Ever since that trip to Dubai, ascending great heights as Altaïr, or finding out about Jinn in American Gods, you’ve had a thirst for some Arabian Nights-style adventure, but there’s not much out there, right? Wrong. Have you heard about Mystic from ILHAM, a third-person survival currently in Early Access?
You play as Hanzala, living in a time where the spirits, Jinn, are ever present, and his personal world is in turmoil. Following the burning of his house, he finds himself in the middle of nowhere and about to explore his possibilities. For at least a minute or two.
Mystic’s visuals are pretty darn impressive. You can tell when there’s a lot that’s gone into the presentation side of things, as my Ryzen 9 started to stutter like a king, though it was also in admiration of the scenery. Press space to mantle? Sure, why not… wait – what’s that ghostly apparition? Nothing’s happening, and now I’m stuck in the fence. ‘Your soul is resting’ followed by a restart option. Huh.
So, this appears to be a Souls-like, or maybe I followed a route I was supposed to avoid? Considering it’s the only path, this wasn’t the best introduction, and the illusion of an immersive, vibrant world is squashed by interacting with it. This ain’t my first rodeo with difficult games. In the past few weeks, I’ve accumulated an extra 200 hours in Nioh 2 again, and that’s brutal. So, I try again and die. Quite possibly the worst introduction to the adventure. Ah, wait… ledges. Here’s the Assassin’s Creed influence, and with three quick jumps, I’m parkour level 2.
It becomes clear from this early experience that parkour plays a large part in Mystic, and, ignoring the protruding underpants from Hanzala’s groin, overlayered with his trousers, the graphics and animation are pretty damn fluid. It’s crucial that this mechanic works, as there’s a hell of a lot of threats in the game early on, and you simply have to keep on running.
I can’t emphasise how crucial running and survival are. After getting wiped out by multiple Jinn who are ethereal on screen, but silent in terms of audio, both in presence and action. The number of times I died without seeing what actually killed me was tiresome. As for those you can see, they walk around with primitive weapons, though you can’t hit them with even the lightest punch, and instead rely on picking up pebbles in a land abundant in them, yet they can’t be interacted with. Still, the base-building element sounds fun and like Once Human, I’d rather engage in that first of all.
The problem is that the map markers inform you to head to a hut to repair it, but they’re being patrolled by these chumps. Unable to fight them, I find other abandoned homes only to be haunted by wolves. Noticing the theme here? So, find a home from a choice of many, then repair it with a hammer you don’t have, nor any indication on where you could find one, or bring up a crafting menu to do so. Strolling through a large village, there’s zero population. No doubt they left because there weren’t any hammers, and it was full of predators.
After so many restarts, I quickly grew frustrated with Mystic, and with plenty of other titles to go through, this one has to take a seat on the shelf for a few more weeks, then hopefully I can come back and have another look at how it’s progressing. The presentation is great, though the sound production is poor. The concept is excellent, and the folklore elements are one of its strongest lures. However, without being able to get my teeth into anything rewarding early on, this Jinn is going to have to stay in the bottle.
