Stained glass greatness
Puzzle games are always an interesting beast. They are calming at times and headache inducing at others. The first Glass Masquerade was secretly one of my favorite games of last year. I don’t know why a simple jigsaw-style puzzle game captured my focus so hard. It is just placing pieces in the right place to reveal an image. However, developer Onyx Lute crafted something so memorable I couldn’t stop talking about it for weeks. So when the sequel was announced for consoles, I knew I would once again be engulfed in the mystery of these puzzles.
One of the things that makes this series so unique is the style in which the puzzles are presented. Instead of typical four-sided images, Onyx Lute instead uses circle images made up of stained glass images. The pieces are jagged and harder to piece together. It really makes my brain suss out what goes where. In the first game this was easier with the standard mode as the pieces were always set to the way they should go in, no need to rotate. The second game adds a hard mode where rotation is also a necessity.
MSRP: $11.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, PC
Price I’d Pay: $11.99
I recommend using this mode as it makes for a more challenging solution. The 40-50 piece puzzles took me around 40 minutes, while the larger ones spanned upwards of 90 minutes. I loved sitting down to solve one a night, and it really challenged me to think outside the box. The pictures themselves add to the challenge. The game doesn’t show the players what the image will be until it is done. Some of these images are twisted creations that I didn’t even recognize until the piece was finished. I will say though the sequel is not as visually interesting as the first game. Some of these pieces are still confusing even upon completion.
The sequel adds a hard mode, but it failed to fix some of the quality of life issues I had with the first game. For example the piece selection is still slow as molasses. Cycling through pieces moves at a snail’s pace and when I am working with 70+ pieces it can be a hassle to deal with the wheel layout. Rotating pieces also takes way too long. I just wish the game was a bit snappier in letting me move pieces with the controller. The map where the puzzles are located is also hard to navigate. Some branches are at an angle and I found myself moving between two locations before finally hitting that sweet spot to hit the diagonal one. It can be a pain.
Visually the game is sharp in 4K on Xbox One X. The images are not as inspired as the first game, but there are 31 puzzles here and completing them all on hard will last upwards of 30 hours easily. There is a lot of game here for the price. The music continues to both please and torture my brain. The subtle melodies are perfect for keeping me going, and super satisfying when that one piece that has been driving me nuts finally fits into place. I love the direction, I am just not as big of a fan of the images as the first game.
Glass Masquerade 2 is a great follow-up and gave me more of what I craved from the first game. It is weird to speak so highly of a jigsaw-style puzzle game, but Onyx Lute just makes this work so well. I am already ready for the third installment and I hope more people discover the sheer joy these games provide. You can grab both for very little on just about every console and I cannot recommend this series enough. It truly is the best of its kind and I cannot wait to solve more of these mental roadblocks.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.