Unsung Heroes: The Golden Mask

As a Chinese American, this game was a pleasant surprise. I can tell a lot of research was put into this game and I recognized a lot of the references, such as the White Snake! The aesthetic reminds me of the agricultural land when traveling through Southern China as well as the old architecture at and surrounding Beijing’s Forbidden City. Gamehouse has come a long way in their portrayal of Asians and it really brightened my day, especially during this rough time for the world. Thank you for making a game that I could truly relate to my culture and my summer visits to China. EDIT: As others have said, this game is really glitchy. Sometimes the app crashes which is really annoying. But I still love Unsung Heroes. It’s my favorite one among your games! Also I loved it when you guys ran the Instagram, please be active again!

I’m a huge fan of the story driven GameHouse games, and this one is no exception. I loved so many things about this game, Xi Niu’s story, a game featuring a POC as a lead, and the impeccable research that was done into Chinese history and culture. I loved the idea of an archeological dig being a gateway into the past, but would rather have had some story development of the three archeologists figuring out the story than the reliance on a a robot. I also wish the archeologists had gotten some sort of storyline and character development of their own. I was really hoping that we might have a modern day story that mirrored what was happening in the past. Alas, the modern characters were simply fillers, and the gameplay with the modern characters felt super repetitive and tedious. But my only real complaint with the game is that the ending felt so rushed for me. I am still not even sure I have a clear idea of what happened at the end. I kept expecting there to be one more chapter, but no... it just... ended. And the cut scene at the end of the credits she’d no light on the situation. What actually happened?!? I need closure!

As an African American woman I was so excited to FINALLY see more diversity in a Gamehouse game. And FINALLY a POC as the lead character! I loved the idea of an archeological dig to activate a story and it’s clear the creators did a ton of historical research, but this game left a bad taste in my mouth and I couldn't/wouldn’t finish it. I got over the historical character working in a rice field because it was history and she owned it, but leveling up to be a “concubine” in the palace and do laundry- was too much for me. I am aware of the historical definitions of courtesan and concubine. (The latter of which seems to have always had a definition of a woman who lives with a man and is not his wife while he has a wife.) And those aside, I’m playing a game where women are doing laundry! I couldn’t play after that; I felt like I was contributing to a narrative of subservient women and also the stereotype of Asian women doing laundry. (While I have enjoyed the games over the years, many of them play in the traditional female role space with little to no diversity.) This could have been an opportunity to have a female Indiana Jones. This game made me sad.