Masque, also subtitled as Masque: (Et) Que la fête commence...note , is a grid-based Detective Drama Adventure Game developed by Ubisoft for release in the winter of 1986, but which was delayed until March of 1987. It was originally released on the Amstrad CPC, but that version contains a bug that makes the game unfinishable. Taking a cue from Sorcery+, Ubisoft released Masque+ in February of 1988 for Atari ST, DOS, and again the Amstrad CPC. The Atari ST version is a remake while the DOS and the Amstrad CPC versions of Masque+ simply fix the bug. Towards or in 1989, an Amstrad CPC-based port for the Thomson TO8 followed. All releases of Masque are exclusive to the French market.
The narrative premise is that a woman named Renata has been murdered and her lover Enzo seeks revenge. The manual relays the full backstory in the form of a mini-comic. During the Carnival of Venice, the secret societies operating in the area call an armistice so their members can safely enjoy the festival. Renata, one of those members, travels to Venice to meet up with her lover and colleague Enzo and join the festivities with him. He refuses because his mask hasn't arrived yet and he worries that the armistice is a ruse. Renata is more trusting and goes out alone, becoming only more stubborn about enjoying herself when another colleague tells her already four of their society are missing. Trust is a virtue, but predictably, Renata's decision to go out alone gets her murdered. The police prove useless in finding the killer, so Enzo takes it upon himself to get a name and a loaded gun.
The controls consist of a graphical verb interface for all actions except for interrogating the NPCs. That particular gameplay element is given form as a Text Parser that allows the player to talk their way to the identity of the murderer. The verb interface comprises twelve icons, half of which are duds unless the proper tools have been obtained. The default icons are Punch, Hail, Move, Frisk, Load, and Save. The icons that require a tool are Threaten, Kill, Bribe, Drug, Remove Mask, and Choose Mask. All icons are displayed in a row in the center of the screen. Above are the play window, the danger meter, and the direction cube. Below it is the text parser box and below that Enzo's stats. On the right of the screen a column is reserved for the four obtainable masks.
Masque's gameplay centers on interpersonal actions. Items aren't found lying around, but are in the possession of characters. With rare exception, the way to them is to knock out the rightful owner and to frisk them before they recover. Characters also are a source of information if asked the right questions, but if more is needed threats, bribes, and drugs go a long way to make tongues dance. These actions are balanced against Enzo's stats. At the start, he has 50% credibility, 25% nervousness, 0% mistrust, 99% energy, and 99% memory. Credibility affects the willingness of characters to talk and improves with bribes. Nervousness affects aim and worsens with bribing and murdering, but gets soothed when throwing a punch, regardless if it lands. Mistrust increases with punching and killing and makes characters less sensitive to bribes and threats, thereby also increasing the chance for jailtime or a hospital stay that further increase mistrust. Energy is needed to throw a punch at all and memory is Masque's take on a time limit. A life meter and a danger meter are also part of the game. The latter reflects how close Enzo himself is to getting assassinated and is to be reset by donning a mask. There are four obtainable masks that each affect the credibility, nervousness, and mistrust percentages one way or another.
The remake of Masque+ was Ubisoft's first game for the Atari ST because the Zombi remake dealt with multiple delays. Because of its earliness, its improvements are modest. The title screen is simplified but plays music, characters and icons are depicted in 16-bit color while the rest sticks to the 8-bit palette, the memory meter is retired, and the icon count is lowered from twelve to seven with point-and-click mechanics taking over from the expelled icons. In addition to color and animation being added to the remaining icons, they're also revised to a more intuitive order with clearer imagery. For instance, the original Hail to start a conversation is the palm of a hand and is the third icon from the left after Threaten and Punch. In the remake, Hail is displayed as a mouth and it's the row's first icon.
Masque contains examples of:
- Alien Among Us: Equinox is from Pluto. He uses the cover of the Carnival of Venice to walk around unbothered, because everyone thinks he's in costume.
- All There in the Manual: The comic in the manual explains that Renata was killed by a rival secret society and that Enzo is next on their list. This information is not in the game and a player may be left very confused every time the danger meter fills up and "they" catch up to Enzo, resulting in his death.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The manual's comic and much of the game's aesthetic suggest that Masque takes place some time during the Renaissance, before the Carnival of Venice was outlawed in 1797. But several characters without their mask dress as if they're from the 1960s at the earliest. For instance, Alexis wears modern sunglasses and Jeff is outright punk. The icon to threaten characters also depicts a modern handgun. Unhelpfully, if Enzo perishes, his gravestone gives the date "05.07.63.?" What century's '63 is left unanswered.
- Cephalothorax: Masque has mascot creatures in the form of vaguely humanoid frogs whose heads double as their torsos. They're present when the game boots up with instructions how to proceed and one is permanently settled next to Enzo's stats. Its countenances changes based on Enzo's actions. If he enters a screen where a character is located, the frog's face becomes startled. If he punches someone, the frog breaks out into a grin. If he tries to go in a direction that's not available, the frog looks angry. And if Enzo perishes, the frog looks sad.
- Despair Event Horizon: Renata's death takes all meaning from Enzo's life. The manual explains the life meter with the telling words: "Ou plutôt ce qu'il en reste! Tâchez de maintenir Enzo entre la vie et la mort."note The overall vibe of Enzo's reckless behavior and the no-nonsense execution of Renata's murderer that he enacts at the end is that nothing matters to him anymore except avenging his beloved. In the original version, there's also a timer in the form of the memory meter that represents Enzo's emotional high. If it runs out, the game ends because that desire for revenge is all that keeps him going. The memory meter is absent in the remake, but the remake does highlight in case of death that the problem isn't so much that Enzo has perished but that he has failed to avenge Renata.
- Funeral Cut: When the danger meter fills up, the game notes that "Ils vous ont retrouve!!"note The screen goes red, Enzo's life meter drops to zero, his face on the left of the life meter changes into a skull, and the next shot is of Enzo's gravestone in a Venetian cemetery.
- Gameplay Randomization: The game keeps itself fresh by randomizing where in Venice Enzo finds himself when the game commences, by randomizing the location and movement of the non-playable characters, by randomizing the items and money they have on them, and by randomizing the witness and the murderer. Not random is which character wears which mask, which character has which job, and which masks are obtainable and which break before they can be gathered.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Enzo's mask was to be delivered to him, but the package doesn't reach him before Renata's murder. Therefore, he has no choice but to steal a mask if he wants to disguise himself from either his pursuers or from any character he has previously treated badly and doesn't want further business with him. Masks are stolen by knocking down a character and frisking them. Of the seventeen characters, only four have masks that don't break between being punched and hitting the ground. These four are Jose, who wears the Masque du Lune, Alexis, who wears the Masques des Fous, Miguel, who wears the Masque du Clown, and Xanthini, who wears the Masque du Prince. Each mask alters the three primary interpersonal stats: the Masque du Lune sets credibility to 0%, nervousness to 78%, and mistrust to 50%; the Masque des Fous sets mistrust to 99% and the other two to 0%; the Masque du Clown sets nervousness to 99% and the other two to 0%, and the Masque du Prince sets credibility to 0%, nervousness to 50%, and mistrust to 78%. To complete the game, at least one mask must be stolen to reset the danger meter halfway-through, but it doesn't matter which one.
- Karma Meter: There's a mistrust meter that starts at 0% and goes up with each punch thrown and each character killed. Actions cannot bring it down, but a mask's characteristics can change the mistrust's percentage. Severe mistrust makes characters harder to threaten or bribe and chances that any such attempt gets Enzo put in the hospital or jail higher.
- Life Meter: The life meter sits between Enzo's face, either uncovered or masked, on the left and a skull on the right. The more the life meter drains, the more bandaged up Enzo's face becomes. If dead, his face turns into the same skull as on the right. There is no way to recover health and sacrificing health is the only way to regain energy, so it's a precious commodity.
- Masquerade Ball: It is the Carnival of Venice and the entire city is getting ready for the festivities. The secret societies operating in the area even have agreed to an armistice for the duration of the carnival. Except, at least one of them has every intention to use both the carnival's masquerade and the promise of the armistice to eliminate their rivals. Renata is their latest victim, stabbed to death when she takes an alley route from one plaza to the next. Enzo is next on the hitlist, but he wants revenge for Renata and too makes use of the carnival to conceal his identity with up to four masks.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Enzo would have either stayed in hiding during the carnival or gone out only when the mask he ordered arrived. But Renata's murder sends him into a rage that provokes him out into the streets with still no mask to find his lover's murderer and make them pay.
- Production Throwback: The skull at the end of the life meter is similar to the skull depicted on the cover of Zombi. It is not identical, having different eye sockets and cheek angles, but it brings to mind its predecessor.
- Red Filter of Doom: If the danger meter fills up, the assassins of the rival secret society catch up with Enzo. This turns the screen red as they murder him and the screen stays red for the follow-up shot of Enzo's grave.
- Red Herring: Rajaeh wears the same mask as Renata's murderer as depicted in the comic and in the title screen of the original version. It's also the same mask as worn by Enzo's stalker as depicted on the right of the play window. She can be the witness or the murderer in a given play session, but she doesn't have to be. Her mask means nothing.
- Resources Management Gameplay: There are only five bullets to acquire in the game and only ten shots of serum. It is possible to inject the same character with serum more than once, which decreases the odd of finding the witness. Similarly, Enzo can go around murdering up to five people, but he only ever acquires five bullets, so it's advised to keep one for ther murderer.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Enzo is more of a thinker than Renata and prefers to stay cautious of their rival secret society's intentions even when an armistice is called for the sake of the Carnival of Venice. But when Renata is murdered, absolutely nothing matters anymore except payback. He takes zero precautions when he leaves his hiding place to go after the murderer, acquiring money, tools, and disguises as he investigates. In the original version, there's even a timer in the form of the memory meter that represents Enzo's rage energy. If it runs out, the game ends because his rage is all that pushes him on.
- Robbing the Dead: It is possible to ostensibly kill someone and still frisk them for whatever items of interest they have on them.
- Second-Person Attack: The title screen image of the original version takes Renata's perspective at the moment of her murder. She has her bloodied hand raised in self-defense while the murderer stands over her holding up a blood-covered dagger in preparation of another strike.
- Shout-Out: Jeff wears a shirt with print that reads "Punk Not Dead", a reference to the 1981 album Punk's Not Dead by The Exploited. This same line is also referenced in Zombi.
- Sprint Meter: The energy meter starts out at 99% and dwindles with every punch thrown. To get some back, Enzo has to take plunge into the canals because the struggle for his life in cold and dirty water slaps him back into shape at the cost of his health.
- Stalker without a Crush: Renata and Enzo and presumably the other members of their secret society are all being kept tabs on by a rival secret society for a chance to strike and do away with them. Renata perishes at their hands and possibly up to four colleagues are also killed. Enzo throws caution in the wind to avenge Renata, but has to change his mask every so often to confuse his pursuers. Whether or not he continues to elude them after he has killed Renata's murderer is left unanswered.
- Timed Mission: There are two kinds of time limit: one for the early part of the game that exists in both versions and one for the entire game that is only in the original version. Enzo is on a rival secret society's hitlist and has an assassin stalking him, as indicated by the danger meter. The meter fills up gradually and the only way to reset it is to don a mask. Therefore, the player has to steal a mask quickly. In the original version, there is also a memory meter which effectively represents Enzo's indignation. It starts at 99% and dwindles down to 0%, at which point time has taken the edge off his anger and he no longer seeks revenge. This ends the game.
- Too Dumb to Live: Enzo and two others of their group warn Renata that just because the secret societies have agreed to an armistice for the duration of the Carnival of Venice, that doesn't mean they will honor it; it's dangerous to walk around without a mask, even amidst crowds, and four of their colleagues are missing already. Renata ignores all warnings, firm in her belief that their rivals wouldn't dare strike. She gets stabbed to death at most an hour later.
- Truth Serums: One of Enzo's objectives is to acquire a syringe and a supply of truth serum. Once he has both, he can forcibly inject others to get truthful statements that can't be obtained otherwise. Most of them are about which characters carry a gun, but one character will reveal themself to be the witness and rat out the murderer. The only limit to the truth serum is that it won't make the murderer reveal themself.
