Mesmer
Mesmer is a unique social survival game where every encounter matters. As a revolution leader, influence people and factions into following your cause, while keeping yourself out of the spotlight of the secret police. The stakes are high, and the dangers are many. But there is hope yet.
Will you be the one to turn the tide, and lead the people of Mesmer towards a better future?
The Story
Mesmer. The pearl of the old world. At least it used to be… But the King has failed his people. He’s turned his nation into a police state, his citizens struggling under rationing and curfews. The farmable land surrounding the capital is no longer used to grow food, but fields of Paciflowers, a plant with powerful mindbending capabilities. Those who dissent are forced into subservience through a mind control method known as “Horsing”- covering their heads with spite masks filled with Paciflowers and stripping them of all individuality to serve as a grim example to others.
Build a Revolution
You are Teri De Belle, a fearless adventurer who upon returning from a journey abroad is branded an enemy of the state. To spare yourself from a “Horsing” by the secret police, you find yourself pressured into becoming a revolutionary leader.
Build influence and win the favor of the people through your charm, helpfulness and skillful social interaction- or resort to blackmail and threats of violence.
Though beware, this city is a powder keg and it’s getting more dangerous by the day.
Stick to the shadows!
As the King has declared a curfew, citizens must remain indoors after nightfall. Anyone caught in the light of a police torch will face severe penalty. But if you want to succeed, staying indoors is not an option.
Avoid being spotted by remaining outside of the night guard’s line of sight. Grapple to rooftops where you can’t be found, or slip into the shadows. Getting caught means certain doom. But as long as you’ve got your wits about you, there’s always the option to run away.
Start a Riot!
Locate Crowdhorns that grab the attention of the public, and rile up the hearts of the population through impassioned public speaking! The police are watching from the sidelines, keeping the spirit of rebellion down. But turn enough people over with your rhetoric, and you’ll be leading a passionate crowd through the city. Tear down the blockades, and make your way up the stairs of the Royal castle for a final confrontation!
The Factions
There are five social factions, each vying for power in their own way. They all carry influence, so you must butter their bread in any way you can to bring them onto your side.
The Nobility
The Nobles are a faction of aristocratic royalists, and hold power through bloodline and tradition. But even the Nobles have doubt in their King. The wise revolutionary may seize the rare opportunity to influence the Nobles towards overthrowing the King…
The Merchants
The Merchants are the wealthy people- shop keepers, business owners and landlords.
Wealth carries power, and they are certainly not happy with the King reducing their wealth through taxes. The opportunistic revolutionary may find that coin can buy the sympathy of people who appreciate the value of money…
The Artisans
The Artisans are a faction of painters, poets and academics. They make up the cultural and intellectual elite, advocating for freedom and liberty from the oppressive regime.
The sharp-witted revolutionary may find that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword…
The Workers
They have few people of influence in their ranks, but society is built from the sweat off their backs, and their numbers are many. The socialist revolutionary may find that the voices of many are stronger than the voices of few…
The Underworld
The Underworld is the faction of the ruffians, the downtrodden and the forgotten.
They are opposed to the law, and especially the King’s law and his secret police. The radical revolutionary may find that the skills of subterfuge, deception and quick fingers are the skills needed to turn the tide…
Key Features
- Deep, narrative driven gameplay, where your choices matter
- An enticing blend of social manipulation, stealth and riot gameplay
- Unique survival mechanics, where social influence is your main resource
- Leverage multiple social factions, each with their own goals
- Open world with multiple methods of traversal and world interaction (You can even ride a pig)
- Multiple endings based on your choices
Game Discussion
Steam User 0
I feel I have spent more time with this game than pretty much anyone else. Finishing every NPC mission, burglarizing every building, getting every Blackmail, acquiring every Achievement, and collecting every Crowdhorn. As close to 100% completion as anyone could wish for. All for the purpose of making a video about the game's lore. But the amount of research I have put into this game has not gone to waste, because I also published a series of guides within the Steam community showcasing everything I have found.
Now with all of that pedigree out of the way, what do I think of Mesmer?
The graphics are fully 3D rendered, bright and colorful. The music, like the rest of Rain's games, is excellent. But those things are superficial. The gameplay is the biggest determining factor in whether someone will like it or not. Mesmer is a unique genre, a social survival game. It is not an action-focused game. Instead, it is a puzzle.
In going around town, talking to NPCs, completing their missions, getting hints and clues about what's going on in town, all while managing your resources, it plays a bit like a board game. You are being challenged mentally rather than through action or reflex, though there is a little bit of action that happens at night if you choose to do illegal activities and evade police capture.
But because the game challenges the mind, it requires a respective commitment from the player to rise to that challenge and figure out how things work. In that sense, Mesmer is Nintendo Hard in its design and attitude. It does not explain mechanics. It does not hold your hand. It throws you into the pool and leaves you to either sink or swim. Its difficulty is unapologetic.
Once you have overcome that difficulty, the city is yours, leaving you fairly open to fully explore and discover the story, which is fragmented into gossip and rumors from character to character and has to be collected by the player and assembled piece by piece before it starts to come together, weave a cohesive narrative, and finally reveal its richness. Most players never reached that point.
And once you have seen everything, the content in the game remains static. The same NPCs in the same places offering the same missions and stories. After discovering it all, there is nothing enticing multiple playthroughs. You finished the game. Congratulate yourself and move on.
Another aspect that may deter some players is that Mesmer needs a bit of polishing that it will unfortunately never get because of its overall poor sales. As a result there are some small bugs and typos to contend with. The worst of them are a couple of edge cases that can result in softlocks. And of course the game should have been a bit more player-friendly in explaining how its mechanics work and be more clear at times in cluing the player into where to go and what to do. It would have also been nice to have a New Game Plus mode that eliminated the challenging elements and let the player freely roam to get all of the pieces of the story.
Overall, I genuinely liked this game for offering something a little different from the boring old game genres we're all used to. If you aren't afraid of the challenge, you might like it too.