Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death (Xbox 360)

When you go to see a Michael Bay movie or a fireworks show, you’re not really expecting an experience with a lot of depth. Something with better storytelling or more complexity might usually be preferred, but there is definitely an appeal to watching something focused on the simple thrills of an explosive spectacle. Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death definitely seems to be going for this “fireworks show” mentality, and if you allow it to take you on its rollercoaster ride of a gaming experience, its shallowness elsewhere isn’t as much of a problem.

Marlow Briggs himself is a pretty straightforward action hero, except perhaps for the fact he dies right at the start of the game. While visiting his girlfriend at what he believes to be a simple digging site, Marlow is killed by the henchmen of Heng Long. The rich and powerful Heng Long is tearing up the land and rainforest around the area in an attempt to gain a god-like power mentioned in ancient Mesoamerican writings, but he made the mistake of having Marlow killed with a Mayan relic that contains the Mask of Death. Brought back to life by the mask, Marlow is gifted with incredible strength, magic, and the ability to defy death, all of which he intends to use to destroy Long’s forces in both a battle for revenge and an attempt to save his girlfriend. This warpath ends up leading to some incredibly over the top set pieces, things like Long’s megalithic mining machine serving both as a level you need to overcome and a place you can leave in ruins as your destructive powers continue to cause the place to explode and fall to pieces.

Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death definitely wants to keep you moving through its game world so it can present you with its next idea for some deliberately ridiculous bit of action. Dangling by your ankle from a rope attached to an enemy helicopter, fighting a giant water monster, and outpacing the crumbling ruins all focus on the feeling of the moment rather than making the moment all that interesting mechanically, most of these just about making regular movement choices or fighting as you would any opponent despite the presentation selling it in such an interesting and action-packed way. You may just be jumping from platform to platform if you view things independent of the set dressing, but by making the area crumble around you from the damage you’re doing in your quest for revenge, things are given an extra layer of impact, the adventure all the more exciting because of its context. Not every moment is a blood-pumping thrill ride though, some segments pulling back to focus on block puzzles or more reserved moments of combat, but such a give and take is expected to prevent the player from being overwhelmed and allowing the more extreme set pieces to retain their intended impact by not being omnipresent.

A few moments without the thrills do drag though because Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is mostly focused on presentation over play, but some humor is added to the mix as well to try spice up even the slower segments. The Mask of Death frequently comments on the course of events, often comparing them to the ancient times, the spirit inhabiting it both delighting in the brutality of Marlow’s revenge quest and quick to chastise him for failures. He does repeat a few lines a bit too often, but he comes off a bit better than Marlow’s girlfriend Eva who leaves messages all around the levels you can listen to that mostly amount to “please don’t come after me” over and over. The main villain Long, voiced by the wonderful James Hong, is almost always delightful when he speaks up, his efforts to curtail Marlow’s rampage including things like firing his safety inspectors to deliberately make his worksites less safe as Marlow tears through them. Long’s mix of corporate thinking with his megalomaniacal goal of godhood making him appropriately silly yet villainous when he has the opportunity to chime in.

There is one unfortunate aspect of Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death’s mix of campiness and combustibles. The deeper you get into the game, there is a growing frequency of cutscenes that could have either been awesome action moments or interesting playable fights that are instead presented as a sequence of still shots with the camera whirling around freeze frames. Rather than feeling like a deliberate artistic choice, these often feel like the game was unable to properly compose either a scene that could be executed within the game’s limitations or one that benefits from the freeze frame style. When the action crescendos into these letdown moments, Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death threatens to lose the goodwill its embrace of overblown action built up, but it’s not such a deal breaker that the game is completely dragged down by this unfortunate design decision.

The gameplay in Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death isn’t too exceptional on its own merits. A hack and slash with platforming and mild puzzle solving mixed in, the similarities to God of War are immediately apparent to those familiar with that series. Traversing the massive mining machines, Mesoamerican temples, and mountainous rainforests involves fighting whatever soldiers, giant bugs, or angry spirits you might find there on top of dodging deadly machinery and traps, making your way safely across moving platforms and crumbling locations, and interacting with mechanisms to open the way forward. The combat is definitely the aspect given the most focus, platforming and puzzles part of the action breaks so that the game can have a few moments that require more thought. The battles are not completely mindless, but a lot of them do boil down to swinging your weapons around at any enemy near you, strategy mildly introduced as the game starts rolling out foes resistant to simple tactics or enemy groups that would be overwhelming if you don’t tap on your abilities.

Over the course of the game Marlow will unlock new weapons and magic he can level up through experience earned in battle. There are four weapons he can swap between as he pleases, the basic scythe being a strong all-around option but the others favoring certain situations. The whip’s reach is good for keeping enemies at bay despite its low damage, the hammer conversely is incredibly strong but leaves you open if you don’t find the right windows for swinging it, and the pair of curved swords can deal a lot of damage due to their quick use but require you to be stay close to your foes and be consistent with your aggression. All weapons have regular and heavy attack options that will mix together into different moves depending on how they come together in a combo, but your real special moves come from your magic abilities. Elemental powers involving fire, ice, wind, and earth all pack heavy damage and special aspects that set them apart, ice freezing anyone caught in the attack’s wide range for example. These limited use magics can help turn the tide against a large group, but an easily overlooked but immensely helpful skill comes in the form of conversion, Marlow able to switch the allegiances of regular enemies he can hold onto for long enough. Many large groups can be better handled by distracting enemies by having them fight their former allies, and while your brainwashed assistants don’t put up the best of fights, splitting enemy aggression adds a small tactical edge to fights that often don’t ask much from you mentally.

The combat’s straightforward nature isn’t too offensive for the most part and there are moments where it comes together nicely, but there are definitely a few enemy types who strain its limitations. Most foes rush in to fight and you attack them as necessary, but some like the rocket launcher troops are better handled by deflecting their shots and flying foes can be handled more safely with your spirit knives. Having plenty of regular baddies who aren’t too difficult to trounce isn’t a problem, their numbers usually the complication that makes them a bit more interesting, but some of the stronger enemies end up being too durable for their own good. The attack patterns of large enemies like the scorpions are too simplistic to make them all that dangerous while your own attack methods take a long time to chip away at them, the battles with these foes slow-going in a game that thrives mostly on its fast pace. Some of these large enemies have the option to climb aboard and ride them into battle only for you to feel how rigid and uninteresting these heavy attackers are, it often better to put them out of their misery instead of using them as a clunky battle mount. These big enemies are at their most egregious when there are multiple ones in a group, but they aren’t so prevalent that the entire game is bogged down by these less exciting battle moments.

THE VERDICT: Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death elevates its decent action gameplay by embracing spectacle. The combat is acceptable and has just enough going on that it can sustain its part of the experience, but the contextualization of everything as part of an explosive action narrative lends even the simple platforming a greater sense of danger and excitement. The moments of slowness threaten to weaken the game at times, but humor and presentation ensure that this game overcomes its average mechanical design to be something much more enjoyable.

And so, I give Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death for Xbox 360…

A GOOD rating. Really, Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is an Okay game that is pushed up higher by its embrace of extreme action. If the world wasn’t falling apart and exploding around your battles, if the game wasn’t contextualizing everything like you were in a B Movie that has a decent budget, Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death would be mediocre, and the freeze frame cutscenes and slow battles with big enemies do threaten to bring it down to that level. Ultimately though, Marlow Briggs has enough hits to make up for the misses and the combat isn’t so shallow that it loses its luster in this short but adrenaline packed experience. The different weapons and magic added to your skillset keep the progression of battles interesting enough and new enemies are thrown into the mix to challenge you a bit, so for the most part you feel strong enough to be the man responsible for all this destruction. The puzzle solving isn’t made too complex likely to keep you on the path to the next awesome setpiece while giving the previous one time to settle into memory, so it serves its purpose well despite not being too compelling on its own merits.

The construction of Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is mostly focused on carrying its tone properly, and despite the missteps, it still manages to entertain because of its approach being more akin to a fireworks show than the action games like God of War its unashamedly drawing inspiration from. It’s brief, its explosive, and that’s what keeps Marlow Briggs thrilling despite being unpolished at parts.