Mirage 7 Review: Combat Unevolved

While many video game heroes are lone wolves, some are capable of working well with others, be it Kay Vess and her BFF Nix in Star Wars Outlaws, Master Chief's better half Cortana in the Halo series, or the various sidekicks you can have in the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games.

It is to that list that we can now add Jiji, a gecko-like lizard who helps a young woman named Nadira survive a desert adventure in the third-person open world, third-person action/adventure game Mirage 7 (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC).

It's just too bad the little lizard doesn't know more about game design.

Gameplay and Visuals

Made by Italy's Drakkar Dev, Mirage 7 has Nadira embark on a quest to find The Lost Princess in hopes of getting her sister Rasha back. To do this, Nadira has to wander the desert, looking for a treasure she hopes will appease The Lost Princess. 

Of course, crossing the desert is not a walk in the park. Especially given how, under the sand, there are not only underground passageways, but also giant bugs that like to say hello...with their pincers.

Good thing Nadira comes fully armed...sort of (we'll get to that in a moment). Not only does she have a sling she can use to fling rocks at the aforementioned big bugs, but she also has a somewhat handy dagger. In fact, she not only uses that dagger to defend herself, but Nadira can also use it to start a campfire or to ignite a torch. Oh, and that sling I mentioned; she made that herself out of items she found lying around. She's rather resourceful.

This is especially helpful because, when not fighting for her life, Nadira has to solve situational puzzles, ones that would challenge the problem-solving skills of Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider games, or people from the Resident Evil series, especially the early ones. To open the door to a temple, for instance, Nadira has to solve four different problems, and it's not just a matter of deciphering the clues, but also finding the right items she has to combine into something helpful.

As for Jiji, Nadira's lizard pal not only has excellent eyesight, and can identify helpful plants and other items in the world (not unlike when Batman or Lara Croft use their special vision abilities in their respective games), but there are also times when you take control of the little guy, and help them hunt for food and defend themselves (and Nadira) from such enemies as scorpions. 

All of which works well together to make Mirage 7 an interesting and engaging trek through the desert.

Issues and Irritations

As interesting and engaging as Mirage 7 may be, though, it's also, at times, equally frustrating. Usually, when you're fighting the aforementioned big bugs, who are disproportionately tough. Take the spider-like ones that live underground. While they can kill you with just three bites, it takes nearly a dozen dagger strikes, if not more, to take them out.

As if that didn't make things tough enough, Nadira replenishes her health by drinking water. The problem is, each sip only restores a little bit, and it also takes a moment for her to take that sip, a moment during which enemies can attack her.

In fact, the only reason Nadira ever survives these combat encounters is that she can dive out of the way like she's Kratos from the God of War games. But this just means that every dagger fight goes the same way: strike twice, dive away, dive back, strike twice, and so on. It's why melee combat in Mirage 7 is so unsatisfying.

Thankfully, Nadira's sling works better, since she automatically targets her enemies, and it takes fewer shots than stabs to take down her adversaries. But even this can be problematic since, if she's holding a torch - say, to see where she's going while underground - she can't drop the torch and switch to the sling unless she's somewhere well lit. You're stuck using the dagger. The dang dagger.

Of course, combat is only one of the three major aspects of Mirage 7; the other two being puzzle solving and exploration. But it's still a big part of the game, and one that can't afford to be dull, especially when there are so many similar games that get it right: Horizon Forbidden West, Avowed, Ghost Of Yōtei...

Combat also isn't the only issue I had with Mirage 7.

First, I wish Jiji scurried as fast as the lizards I've seen in nature documentaries, as opposed to his casual stroll. Also, the way the game looks when you're seeing the world through his eyes is bland. 

Mirage 7 also has some technical issues. For instance, at one point, early in the game, Nadia slid down a sand dune and got permanently stuck on a tree.

Then there's the conceptual issue. When the game begins, we see a drone using an EMP to free a woman with wires in her brain who seems to be a captive in a nearby military base. And this woman occasionally appears on screen, always without warning, to, well, warn you of impending danger. Which kind of gives this game brief moments of cyberpunk sci-fi...but not enough of one to properly meld with the game's Arabian Nights-ish dark fantasy feel.

Mirage 7 also has a somewhat common problem: if you sit at a reasonable distance from your television (y'know, as your mama told you to), you'll have trouble distinguishing what button you're supposed to use when prompted or when going through the tutorials.

Verdict

In the end, Mirage 7 has a lot of promise and interesting elements. And it can be fun at times, like when you get inside the underground temple and have to figure out how to clear out the poison gas. But if you're going to have a game that has a lot of combative moments, you need to make sure the combat works better than it does here.

A copy of Mirage 7 was provided for review by Blowfish Studios.