MISTERY Review

Survival horror is among my favorite genres, and when I noticed MISTERY and its premise of cooperative survival horror with social deduction in a spooky universe, I was intrigued to check it out. I had long wished for the ideal combination of suspense and paranoia, and the prospect of surviving horror anomalies while also trying to figure out who among my pals may betray me seemed tempting.

Having played Deceit 2 and Dread Hunger for quite some time, I longed for a game that could perfect the survival horror social deduction genre. I wasn't going to miss playing MISTERY when I first saw the game's announcement. Game Frontier Studio's first game, MISTERY, attempts to blend atmospheric horror with cooperative strategy, but after playing for a few hours, I was intrigued by the game's interesting concept, while the game still has much to deliver. It's not going to top the genre I adore most, but it has the potential.

MISTERY's biggest strong point is its atmosphere. It truly features an uneasy, creepy atmosphere with thick mist aided by fadeaway creepy sounds and an atmospheric soundtrack in order to make anyone nervous and suspicious at any moment. SCP Foundation environment is ideal for such a title, and moving through an unknown environment with no information about what's in the mist is indeed scary. Uncertainty of monsters, and part of them being well-designed and providing memorable encounters, raises tension even more.

But, regrettably, MISTERY's plot immediately lets it down as it feels very unexciting from the beginning. SCP universe possesses a rich heritage of creepy and fascinating entities, and yet, in MISTERY, touches its surface lightly. There could have been deeper plot details, such as scattered documents, audio recordings, and interactive mythology snippets.

The premise is more fascinating, and the in-game plot feels unfulfilled. The game and its mystery surrounding it would've greatly enhanced if I could follow a narrative; however, there was none. Despite some extremely awesome character designs and a drab setting, the translation is so bad at the moment that the content is unclear and unfollowable.

MISTERY's core gameplay principle is cooperation, and that's what the developers intended to do. There are also resource management and social deduction. You have to cooperate with your friends but defend yourself in case one of them is a betrayer. Having social deduction in a game is a brilliant concept, but in practice, it isn't sophisticated enough to make each session a new one. After a few rounds, trends become predictable, and a deceit mechanism isn't sophisticated enough to maintain player curiosity in the long run.

I was further disappointed with how the MISTERY's controls worked. The game employs a "Tank Control" mechanism with point-click controls, and in practice, feels slow and clunky. In a title in which a quick reaction can mean life and death, slow controls can become a real danger. I started playing with the keyboard and mouse, and it didn't take me long when I wanted to switch to controllers since the movement mechanics with a keyboard can get extremely annoying when you're directing your character. But guess what! The game doesn’t support the controller, except that you can move forward and backward. Nothing else worked.

If it weren't for the combat, I wouldn't have spent the few hours that I did with the game. It's not the best, but it's not bad either. Even though the enemy encounters are a mixed bag since it gets a bit repetitive after a few runs, it's a shame that the developers didn't put anything in between the encounters in terms of narrative. Starting a campfire, advancing toward the enemies, and then waiting for them to attack while you retreat seemed to be the only thing you could do in the game.

What I did love, though, is the enemy designs. All the monsters and enemies have a proper, well-designed shape, even though their behavior is predictable sometimes. However, with each new level, a horror feeling seems to lessen instead of rising, as the monsters become more of an obstacle than a horror and danger source. Greater variety in enemy actions and randomized encounters could have added a lot to the long-term run.

There's also crafting in MISTERY, but it's a bit oversimplified, which some players might not like. I didn't mind much since crafting isn't my cup of tea, but I didn't like the way how it's done in this game. At the moment, there are just three crafting components available in the game: scrap, Mistery, and an upgradeable weapon or consumable. You can craft the items you want with the scrap you gather from killing monsters.

MISTERY is best played with friends. Co-op actions and social deduction elements flourish when a group of interested people chat and strategize with each other. With the title's relatively low player count, it is not easy to join a full room with a group of people. The 9-player feature, possibly a high mark, is almost not worth utilizing with a lack of accessible participants.

As I've mentioned, Game Frontier intended to make MISTERY a multiplayer game, so the single-player felt poorly supported. It's felt purely designed specifically for multiplayer, with little accommodation for persons preferring to, or in a position to, play alone. Smaller maps and AI companions could have added single-player viability, but in its current state, single-player isn't ideal. The game does have a progression system with unlocked powers and cosmetics, but not a lot of substance to it. Because progression doesn't actually have any real bearing in terms of gameplay, then there isn't enough cause to use long-term when newness runs off.

At the same time, not enough variety in the environment and opponent encounters to discourage long-term use, either. The developers have a strong base to build off, but MISTERY feels more like an Early Access title at present and not a fully completed one. Frequent updates with new items, balancing tweaks, and QOL tweaks could make it become an amazing title. One thing I want to point out is that the game features microtransactions. There are characters that you can purchase with real money and plenty of character skins.

Unfortunately, MISTERY suffers a lot in terms of technical performance, and it reflects poorly in overall performance. One of its most critical failures is poor optimization; many gamers, including me, have experienced performance drops, crashes, and long loading times. There seem to be a lot of crashes, especially while starting an activity or simply practicing. I'm not sure what triggers the crashes, but they're annoying and discourage me from starting the game again. Even with a relatively powerful computer, a game can hardly run, and in an online multiplayer title, such performance is unacceptable.

Another major issue is translation quality. The English localization is filled with many grammar errors and unorganized text, which at times spills out of menu windows. Voice acting, especially in tutorials, is obviously AI-created and sounds artificial and unnatural. Flaws such as poor voice acting won't affect having fun with the game, but they add an overall sensation of sloppiness and lack of refinement.

The audio sound work is unpredictable, too. Sound effects add a creepy atmosphere at times, but sometimes they sound harsh and grating. Balance in terms of sound volumes is all over the map, with certain sound cues sounding ridiculously loud and many sound cues almost inaudible. The game cries out for an audio pass in an effort to make the experience less grating and more immersive.

MISTERY is a title with a lot of potential but a range of faults. The atmosphere is tremendous, and its premise is cool, but its awkward controls, poor performance, and lack of refinement slow its execution down. The title can be a lot of fun if you can play with friends, particularly if you overlook its faults except for the crashing, but at full price, I have an issue with its current form.

MISTERY, but the game still needs a lot of work. I may come back to it due to its great character designs, but not until I see some major work has been done on the game. If the developers commit to fixing the game's performance issues and adding some narrative to the game, then MISTERY could become an amazing multiplayer horror title.