Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines Review

Game: Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines
Genre: Casual, Indie
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Onyx Lute
Controller Support: Yes
Price: US $4.99 | UK £4.29 | EU € 4,99
Release Date: May 31st, 2023

Review code used with many thanks to Onyx Lute.

Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines is a 2023 jigsaw puzzle game by Onyx Lute. Here at LadiesGamers, we have also reviewed the previously released Glass Masquerade and Glass Masquerade 2 Illusions on the Nintendo Switch.

Introduction and Gameplay

The Glass Masquerade game series is already well-known for its gorgeous artwork and music. This entry is no exception. 

Glass Masquerade 3 consists of 30 puzzles grouped into five categories, Transportation, Landmarks, Holidays, Landscapes, Fantasy, and Animals. Before starting, much like the second game in the series, we don’t get a preview of what the finished image will look like, but that only adds to the amazement you feel when you place the last piece of the puzzle.

Glass Masquerade 3 offers an excellent choice of options to personalize the experience of solving a puzzle, from difficulty to how the puzzle pieces are released onto the game board. We have two levels of difficulty, high, where you rotate the fragments, and it should take you about 15 to 30 minutes to finish a puzzle and relax, where you don’t turn the pieces, and it should take you about 7-15 minutes to solve a puzzle. We can also choose the form of the fragments, honeycomb (for the title!), “chemistry,” shards, or random for each puzzle. 

As mentioned above, we can choose how the fragments are released onto the game board. We have several options- flood, iris, bowl, and random. For flood, the puzzle starts with edge fragments. New fragments are then immediately released around the ones already installed. In Iris, we begin with outer edge fragments, and the new pieces are issued in stages by tapering rings. In Bowl, we start with the bottom parts, and the new ones are given out in stages, as if a bowl is being filled. As for random, the fragments in each puzzle are issued in different patterns. 

Statistics

Glass Masquerade 3 allows the following statistics, time, accuracy, badges, or without tracking any statistics. When choosing time or accuracy, each solved puzzle will display your times and accuracy percentage. As for badges, solving each puzzle can earn you up to 5 badges: reveal accuracy, time, dice, and difficulty, so 150 altogether. We achieve Reveal automatically by solving the puzzle the first time, and accuracy refers to solving the puzzle with a precision of over 95%, time is for solving it in less than 7 minutes, dice, for solving it in random mode or with random fragments, and difficulty, on high difficulty. 

Within the game, we can have up to 4 separate saves, each displaying the completed puzzles and the collected badges. 

Soundtrack and art

The soundtrack of Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines is once again artfully composed by Nikita Sevalnev, adding to the feeling of mystery and wonderment at solving the puzzles. Personally, I can’t wait for it to be released separately. 

The art is, of course, fantastic. There are light effects as the light goes through the glass, which helps with the immersion of solving a glass jigsaw puzzle. The pieces are picked up with the left mouse button and rotated with the wheel. The feeling and the animation are smooth. Then, putting a piece down on the puzzle fits seamlessly and with a satisfying click. 

The riddles from the second game are missing here, and I did miss them a bit. Another thing to note is that, although the game is called “Honeylines,” beyond the honeycomb fragment, I didn’t see any references to bees. 

Difficulty

While I am a big fan of the previous games, I’ve only played a couple of puzzles on the high difficulty. For Glass Masquerade, I found that playing around with different options can lead to easy puzzles, even if you are in great difficulty. The easiest option for me on “great difficulty” was placing honeycomb fragments on the game board in a bowl pattern. However, even in playing in regular mode with randomized options, I still beat the puzzles on high difficulty for under 15 minutes each time. 

Conclusion

Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines is a great addition to an already great game series. While it is an absolute must for fans of the games, it also makes for a great entry for new players to join in on the fun. The game is guaranteed fun with its gorgeous art, beautiful music, and smooth controls. I can hardly wait and hope for Onyx Lute to release some DLCs to go with the game.

Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot.