1001 Threads of Mizan Hands-On Impressions: Spider-Man meets Aladdin

It surprised me when Threads of Mizan's game director said that one of the game's biggest inspirations was Marvel's Spider-Man. The co-op action adventure set along a fantastical version of the Silk Road didn't immediately conjure images of Spidey swinging around New York as comparisons, but when I got some hands-on time with the game, I immediately understood what the devs meant.

1001 Threads of Mizan, in case you missed the ONL reveal, is a new co-op action/adventure game from MBC Game Studio. The world is about to be overtaken by an evil king, who is hell-bent on rewriting stories to make himself out to be the hero, thus changing the course of history. Our goal is to of course stop that from happening, by taking on some colossal bosses in third-person combat, as well as in the air thanks to our flying carpet.

The flying carpet is Tales of Mizan's biggest USP, from the short demo we had with it. The action and combat is familiar to people who've played a third-person action/adventure experience before. You can hit with light attacks, stronger, specialised attacks for your class, abilities, and defensively you've got block and dodge options, with a parry because everything has to have a parry function these days. It borders on formulaic, but then between bouts of fighting a jinn's legion of fodder, you get to soar high into the air on your flying carpet. The way the carpet moves is at first a bit unruly, but once you get the hang of it the sensation is akin to the feeling of web-slinging around New York in Insomniac's Spider-Man games. You can accelerate, bank, roll, and use the carpet to counter some boss attacks. It's not a mount, or companion, if your mind immediately jumps to something like Aladdin's carpet or the cloak from Doctor Strange.

Instead, the carpet is a tool, but one I'm likely going to get very attached to over the course of the game. From the demo, it appeared that Threads of Mizan was opting for a sessions-based kind of loop, where you pick a boss, take it down, and repeat over and over until you grow tired of the structure. That isn't the case, according to the developers, and instead Threads of Mizan is a game that's meant to be beaten. You don't even need a couple of pals to take on the adventure if you don't want them. Instead, MBC Game Studio is opting for a single-player approach that's better with friends. That became clear through our gameplay session, in which we were joined by another member of the press and the game's director. While it was possible for me to sit back and survive on my own, when collaborating with the team we managed to do a lot more damage and beat any foe facing us a lot more efficiently.

There are three classes to choose from in Threads of Mizan. They all offer different things, as MBC Game Studio wants to avoid class homogeny like the plague. That said, you can build your character to opt for a different style. Say if you wanted a more defensive duellist, for example, you'd be free to explore how that works. In our demo, the three classes were optimised to do what they do best. I played as Yusara, the more ranged-focused character, who doesn't do as much damage as the duellist or have as much health as the tank, but can sit towards the back of an arena and just plink away with arrows. That works both for the cowards who don't want to get involved in melee, but also for the people who want to draw the enemy's attention. On multiple occasions I managed to get a boss away from a downed teammate so my other teammate could revive them.

Aside from the carpet flying, where Threads of Mizan really shined in its short demo was the major, colossal boss fight. We fought against Nazjush, the four-armed skeletal lady from the trailer. She was hurling rocks, bringing down a whole cave system around us, and shooting pointed stones like they were bullets from a machine gun. The boss fight boiled down to dodge and hit some weak points, but looking at it from that reductive angle would be doing Threads of Mizan's cinematic arena, animations, and music a disservice.

If I have one concern, it's about this game finding its audience. Threads of Mizan is stepping into the co-op action space, one that is quite saturated as it is. The gameplay is fun and cinematic, but aside from the carpet, it is something many players will be familiar with. Releasing any game these days is a coin flip, and yet I'll remain cautiously optimistic about 1001 Threads of Mizan, just as the devs are.