Masked Forces 2: Mystic Demons – Review
Masked Forces 2: Mystic Demons is a new installment in the Masked Forces series, which are from the same Publisher as the Masked Shooters series which didn’t score too many points in its review. This time, the enemies are demon-like creatures. It makes you more forgiving of the AI as nobody expects any real tactics from demon spawn except for trying to overrun the player. It also looks more spectacular and it is possible to have distinct appearances of enemies, making a more diverse game.
Story
As the classic Doom proved: you don’t need a real story to shoot up demons from hell. But at least Doom provided a set sequence of maps. Here you freely pick a mission, and based on your performance you receive money and experience. There are general missions and special boss missions, but even the latter lack any kind of introduction or back story.
Anyway, with some imagination you could be a mercenary, earning bucks for killing the demon spawn from the underworld.
Graphics
The first impression of the graphical quality is not a good one. The main menu is pretty good, but they used big green and yellow buttons which don’t fit well in the overall screen. Nobody expects next-generation graphics in a game like this, and while it isn’t that bad to look at, it isn’t exactly to brag about either. The maps are varied and many different elements like plants, ruins and elevations are present. The complexity of the weapons, weapon zooming, effects like the flames of the flamethrower or the Bone Dragon’s breath and the textures of the enemies are alright. You can see someone put a lot of work in designing them, but still everything a bit looks outdated. An advantage is that the system requirements are really low, making it playable on nearly any computer.
Sound
The game contains some cool rock music, which gets you in the right mood after it finished booting. During the game you can continue to enjoy this music, as it fires you up and pushes you to go round the map. Enemies are announced with some sound effects, and especially the Serpent Warrior’s one will get on your nerves quickly. During the Underworld mission, you’re taunted by the hidden demon boss, laughing at you and predicting your death (which is quite possible in the lower levels).
Sadly the contrast between the background music and the weapons sounds is rather large. The submachine guns, for example, use a soft plop without any variation, and it just doesn’t sound right for a large firearm.
Gameplay
Masked Forces 2: Mystic Demons is a first person shooter, with some RPG elements added. You can partake in missions that you can freely choose from a menu. All these missions are available in the beginning, but most will be impossible to finish successfully at that time. Luckily you don’t have to finish a mission to earn money and experience (You even receive these daily on starting up – a bit uncommon for a desktop game). Every level you complete increases your maximum health and might unlock additional weapons and gear.
As you progress by killing (increasingly more and more) enemies you’ll be able to tackle the bosses and survive for longer missions. There are no health or ammo packs: you have to do with the ammo you start with, and you only slowly regenerate health when not attacked. Enemies get a bit tougher as you progress too, and different elite units can spawn which are always a tough nut to crack.
With the money you can buy and upgrade your arsenal and armor. The variation of weapons is okay: you can pick from all common weapon types such as a flamethrower, grenades, a crossbow with explosive darts, a chainsaw and the good old fists. You can only choose three weapons before a mission however, so you have to pick the ones that will be most useful for the mission type you’re planning. It would have been nice to have a separate system for the grenades, because it takes too long to select them and they nearly don’t do enough damage for the limited amount you can carry. Weapons can be upgraded some levels, but those upgrades cost an impressive amount of money. They are required however because they raise the amount of bullets you start with – and you’ll need every single one of them.
The armor section of the shop is sadly less developed. You can wear a mask and a body armor, but the mask is purely cosmetic, which you can’t even see while playing. The body armor provides some armor and a special ability (the effect of those abilities can also be dropped as a power-up). The variation in armor level is quite low, and the abilities are too underpowered to be really decisive. More problematically, any kind of explanation is missing so you have to guess at what the ability is actually useful for.
Conclusion
All things considered, this game leaves us with a positive feeling. The enemies are well-made, with animations, sounds and different behaviors. The nice soundtrack, varied locations and the different kinds of enemies all add to a chilling atmosphere that makes you forget about the dated graphics and poor weapon sounds. The game is also well balanced as its reward system works well, in the sense that it allows you to gradually unlock and test new weapons and retry some of the harder maps (and eventually complete those missions). Overall, it is a good bargain for a simple shoot’em up, especially considering the price class.
Masked Forces 2: Mystic Demons - Review,
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