Masquerada Songs and Shadows Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

Masquerada Songs and Shadows Free Download GAMESPACK.NET Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a fully voiced, story-driven, tactical role-playing game set in a flamboyant fantasy land that takes inspiration from various European cultures. It’s an interesting and colourful adventure that can be completed in around ten hours or so, and its brisk pacing is enough to keep you playing. However, those looking for the kind of depth that’s usually associated with the genre may come away disappointed. You play as Cicero Gavar, a suave and well-voiced inspector who returns to the magical city of Ombre to try and solve a case of missing persons. Ombre’s full of political plots, hidden agendas, and strange happenings. Naturally, it isn’t long before Cicero and his steady stream of allies are sucked into an expansive web of secrets, and this leads to an engaging plot that’s happy to hand out twists on a regular basis. For the most part, Masquerada’s story is well paced, and the main cast of characters are developed quite nicely as the narrative ticks along. Cicero himself is the standout here: he starts off rather abrasive, but his enthusiasm for detective work and the subtitles of his personality come to light as he gradually becomes better acquainted with the rest of the party. However, it’s worth mentioning that there’s no implementation of player choice.TOP/BEST ADULT VIDEO GAMES IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)

Masquerada Songs and Shadows Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

You can’t mould Cicero through dialogue options or anything like that, and truth be told, it seems like a bit of a missed opportunity. Masquerada is a very linear RPG — one that sees you move from objective marker to objective marker through environments that offer next to no exploration.There are no non-playable characters to stand and chat to, no optional paths to follow, and no treasure chests to discover. The game’s incredibly straight forward structure does preserve the aforementioned pacing of the plot, but it comes at the cost of having a tangible world. As such, even a hint of player choice would have gone a long way in letting you leave your mark on the city of Ombre. Instead, it feels like you’re merely watching through a window as events unfold. That’s not to say thought and effort hasn’t gone into building Masquerada’s world. Clearly developer Witching Hour Studios has invested a lot of time in fleshing out its fantasy realm, but the problem is that all of the details are stuffed into the game’s unashamedly huge codex. Characters will often spew overwritten words and phrases that’ll mean very little to you unless you’ve at least been browsing the in-game encyclopedia, and at times, this does hamper the otherwise enjoyable story. Stop paying attention for a moment and you run the risk of being thrown off the current scenario completely.

A Game of Tag.

Aside from trotting between objective markers, the only gameplay present in Masquerada comes in the form of its tactical combat. At its core, this is real-time strategy with the ability to pause the action and issue commands to your allies or survey the battlefield. Think Dragon Age and you’re on the right track. Movement is free and you’re able to switch between playable characters, each of them boasting their own set of magical abilities. It’s pretty standard stuff, but it’s reasonably well executed, and once you have a few allies by your side, it feels like there’s just enough depth to keep you entertained. That said, your computer controlled companions aren’t overly reliable. You can customise their behaviour to a degree by telling them when and how they should be using certain skills, but their inability to properly navigate the battlefield is the real issue. Big red circles on the ground indicate where an opponent’s attack is going to hit, and your buddies will do nothing to protect themselves unless you assume direct control and have them scamper to safety. It goes without saying that this leads to some frustrating moments later in the game when more challenging foes start to pop up.SpellForce Conquest of Eo

Masquerada Songs and Shadows Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

Fortunately, if you’re just here for the story, then there is an easier difficulty setting that keeps combat more than manageable. It seems like only yesterday that BioWare released their medieval epic, Dragon Age, to the masses – the same moment which spurred my love for really digging deep into the lore of game worlds. Since then, I’ve found that few games, especially those of the indie variety, pull off that same (or similar) feat of creating a dense, compelling game world worthy of buckets of dialogue while also encouraging the player to dive deeper with supplementary journal excerpts. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is a budget-minded title that really sells itself on its world building and characters – and does so well – but is that enough to make up for its shortcomings? Masquerada is based around a large city known as Ombre, one thats very essence is heavily inspired by the culture of 15th and 16th century Venetian masquerades – events where the attendees would don ornate masks. In real life, these events and celebrations were often reserved for the high end of society, but not always. Similar to that notion, at a base level. Masquerada centers its world around these masks but takes it a step further, using them as a permanent divisive tool between political and social factions.

Gameplay.

If these masks were simply cosmetic pieces then this whole concept would be dumb, however their wielders are capable of harnessing the elements to their will, granting them capabilities far beyond that of a normal person (known as the Contadani). While the appeal of living the “royal life” – full of fame and fortune – is real, not everyone is accepting of the luggage that comes alongside the masks. Uncle Ben’s “with great power comes great responsibility” isn’t too far off the mark here. Ombre’s citizens can be classified in one of three categories: the aforementioned Contadani (or “maskless” commoners), the Masquerada – “nobles” of sorts, divided further into the Registry and Seimora – and the Maskrunners, those which illegally utilize masks without pledging allegiance to one of the noble houses (rogue factions). Masquerada focuses on Cicero Gavar, an ex-detective for the upper echelon of society, the Registry, that was exiled from his home five years prior for turning a blind eye to his own brother’s misdeeds. Pulled back into the city that never sleeps, Cicero returns to his old stomping grounds to answer a plea for help. Razitof, a member of the registry and dear friend of Cicero, has gone missing, and the powers that be would have you dive right back into the political and social scene.Bus Driving Sim 22

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That has all but come to a head by this point – in order to find him. Besides the healthy monetary reward offered for this endeavor, Cicero feels partially responsible for the turmoil as it was his own brother which, years before, helped equip these rogue “Maskrunners” with gear in the first place. On top of that, Razitof himself is the key factor in why Cicero was not hanged for his “treachery”, instead merely exiled. Regardless, it doesn’t take long for Cicero to realize something is definitely amiss, and that the political and social environment has not changed one bit in tone since years ago – in fact, if anything it has never been more clear that old habits die hard, and many of those who hide behind the masks are not who (or what) they seem. If it isn’t obvious by now, Masquerada is hog heaven for those that enjoy a good old fashioned detective tale with a healthy dose of political uproar thrown in for good measure. Not only are conversations between Cicero and various other characters detailed and extensive, you also have the option to dig even deeper into the lore through a plethora of codex entries. While many of these text pieces are optional, some of the earliest ones are all but required in order to fully grasp the lingo in which the characters use regularly. Masquerada is dense with dialogue, but not in an exposition-heavy way.

Story.

As a result, while you might have to put a little bit of footwork in the form of journal reading at the beginning, conversations feel natural and almost as if you are right there in the Venetian-inspired landscape yourself. Wonderfully animated portraits frequently drive conversations, which often take place every few minutes of gameplay. Less frequent, but awesome comic-esque sequences are sprinkled in between those, and both formats are highly effective at immersing you into the game world. Masquerada cuts no corners in the voice acting department either – the entire multitude of exchanges are completely backed up by excellent voice acting. And if that isn’t enough for you, don’t forget the previously mentioned lore entries, which are all well-written and interesting in their own right. Altogether, the story and characters unfold in a very satisfying manner, evoking a movie-like sensation that’s not all that common in smaller indie affairs. Masquerada: Songs and Shadows is the debut PC title of Singapore’s Witching Hour Studios. Utilising the isometric viewpoint and real-time with pause combat of many classic PC RPGs.

Masquerada nonetheless carves out its own identity thanks to some well-crafted lore and an engaging tale of intrigue in its setting of Ombre. While the gameplay fails to impress, the story at least manages to keep things interesting. The Citte of Ombre, which has a clear Venetian flavour, is heavily divided by class. At the top are the Masquerada, with access to Mascherines, masks that bestow magical powers on the wearer. The game’s tutorial takes place after a man called Cyrus Gavar uses his position to gift a large amount of Mascherines to the lower class Contadani, starting a rebellion. Players are introduced to the combat through Cyrus before his part in the rebellion is abruptly cut short. For the game proper, things flash forward five years as Cyrus’ brother Cicero, who elected to not join his brother’s cause, returns to the Citte from exile at the request of its leader. The war started by Cyrus is still going on, and both sides are losing precious resources. Mascherines are destroyed if their wearer dies, and there exists only a finite number of them. Cicero is tasked with returning to his former role as one of the Citte’s few Inspettore, specifically to find his former acquaintance Razitof Azrus. He is joined by Razitof’s brother Kalden and eventually picks up three more allies over the course of the investigation as it widens in scope.

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The professional effort done in having every line voiced is appreciable and the game is considerably better for it. While there aren’t many scenes that seem to require award-worthy performances, all the cast do a pleasing job with the script and are key in helping to bring it to life. The biggest obstacle in the narrative is a far too heavy reliance on using in-world terms, a lot of which just seem to be there to add things to Masquerada‘s codex rather than having any impact on the story and world itself. The large number of factions on both sides helps to convey the level of intrigue and politics going on in Ombre, but makes things hard to follow at times. However, on the whole Masquerada provides an entertaining tale and succeeds as the primary appeal of the game. Keeping to a strictly defined camera angle allows Masquerada to make good use of prerendered backgrounds. The game has a distinct art style that helps to differentiate it from other titles and works well, as do the lavish banners that drop down for the dialogue. There are moments where the backgrounds seem to be lacking in detail and the game is not brilliant at showing the action-oriented parts of the story, though the occasional switch to comic-style panels helps to punctuate key events.Ancient Dungeon

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