Glass Masquerade + DLC

Glass Masquerade
by Onyx Lute - November, 2016

Available at:
Big Fish
Humble Store (Steam key or DRM-free)
Steam

DLC at Steam:
Glass Masquerade - Lunar Year Puzzle (FREE!) - Feb. 2018
Glass Masquerade - Inceptions Puzzle Pack - Sept. 2018
Glass Masquerade - Halloween Puzzle Pack - Oct. 2018
Glass Masquerade - Christmas Day Puzzle (FREE!) - Dec. 2018



Welcome to Glass Masquerade - an artistic puzzle game inspired by Art Deco & stained glass artisans of the 20th century. Combine hidden glass pieces to unveil clocks and other themes exhibited by various cultures of the world at the 'International Times Exhibition' - an interactive electronic show. Enjoy your journey around the world!

• Beautiful and delicate stained glass art
  
• Relaxing audio, visuals, and gameplay
  
• Difficulty is balanced for all skill levels
  
• 25 countries represented
  
• Steam version has achievements and trading cards
  

Glass Masquerade (Puzzle)

Some of the options included are Resolution, Full-screen, Custom Cursor, Sensitivity, Hints on/off, and separate sliders for sounds and music.

Having the Hints on will give you help with placement of some edge pieces, giving you a good starting place, since we don't know what any of the clocks look like until we finish.  The way the hints work is that a few select pieces will glow red, and have a gold ring on them that you can match up on the clock face.  FYI, I played with hints ON.

There are 25 countries, 25 puzzles, and... wait for it... 27 Steam achievements.

As you can imagine with stained glass, these are not simple puzzles with predictable shapes and patterns.  Even when you have an idea what the image will include, you'll likely still find these to be a challenge.  For example, I was pretty sure I knew what the USA puzzle would portray, and it still took me 15.5 minutes to complete.  I somehow managed to finish one puzzle in less than two minutes, but there was also one that took me 21 minutes, so difficulty varies. 

There are two things the devs did to increase difficulty.  First, the unplaced puzzle pieces slowly rotate, making shapes harder to track.  In addition, pieces sometimes look too big for where you're going to place them, but that is because they overlap just a smidge!  On the plus side, when you pick up a piece, it automatically swivels to the proper orientation for placement.  The game would have been well-nigh impossible without this feature, so I'm glad they added it... Although some might view this as a missed opportunity to add a nightmare difficulty mode ;)

The music is very calm and relaxing, and did not seem to be linked to countries (or at least I didn't notice it changing when I changed countries.)

Once you have finished the game, you can go back in, replay any puzzle, and compete with yourself or your household to see who can finish the fastest (it will show you your time when you place the last piece.)

This was a very enjoyable game, with gorgeous graphics, intricate patterns, and relaxing gameplay and music.  I would have liked to see more puzzles (or bigger ones), but I still highly recommend this one to any puzzle-lover.

Glass Masquerade - Inceptions Puzzle Pack - Puzzle DLC

This DLC for Glass Masquerade expands the original game with an extra 9 countries to visit: Canada, Congo, Equador, Finland, Korea, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa and USA.  At the $1.99 price point, that works out to $0.22 per puzzle!

The is more of the same gameplay and beauty, so if you enjoyed the original game, this is a must-have... and be sure to grab the FREE Lunar Year Puzzle whilst you're at it!

Glass Masquerade - Halloween Puzzle Pack - Puzzle DLC

This DLC features five countries with a Halloween theme:  Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Romania.  Japan's was a bit different take on the holiday, but the rest were deliciously creepy without being scary. 

The five puzzles probably took about an hour to complete, and I got it for less than a dollar, so I'd say that it was money well-spent.

More of the same gameplay as the main game, but a nice addition, nonetheless.  Recommended!

Glass Masquerade: Christmas Day Puzzle (DLC)

Another lovely and FREE DLC for this game? The puzzle took me about 23 minutes to finish, so it's a decent difficulty level, and just as good as all of the other installments for this game.

Definitely looking forward to Glass Masquerade 2~!