In recent years, major game publishers have focused primarily on North America, Europe, and Japan. Especially in the last few years, there haven't been many AAA titles that truly lead players to explore the cultures and myths of other parts of the world. Now, a new action-adventure fantasy game called "1001 Threads of Mizan" has joined this lineup. Developed by MBC Game Studio, the game is based on the folklore and stories of "One Thousand and One Nights."
We got an early hands-on preview of "1001 Threads of Mizan" before its official announcement at Gamescom's Opening Night Live. Based on what we've seen so far, this game could turn out to be quite an ingenious title.
In "1001 Threads of Mizan," an ancient and ambitious Jinn attempts to break the barrier between the material world and the spirit realm. To achieve this goal, it releases numerous weaker Jinns into the world of Mizan. Players choose one of three heroes to battle these supernatural forces and stop the main villain's plan.
The game also features some extremely massive bosses that players can challenge either solo or in cooperation with others. This is not a direct adaptation of "One Thousand and One Nights" stories, but rather a recombination of many story elements from it to create a brand-new adventure. The overall approach is somewhat similar to how "The Witcher" series utilizes Nordic and European folklore.
Like many games, "1001 Threads of Mizan" builds upon the foundations laid by its predecessors, but it doesn't simply adopt any single existing game formula. It borrows some co-op gameplay elements from "Borderlands," such as three heroes each having unique moves and skill trees; the massive boss battles clearly show influences from "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Destiny" raids. The game also draws on the "magitech" style of the "Final Fantasy" series, but with a strong infusion of Middle Eastern cultural elements.
But when you actually play it, "1001 Threads of Mizan" doesn't feel like any of the aforementioned games, because the development team has recombined these elements into their own unique gameplay. The most distinctive feature of this game is the magic carpet.
It transforms what could have been a very ordinary hack-and-slash combat into a fairly fresh experience. Players can mount the magic carpet at any time to ascend into the air, either to dodge enemy attacks or to find a more advantageous position for counterattacks. The transition between ground and aerial combat is very smooth, and your combat effectiveness does not significantly decrease while fighting in the air.
In fact, in "1001 Threads of Mizan," flying on the magic carpet is almost as important as walking normally. The magic carpet truly shines during boss battles.The bosses in the game are enormous, and battles are typically divided into multiple phases. The boss I experienced was the giant Nazjush shown in the image above. Once the battle began, I needed to constantly attack its armor while dodging various objects it threw at me, a process that required extensive use of the magic carpet for agile movement.
Entering the damage phase, we must destroy the 11 eyes on Nazjush's crown one by one before this phase ends.On its own, this isn't exactly revolutionary design. In fact, if you just describe the mechanics, it sounds like a very typical boss fight, similar to gameplay found in many excellent games.But the vertical space and high-speed mobility provided by the magic carpet fundamentally change the pace of combat, making this boss battle much more interesting.
Although I was mostly learning the mechanics on the fly during the demo, the overall difficulty wasn't particularly high. Of course, this might also be because my co-op partners were Game Director Scott Lussier and Creative Director Lars Bonde. As a former "Destiny" player, I couldn't help but feel that this boss battle is somewhat like a "watered-down" version of a "Destiny" raid in terms of mechanics.
However, there is a clear difference between the two: "1001 Threads of Mizan" supports a maximum of 3 players, whereas "Destiny" raids typically involve 6 players. Therefore, the combat in "1001 Threads of Mizan" does not require the same degree of team coordination.
Despite this, Lussier stated that "Destiny" raids remain their "North Star"—the benchmark they aim for—when designing large-scale boss battles. They hope the major boss fights in "1001 Threads of Mizan" will achieve a similar level of complexity.
"1001 Threads of Mizan" is expected to offer multiple difficulty levels, allowing players to increase the challenge for a more demanding experience. However, Lussier emphasized that the development team has not yet finalized the specific difficulty designs.
Bonde revealed that at higher difficulties, the game might reduce hints during boss battles. For example, at normal difficulty, the game might directly tell players that they need to destroy Nazjush's eyes during the damage phase; at higher difficulties, players might need to discover this mechanic on their own. However, these details are still in development, and the final design has not yet been determined.
Since I experienced the co-op mode, I could only try the 3-player team gameplay this time. However, "1001 Threads of Mizan" is not a mandatory co-op game; players can play solo or team up with one or two friends.
It is completely different from games like "Big Walk," which require cooperation to progress. Lussier stated that the single-player mode is the foundational experience of "1001 Threads of Mizan," and the game's difficulty is designed based on the single-player mode. As the number of players increases, the battles not only add more enemies but also increase the complexity of the combat mechanics.
Lussier stated, "The more players there are, the more coordination and management of threats is required."
Currently, no specific release date has been announced for "1001 Threads of Mizan." However, upon its official launch, the game is expected to be available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2.
