Playing A Game Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death PC

Judged by its gameplay alone, Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is a middle-of-the-road character-action game. It has light and heavy attacks, combo moves based on attack sequences, magic spells, unlockable weapons that fit all the traditional archetypes (even chain-whips), and colored orbs that fill health, magic, and experience points. It's mechanically unremarkable, and the level and encounter design is just good enough to string the hackneyed story along. But the unique selling point of Marlow Briggs - what makes it worthy of remark - is its attitude.

The game makes it obvious that, at some point during development, its creators decided to let loose and not take the game scenario too seriously. That's why Spike Spiegel plays the spirit of an ancient evil god in a floating, talking mask (see: "death mask"). That's why Uncle Po/Covetous Shen/et al is an over-the-top pillaging industrialist who taunts the player over an intercom for no good reason. And that's why Pierce Washington talks irreverent smack to both of them as he slices and dices his way through ruins, jungle, and industrial complex. It's not quite as ... blaxploitative as the launch trailer might lead you to believe, but between the impromptu schmup sections and the death mask making disparaging remarks about the health bar, Marlow Briggs makes no bones about being a video game. (I would even argue that the game could lean further into this genre-mockery; but it does at least stop short of the cringey line that some other parody games ignore.)

As I said though, when this personality is taken away, Marlow Briggs is little more than a mediocre character-action title. Graphical effects can look surprisingly strong, but character animations (especially facial animations) are weak. Most of the voice actors are good, but the writing tends to be rather dumb. The combat controls are passable, but don't do anything unique or exceptional -- meanwhile the platforming controls are just as bad as one would expect for the genre. The checkpoints, actually, are very good and forgiving in general -- except for non-sequitor "challenge" sequences, which can kill in an instant and restart an entire high-tension scene. And the game has a fascinating freeze-frame cutscene style that's neat at first, but wears out its welcome pretty quickly.

Starting the game for the first time selects the "Casual" difficulty level automatically, which seems like a blessing, really. At this setting, the game only gets moderately challenging at worst, and is usually content to stay out of the player's way. It emphasizes the game's experience over its middling gameplay, showing off Marlow's badassitude and the game world's wacky setting. In fact, the environment design is quite good (although it's a shame that there isn't enough interesting gameplay to fill it all).

You could say that Marlow Briggs is like a lower-budget, South American version of God of War. Or like a lower-budget, slightly-mocking version of Uncharted 3. Or even like an antithesis to Dante's Inferno, trading in dark-and-gritty melodramatic bombast for don't-give-a-shit straightforwardness. In the end, Marlow's personality might not be strong enough to be memorable on its own; but it does manage to set itself apart from its genre peers, and deliver a fine game at the same time.

Better than: Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, Conan (2007)
Not as good as: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, No More Heroes
Just as good as: God of War, I would say

Progress: Finished on Casual.

Rating: Good