un homenaje. También ayuda mucho el sonido. Pasos. Golpes. Silencio. Todo está bastante medido para mantener esa sensación de encierro. No intenta asustarte. Intenta incomodarte. Y hay diferencia. [u][b]Lo mejor[/b][/u] -Mezcla muy original entre dungeon crawler clásico y survival horror. -Combate en tiempo real con más profundidad de la que parece. -Excelente sensación de tensión y espacio limitado. -Exploración que recompensa observar. -Mucha personalidad para ser un proyecto pequeño [u][b]A tener en cuenta[/b][/u] -Su ritmo puede sentirse duro si no conectas con el diseño clásico. -La orientación y el avance requieren atención constante. -No busca comodidad ni automatismos. [u][b]Conclusión[/b][/u] Tower of Mask no intenta convencerte de que los dungeon crawlers clásicos estaban equivocados. Intenta recordar por qué funcionaban. La diferencia es que no se queda atrapado en la nostalgia. Coge ideas antiguas, les añade tensión real, combate más dinámico y una atmósfera que entiende muy bien que el miedo no siempre necesita monstruos gigantes ni sustos. A veces basta con una puerta. Y con no saber qué hay detrás. Si disfrutas explorando, te gustan los juegos que te obligan a observar y echas de menos experiencias donde avanzar vuelva a sentirse incierto, merece muchísimo la pena darle una oportunidad. [code][h2]Mentor/Curator:[/h2] https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32511459-GarsupialGames/[/code]

Combines action DRPG gameplay with japanese folk horror aesthetics and it works really well. Very recommended especially for fans of the Grimrock games.

Quick Summary: Very much a hidden gem. A puzzle solving, action oriented first person dungeon crawler that is so much better than it looks from the outside and is simply a lot of fun to play. -See Below for Deeper Review- Gameplay: 10 floors of dungeon crawler goodness. The game is first person with a left click to swing, right click to block or use whatever item is in you're other hand in real time game, but it's also the classic grid based system all done fluidly. You can dodge attacks, block, even later get some long distance weaponry. There are level ups and with each one you get 3 stat points to point into you're usual STR,AGI,DEX etc. Everything you can do the enemies can as well. The puzzles are all fun and never overly to complex that a bit of time wouldn't let you solve, mostly put item on a switch or watch a pattern and move to the pattern style. There's equipment items, such as armor, "masks" and weapons. With the weapons having a durability function forcing you to swap out so often. The gameplay isn't ground breaking, but what's there clicks, and clicks well to the point it's just nice to play. Storyline: It kind of faulters here. There's a tower with 10 floors and you're climbing the tower to get out, and everyone's wearing masks. There's a lot of ambiguous text and information. Most of the storyline is told through scrolls you find on walls with a bit of words that sometimes give quotes or a message from another adventurer. I wouldn't say it's the games strong suit, it could also be a translation thing? Graphics: Be prepared to see the dungeon style walls and reused statues for environments, but the lighting and awesomely unique mask designs stand out. The graphics while nothing to write home about are something still that gives you this feeling of excitement going through all 10 floors. It feels like a tower/dungeon experience. The masks go from the grotesque to the whimsical, to even the strangely creepy. It will have you going forward just to see what type you're fighting next. Sound/Music: The sound effects are stellar for a indie team. The sounds of the fountain in particular always gave me a sense of relief when I heard it near by to be able to save. There is no music, said for in a few short bits, it's a mostly quiet affair with footsteps, groans of the masks and weapons clanging and it's actually fantastic for it. Final Thoughts: This has made me want to play more dungeon crawlers again. I was always a fan, but this was a great cross over between what felt like a soul-like, a dungeon crawler, a puzzle game and a experience. Such a small dev put out such a simple fun of a RPG mini game all for under $11. I clocked in at just under 8 hours and I didn't even find every secret. This could easily be a 10 hour game in the end. I look forward to and hope the dev's put out more. I also sincerely hope more people find and play this truly hidden gem of a game.

a cool and unique feature this game has is guns that you can shoot bad guys with

Really short and sweet game. In the past I have bounced off other 1st person dungeon crawlers, this game has made me want to revisit them and revise my opinions on them. The puzzles ranged from fairly easy to medium complexity but the latter ones did enough to make you feel great for solving them. I quite liked the dance of combat, though I think the charge mechanic could probably have been built up a bit more. I did find that it was useful in some instances that felt like ambushes to push through and make space but other than that sometimes I wouldn't feel like it was necessary. Overall really solid job and I hope that this game was successful enough that, if the dev is so inclined, they can continue to revise this or work on something new.

I haven't played many dungeon crawlers, so I was out of my wheelhouse here. I really liked this one and it's a good entry point into the genre! I've played maybe one turned based dungeon crawler and this one is active combat. It's satisfying to dodge, clobber, and strike the weak points of enemies. The physic based puzzles are tight too, in combination with the active system makes some of them interesting. Cool game, I'll put some other dungeon crawlers on my watchlist.

Ho preso questo Dungeon Crawler a 3$ in un bundle ed è stata una piacevole sorpresa. Non troppo lungo, non troppo facile e con un'enorme quantità di cose opzionali da fare sotto forma di segreti di varia difficoltà. Gli enigmi non sono mai troppo complessi per chi conosce il genere e i pochi sui quali non avevo voglia di scervellarmi erano opzionali. Il combattimento in tempo reale funziona grazie alle animazioni dei mostri: ogni mostro si muove in maniera diversa e obbliga all'attenzione se si vuole colpire un il suo punto debole. non approfittare dei punti deboli non è una morte istantanea ma logora risorse preziose. Altro pro, per me, è che la boss fight finale è trivializzabile se si arriva con abbastanza risorse, ma molto più difficile se tali risorse sono state consumate (o non trovate) nel resto del gioco.

This is a short but very well done dungeoncrawler. The game does very well every aspect of the game, making it an overall very good experience. Its totally worth the price. The Good: + Great well designed puzzles +Geeat variety of enemies +Many different items +Complex and interesting maps to explore +Lots of secrets +Nice reto easthetics +Decent combat mechanics for the genre The bad: -Its very short (10hrs more or less) -The enemie's weak spots are almost always somewhere in their head -Very little replayability

Solid dungeon crawler. A great balance of puzzles and combat. Story, setting, and writing are passable but didn't impress me. The ability of the player and enemies to freelook makes combat and exploration more fluid and engaging than other games I've played in the genre. Combat still generally devolves into kiting enemies in a square until they're dead, but diagonal hits and the tackle mechanic add a degree of complexity that prevented combat from getting stale. Sometimes you can take advantage of range and traps, but usually you're just kiting enemies until they die. There isn't much build variety. Stats are fairly basic. Weapons are mostly interchangeable. The only combat consumables are healing potions. Puzzles range from the basic "press the slightly hidden button" to "oh, that was clever." If you like Grimrock, this is a must-play. Otherwise, I'd recommend checking it out if you like slower-paced dungeon crawlers.

It felt like a game made for kids or people who are not really into games. Maybe I just needed to keep playing but, honestly, it's really boring because there's basically NO challenge at all. Every single enemy goes down to the same basic strategy - back off and hit or just spam hit hit hit. Even though I liked the design and the masks especially - honestly that's the only reason I decided to play since I'm obsessed with that. But the way the gameplay was made is just not for me at all. Wishing the artist all the best though. As an experience it's kind of fun but only for about half an hour because I think turn-based 3D games just need to stay in the past.