Last Christmas I was given so many special gifts. The gift of friendship, of love, of friends and family thinking “Oh hey, isn’t that guy a gamer or something? Oh I know, I’ll just buy him any old thing that looks like those new fangled video games” This is how I ended up with Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Doom. I initially refused to play it, accepting it with a smile and a forced “how thoughtful” before sneaking it in for a re-gift or better, a refund. Then my boss Jared found out I had gotten the game, and vindictive employer as he is (nearly as vindictive as Mr. Long – More on that later) he just insisted I give him a review of the title. And you know what? In the long run I’m kind of glad he did. Kind of.
Marlow Briggs instantly recalls the Playstation and Playstation 2 era of platforming games, titles like Jak and Daxter, God of War, Devil May Cry and Soul Reaver. An era that said mess shit up without consequence and get you some neat powers. We like to forget at times video games would be batshit insane, and Marlow Briggs is here to remind us. The core gameplay follows hack and slash convention. You get special weapons and powers, you boost said powers, and eh maybe you go mess up a face or twelve, you level up then you go do it a ton more. There’s definitely a plot that happens, it’s not so off rails you’re going to give up on trying to follow what’s going on, but most of the time the game is very tongue in cheek. Any time you think you’re meant to take this game seriously it will quickly correct you as to otherwise. Namely in the form of blowing some shit up.
The story escalates quickly. “Hi, I’m your girlfriend’s employer. Hope you don’t mind if I have you stabbed with a giant fucking scythe.” Yep. That’s it. you are firefighter Marlow Briggs visiting your archaeologist girlfriend Eva Torres, who attempts to give her evil warlock boss Mr. Long her two weeks notice only to have Mr. Long retaliate by assassinating her damn boyfriend. Now while I understand we live in a capitalist society where you have to plan each move carefully in big business, lest you be downsized or have your resume blacklisted, but slicing open an unrelated person’s chest seems to be a tad extreme. Good news however as Marlow is resurrected by the titular Mask of Doom, who deems Marlow his new sacred warrior to henceforth and forever be referred to by the name “Chu-Chu,” because Marlow wasn’t already having a bad enough day without being granted an emasculating name. You are then off to hunt down Long and stop his cartoon evil schemes, rescue your girlfriend, get a bit of revenge and maybe prevent an End of the World prophecy along the way.
A simple refusal to list yourself as a reference would have sufficed.
The game takes off into Explosions, Explosions and more Explosions. It keeps you entertained in the same way say, a Michael Bay film does by reassuring you it will never bug you with stories and characters for too long because right around the corner there’s another damn EXPLOSION. That said the game paces itself surprisingly well for something that feels like it was meant to be a budget title. Often after watching Marlow blow something the hell up the action would slow down a touch for puzzles and timed platforming sections. There are also individual ‘challenge’ sections where successfully completing one nets some extra experience points. Did I mention this is all intersped with RIDING A GIANT SCORPION or fighting a MASSIVE CIRCULAR SAW BOSS ON A ROLLERCOASTER TRACK.
Explosion.
Explosion.
Explosion.
There is an experience point based upgrade system, but the pacing is so you’ll likely have one skill maxed out before acquiring the next one, you don’t want this game getting too heady for you after all. The art direction and locations mostly work, I mean if you’ve seen one industrial level or jungle level you’ve seen them al… Wait, why is that ore refinery moving? Who even makes treads that big? Okay so maybe a few levels are just as over the top as the game itself. Marlow himself on the other hand is a bit bizarrely animated. Bizarre in the fact that they decided to animate him in some places, and not the others. Sometimes Marlow will walk by lifting his left leg and right leg in synchronicity, other times he’ll just kind of flutter and glitch about until he lands where you want him to go. There are also a ton of freeze frame cutscenes where you just watch Marlow being violent. The score consist of several looped tracks, which is usually the part of the review where Jay recommends you throw on your own playlist. I don’t know. Blasting Linkin Park or Limp Bizkit or something seems like it’d fit this game.
The game heavily relies on its humor. in keeping with this throwback to the 90s when no one could be bothered to make anything good, Marlow and the Mask play a buddy cop duo capable of rivaling any movie you remember starring Star and Black Sidekick. It’s self referential, packed full of one liners and genre awareness moments. Example: while being pelted by attack choppers Marlow loudly comments “If only there were a conveniently placed turret nearby to shoot these down.” His partner, the Mask is always up for offering fourth wall breaking advice in the form of cynicism and put downs. The dynamic works for what we’re given here, I mean you don’t go to an Adam Sandler movie expecting Shakespeare after all.
So this is a fleeting train in the night. Marlow Briggs is not the next Kratos or Jak. He’s barely even the next Dante, and yes I’m aware the most recent Dante is -awful-, and while Marlow is slightly cooler than that guy he doesn’t have what it takes to make him memorable. What Marlow Briggs is? Good, stupid fun. So far this is the best of the worst, and Marlow unlike Ride to Hell or Magus goes “Hey, this game is MEANT to be kind of terrible.” But in all honesty seeing a video game not take itself too seriously is increasingly rare, which actually makes it somewhat refreshing. It’s not like there aren’t better titles out there, but if you’re kind of hard up for the hack and slash style of platformers, Marlow Briggs may be the game for you.
