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Release Date: December 6, 2022
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Developer: MystiveDev
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac operating systems
Publishers: MystiveDev, Dread XP
Genres: Indie Game, Adventure, Puzzle
Introduction: Mirror Forge is a Indie first person psychological horror game that takes ideas from past horror gaming greats mashed together that features a varied gameplay loop along with a interesting story. Oh, and jumpscares abound!
Indie survival horror to me means new ideas, old ideas, retro visuals, new-age tech visuals. Basically with Indie horror video games anything can go and usually does when it comes to developers ideas. Which brings me to Mirror Forge.
I really wanted to start playing and writing about Indie games for my blog. I mean look, the last game I beat two days ago was The Callisto Protocol. Before you get on me comparing Mirror Forge to a game like The Callisto Protocol. I’ll say this. Mirror Forge was the more scarier game of the two games. Just saying.
I have to be transparent with my review for Mirror Forge. When I got to the point in the game where I was close to finding Jill the game kept freezing my PC. So I said “fuck it, I’m done”. Which lead me here, writing about my experiences with Mirror Forge.
Presentation: Mirror Forge is pure Indie horror. I don’t see this game having any real budget attached to it. For all I know it could have been made by a few people or one designer who outsourced some stuff. I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that Mirror Forge isn’t a bad game either. It’s a good game.
It’s not a great game by any means but does somethings right in regards to scaring the player. Mirror Forge seems to take cues from past horror games like the infamous PT Demo and the original Silent Hill games. I also saw a “You Died” after being killed which has to be a nod to FromSoftware’s Dark Souls games.
Story: Mirror Forge’s story is about Thomas Jackson a medical surgeon who two years ago was driving while drunk resulting in his girlfriend at the time Jill Lane ending up in a coma. Present day Thomas is on pain pills and mentally in distress from his past transgressions.
While out filming a news report Jill Lane gets abducted by mysterious assailants wanting human test subjects for a mysterious project. Thomas Jackson learns of Jill’s abduction via a secret package sent to him with a USB shard inside. Thomas gets his his keys and drives to Womb Canyon where he crashes his car.. I know.
After avoiding creatures and using the ancient weapon called the Seal of Nur Thomas finds a Diner’s safe code which leads to Jill’s current location. The latter is where the game started freezing and blacking out. The story was interesting enough where I do want to complete it if my PC or game? acts nice.
Gameplay: Mirror Forge is a first person walking exploring simulator. Avoiding creatures using Thomas’s Seal of Nur which is upgradable is sorta it’s combat mechanic. You have puzzles where you have to use the Seal of Nur for instance to escape a diner’s restroom horror sequence.
Exploration is a big part of Mirror Forge as you collect various audio logs, documents and keys to unlock doors. Atmosphere and setting range from Thomas’s cozy apartment to multiversal nightmare realms akin to Silent Hill, PT sequences. You explore towns, diners, small houses and factories.
To cross alien webbing you have to find and place planks and boxes about. Mirror Forge is one of those walking simulators but with more agency to the player. You can find and use health pickups when you take damage from the creatures. Puzzles also included me mixing a strong alien liquid to kill an alien growth blocking a door.
Ingredients for the mixture included copper wiring, acid, carbon rods all mixed into a beaker on the hob. There are signs of Silent Hill and PT scattered about Mirror Forge. There was a temple ruin puzzle involving weird stone roman numeral statues. Puzzles for the most part been fairly easy even with guessing on occasion. And no, I’m no smart puzzle guy.
Mirror Forge being a low budget Indie game with a lack of polish, glicthes, bugs gameplay-wise doesn’t stop it from having a varied solid gameplay loop offering variety that some AAA games lack. Mirror Forge has walking while exploring sections with Thomas bantering.
It also has puzzles in a variety of locations. It has the sort of combat gameplay featuring stunning the creatures so you can escape them. The Seal of Nur can be used to see past NPC memories which flesh out the story. You also have collectible audio logs, documents and keys that unlock doors letting you progress.
Yes, you also have jumpscare sequences that are better than anything in the Callisto Protocol. With that said, Mirror Forge NEEDED a larger budget to flesh out the designer’s ideas better. Hey, it is what is. I give MystiveDev credit for variety in Mirror Forge’s gameplay with it’s really good gameplay loop.
Visuals/Graphics: Terrible. Textures are muddy and washed out everywhere. Mirror Forge is as ugly as it’s creatures in it’s multiversal sequences. I can’t say anything positive about how this game looks.
Granted it did run a solid 60 frames with my PC that sports a Ryzen 9 3900x, 32GB DDR4, Geforce RTX 2080 Super, 1TB SSD and ASRock X570. Ugly game that performs well means something positive I guess.
Music/Sound: Muffled, mixed up over layering confusing describes the sound design. The voiced dialogue was a little better. Speaking of voice dialogue the writing in Mirror Edge at times had more edge than a Japanese Zanbato sword. Hell, I haven’t listened to or read this much edge in a video game’s script since Vampyr. And that game had maximum edge!
Final Verdict: Mirror Forge is a Indie game that has a strong gameplay loop with a decent story. On the flipside the game is ugly visually and sound design is below average. There were bugs, glitches and PC freezes that I hated.
With all of the latter typed, Mirror Forge is a really good psychological Horror Indie game. Check it out if you love games like Silent Hill, PT Demo and even SOMA. If you want to watch gameplay visit my Mirror Forge Video Playlist “You Died” – Jason
7/10
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