Glass Masquerade is a jigsaw puzzle game featuring beautiful puzzles with a stained glass aesthetic. Each puzzle is themed after a country, taking the player around the world in stained glass. Puzzles in the base game take an average of 3-4 minutes, with DLC packs containing harder puzzles.

Format: PC via Steam
First playthrough time: 2.5 hours

Released November 18th, 2016 by Onyx Lute

Quick Overview

A more angular art style

In-depth Review

Glass Masquerade has a relaxing atmosphere with beautiful puzzles and pleasing music. Music can vary from bells to piano. While I wish the music for each puzzle fit more with the country in the base game, the demos of the DLC puzzles sound like this was done for the DLC. In addition to the music, each puzzle comes with a unique clock that the pieces fit inside of. The images for puzzles can range from people and animals to mythical beasts and historic technology. Puzzles often need to be nearly finished before it’s clear what the image is.

Completed puzzle

Pieces are added to the puzzle by holding and dragging, during which time the clock hands fade out so they aren’t in the way. Special pieces along the edges are marked faintly red at the start and can be quickly placed to use as anchors. Pieces auto-orientate once picked up and can only be set-down in the correct location. Pieces have a small but appropriate snapping radius to lock-in. While not in the puzzle or being held, pieces will be only a silhouette so players must focus on shape rather than color. Even when designs in the puzzle are symmetrical, the shapes of the pieces are not.

Silhouettes of pieces surround the outside in two rotatable rings

Demo puzzles are available for all expansions in Glass Masquerade and DLC puzzles will show up on the map as permanently locked until purchased. I wasn’t super thrilled with being able to see all the DLC puzzles because it made me feel like I couldn’t fully complete the game without buying them. Based on the demos, the DLC puzzles are 2-3 times as hard as the base puzzles and take closer to 10 minutes to complete each. Buying all the DLC would about double the number of puzzles, while the play time would increase much beyond that given the extra time needed for each puzzle.

Map view

While I very much liked the puzzles, I had some minor problems with the interface in Glass Masquerade. Most notably I disliked waiting for animations to finish before I could click on the menu as I often clicked too soon and would then have to click again. I also found the sheer number of buttons on the main screen a little overwhelming at first, but more manageable once I learned to navigate them.

Main menu after completing all base and free puzzles

Recommendation

Overall, I found Glass Masquerade to be an easy and relaxing puzzle game with beautiful puzzles and pleasant music. There are multiple DLC packs to expand it and provide harder puzzles, but I wish they weren’t so baked into the base game. I liked the variety of clocks and designs for the puzzles and how most of the time I had to nearly complete a puzzle to fully understand the image. I recommend Glass Masquerade to players looking for a pleasant jigsaw puzzle game, especially if they’re drawn to its unique art style.

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