Mirage 7 Review

Indie developers don’t shy away from creating games that bigger companies wouldn’t take a chance on. Why try and create something beautiful when we can just churn out another battle pass borefest? Thankfully, we have studios such as Drakkar Dev, who have just released Mirage 7 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

This third-person adventure describes itself as a “dark fairytale” with a “unique blend of fantasy and sci-fi elements”. Well, that’s enough to get me interested! But is this intriguing title a new indie smash hit? Or does it just not quite live up to its potential?

Mirage 7 follows our protagonist, Nadira, and her faithful pet lizard, Jiji. Their ultimate goal is to reach a place known as the Moon Palace, where legends say the lost Princess Taishma resides. Nadira hopes that after finding Taishma, she will grant her a wish. But not just any wish — no fame or fortune on our hero's mind: she wants to bring her younger sister back from the dead… It isn’t quite as simple as crossing the desert and finding the Moon Palace, though, as things quickly get more complicated and mysterious for the duo.

Without going into too much detail to avoid spoilers, as a whole, the narrative is fairly well-crafted and engaging. I think the most interesting aspect is the inclusion of science fiction elements, which creates a very unique atmosphere. Roaming through a desert that harkens back to ancient times, before seeing a drone whiz overhead, for example, made me want to learn more about this world. With lore scattered around the environments, there are plenty of brief snippets of worldbuilding to read up on.

You’ll meet a range of characters, from genuinely helpful to downright creepy, that all shape Nadira’s story. For the most part, the voice acting is pretty average, with only a few performances being underwhelming and stilted. I was impressed with the ambient audio heard throughout, which gave the game a real mythical vibe. The moody, often dark, music gives way to the subtle sounds of the desert or ramps up in intensity during combat encounters. The sound design is solid and helped immerse me into this fascinating world.

Visually, Mirage 7 is a mixed bag. The contrast of fantasy and sci-fi is something I’m a big fan of, and whilst this isn’t the best-looking game I’ve played, the environmental design is impressive. These areas only seem to get more grandiose the further you progress, so whilst initially the desert may seem a bit dull, in time, you’ll come across some truly brilliant places.

Perhaps not quite as great are the character models. They aren’t terrible by any means, and just like the environments, they are well-designed. The issues lie mainly with the animations that look stiff or the lip syncing not quite matching up. Nothing too egregious, but a bit more polish would have made a world of difference.

Much of your time spent playing revolves around exploration and puzzle solving. There are some very light survival elements too, which was surprising! You’ll need to ensure your canteen is topped up regularly, as this allows Nadira to recover her health. There are also crafting elements, although these are used mainly for puzzle solving. These mechanics aren’t as in-depth as what you’d see in a dedicated survival title, but having them in here definitely adds a welcome touch of variety.

Mirage 7 is an adventure game through and through, and this is most evident during exploration. It isn’t open-world, instead featuring smaller zones to explore with set objectives in each. You’ll come across plenty of puzzles during your journey, and though some of them feel poorly designed and borderline illogical, the majority of them are entertaining and engaging.

Environmental puzzles can be layered, tying into one another between rooms of a temple, whereas certain puzzles will require some clever crafting and item combination. Yes, much like a classic point-and-click, you’ll often be required to smash things from your inventory together to create something that will allow you to solve a puzzle. No rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle here, though…

Our lizard buddy, Jiji, also gets in on the action! Occasionally, Nadira will be unable to access an area, but luckily, there’s a lizard-sized gap that Jiji can fit through! Playing as this little guy is pretty basic: flip a switch here, find a clue there, and so on. You’ll also be relying on Jiji’s Lizard Eye skill when playing as Nadira to uncover items otherwise hidden in the environment. Whilst this was mostly fine, several puzzle elements can’t be interacted with before seeing them through the eyes of your buddy, even if they’re noticeable already.

Combat is, unfortunately, where Mirage 7 is at its weakest. Your arsenal is limited to a dagger and, later on, a slingshot, with nothing really changing in terms of abilities or new attacks as the story progresses. There’s just no “oomph” to swinging your blade and striking an enemy, with very little visual feedback. The enemy AI isn’t too intelligent, either, as I found tougher opponents could be cheesed by just running around them, waiting until they attacked the air before sticking ‘em with the pointy end. Sure, it works well enough, but it's just far too basic to be entertaining.

Mirage 7 almost feels like a game that could have been released during the sixth generation of consoles. Back when there were countless games that experimented with different ideas, some that worked, and some that didn’t. This is both a good and bad thing, as although there are plenty of original ideas wrapped up in an engaging story, the gameplay just doesn’t feel quite on par with today's standards.

That said, I found Mirage 7 to be a genuinely charming experience. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, only taking me around 12 hours to finish, and I must admit I had a pretty good time. There is plenty of jank, unintentionally funny animations, and a poor combat system, but it gave me some serious PlayStation 2 era nostalgia that most videogames just don’t do anymore.