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An Indepth Review Of Mato: Anomalies!

2K View2023-03-23

Hey folks, If you've wanted to know more about Arrowiz's recently released RPG, Mato: Anomalies- you're in the right place.

A Dystopian Detective

The city Of Mato is sick. Disappearances & other strange occurrences plague the street, preying on the desperate and vulnerable- all while the elite bask in the safety of their status.

Enter the Detective- Doe. What starts as a simple investigation into the elusive item known as ‘HANDOUT’ soon evolves- as the mundane horrors of the city give way to a supernatural threat that seems to underpin everything. The Bane Tide- a supernatural force seemingly poised to consume everything.

But Mato is not without its defenses. Bit by bit, Doe encounters those curious few who can oppose the Tide in his stead- starting with Gram, the mysterious Shaman- and soon cascading to the figures who fight from the shadows . . . or had once been consumed by them.

But will it be enough to unravel the secrets of the city?

Summary aside,- talking about the actual narrative itself requires a bit of unpacking. While it initially starts out as a sort of cyberpunk themed noir story, it’s not long before it sidesteps genres into a weird paranormal mystery- one which is complicated to the point that it takes playing through the full breadth of the game to truly unravel the tale, and appreciate all the small details leading up to it’s finale. Essentially, It’s a very story focused endeavor- a lot of which is specifically crammed into the segments where you play as Doe.

See, when you’re in control of him, you travel across Mato hunting down leads- a process which has you talking to the various NPCS in lengthy (and frequently consecutive) dialogue segments that are attached to the main storyline, the myriad side quests, as well as the companion related segments- To the point that there will be times it feels like you’re playing a kinetic novel of sorts. That said, these instances do help a great deal towards further building up the lore of the world, as well as contextualizing events within them, and fleshing out the characters that both accompany your party, and oppose it. To the point that I had absolutely no regrets about engaging with any of that content.

That’s not to say it’s a flawless story- It can start to drag a little, especially when you’re chaining a lot of these instances back to back, but again- it does manage to come to a conclusion that I felt was genuinely satisfying.

Also, while I have mainly been focusing on Doe’s side of things for the story, I will admit that the narrative elements aren’t -entirely- confined to him- since there are some scenes that play out during Gram’s Gameplay segments, including the collectible journal entries you can find strewn about the lairs.

Into The Belly Of The Beasts

Which, right, it’s time to talk shop about the bulk of what you’ll be doing when you’re not combing Mato for leads- good old fashioned RPG flavored Dungeon crawls.

Admittedly, the dungeon crawls themselves are a fairly straightforward experience- represented as sprawling open corridors, culminating in either an elite enemy or a boss at the end of the dungeon. With the added bonus that you’ll be able to see every enemy encounter in your way- allowing you to either bypass them, or butcher all of them for much needed experience.

Really, the only quirk that you get insofar as the dungeon design itself, is the fact that story-centric dungeons will introduce -mechanics- based on which chapter you’re in, such as the Searchlights in the second Chapter, the laser puzzles in the third, or the heart attack inducing Timer in Chapter 4’s story dungeons.

But, that’s only along the main route. See, after you clear a lair, it vanishes- taking all its goodies with it. So, if you’re still hurting for gear or experience- your only real option is to tackle one of Mato's random dungeons. Now, while these certainly provide you adequate access to better quality gear (we're talking better stats -and- more modifiers) - as an experience, they feel significantly blander. The quirks that made them feel unique in the chapters main storyline are lost here- devolving instead into a gauntlet of combat encounters and chest looting.

Sure, it tries to introduce some specific elements, like the existence of shrines you can encounter which give party wide buffs. (These -don’t- stack, so don’t pick the same one twice). Beyond that, the only real thing you have to look forward to is the simple fact that they get bigger the deeper you go . . . In tandem with the random dungeon ‘Sanity’ mechanic which drains as you pick fights- culminating in a significant debuff if you run out.

Here’s the thing, though- if you’re clever about clearing a path ahead, you'll rarely have to deal with it, even when snagging as much treasure as possible, unless you’re going out of your way to do so- -and- neglecting the little sanity recovering shrines that the game sparsely provides.

Still, if you're looking for challenge- it’s not like the game won’t punish you -viciously- for getting reckless, with the largest element being the way HP is handled. See, individual characters -don’t- have a health bar. It’s shared between the entire team- Which doesn’t -sound- so bad when you’re taking individual hits, and a tanky character is absorbing them - but absolutely -horrible, if a character has poor gear, and -everyone- decides to beat them up.

That said, the real party popper here. . . is AOE’s. They’re bad enough in a normal encounter, especially if two enemies can churn them out- since that can savage your health- but bosses -also- love to use these, and they will -entirely- reduce your progress to a smoldering crater. This isn’t so bad with story dungeons, Since there's scattered save points, but random dungeons don’t have these, kicking you back to the start of a potentially -lengthy- string of walking and fights.

I mean, there are ways to mitigate this. Buffing & Debuffing certainly helps. That said, you can get some hefty boosts from the games ‘Gear’ System to improve your survivability -and- unlock neat passives by connecting matching tiles together.

As opposed to making yourself a pure glass cannon and dying hideously. …Which- wasn’t just from AOE’s. I also got debuffed with confusion once- and uh. Yes. You can vaporize yourself in one shot if you -really- try.

That’s not the only bit of customisation you can do character build wise, either. Each of the cast has a pair of unique weapons all of which come equipped with their own distinct skills. What’s more, they also get a pair of talent trees themed around those weapons (though certain passives overlap). I mean, there’s also a talent tree related to a character's ultimate skill- but, by the end of the game. Ringless Ability to grant me a barrier of bonus health equal to my max HP became my defacto manner of surviving most of the bullshit being flung at me during boss fights

But- yeah, that’s honestly a lot of what you’re doing gameplay wise. Even when you’re pursuing the narrative odds and ends of the sidequests, a fair portion of them will either lead to a side lair, or a random one- so, these are systems you’ll need to get very familiar with.

Though- well, Doe isn’t completely excluded from having mechanics- and this is where the oddness I had mentioned in the opening crops up. Remember that card game? Well, In the course of Doe’s investigations, he’ll occasionally come across potential suspects who decide to play difficult. Which is sort of a shame for them, given Doe’s been given the ability to essentially rip through their mind’s resistance- provided he can complete an odd deck based puzzle.

And I am being very specific when I say deck based, and not deck building, Since- each companion has a deck associated with them- which you gain when they join you, (as well as more complex variants you can swap to after you complete their conversation paths). While you can’t tailor any of these decks, you don’t need to- as their specific fortes lend themselves to very different strategies, which sometimes prove clutch when trying to navigate the specific mechanics which arise in a given encounter.

And, I’m not actually going to lie here- I actually sort of wish that there were a few more of these in the game. Or a way to play through some of the earlier encounters with a different deck, or something. While they do take a bit of adjusting to, they are genuinely neat to figure out.

A Glimpse At The Future

But that's a pretty good summary of the gameplay, so let's move onto aesthetics and- Well, Mato does look quite nice. On the whole, I think there was a lot of effort put into the world, the various dungeons, and the enemies to make all of them stand out. Even though the dungeons were essentially just straight corridors, I'd still find myself sitting still and checking them out- or occasionally pausing mid fight to ogle the weirdness I was encountering.

I also had a fair bit of fondness for the combat animations -and- the fact that I had the ability to skip them. Really, my only nitpick visually, is the simple fact that A) despite the effort placed into the character models for the protagonists- Non story essential NPC's have a weird creepy eyelessness to them. That- and the UI is a bit potatos. If you upgrade a skill in the skill tree- you won't actually see the information get properly updated, which is annoying.

Soundwise, It's less contentious. On the whole, I liked what I was listening to insofar as the OST, and I was surprisingly not bothered by the characters combat lines, since there was a decent amount of diversity in that regards.

The Final Answer

In any case, this brings us to that final, essential question- did I think Mato was worth it? And ultimately, I’d have to say. . . yes. On the dungeon diving side of things, I definitely preferred the main content vs the randomized dungeons- but, I can’t deny I had a fair amount of fun engaging with the systems. There’s just something immensely satisfying about optimizing my build in order to tackle some of the harder content in the game. Also, I really was fond of the change and pace that the puzzle-oriented card games represented. It was good stuff. Factor in a genuinely interesting story to pursue- and overall, I can safely call this game a HIT.

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