Gloomwood's Christmas update invites you to step into the Mirror Realm
Samtsirhc Yrrem! As they say during the festive season in Gloomwood's Mirror Realm. Actually, I imagine they say things like «What was that?» followed by «Argh!» much as they do in regular Gloomwood. What is the Mirror Realm, you ask? Why, it's part of Gloomwood's just arrived Christmas update, which adds bugfixes, new areas, and a whole host of festive doohickies alongside mysterious alternate dimensions.
If I seem evasive about the true nature of the Mirror Realm, that's because it isn't entirely clear what it is. Publisher New Blood Interactive is being decidedly cryptic about the whole affair. On the website formerly known as Twitter, New Blood posted a video of Gloomwood's Doctor stepping into a fetching magenta portal, writing «The Mirror Realm of Gloomwood is now open to you, Doctor! Come and go as you please, discover inexplicable ways back to areas you've previously been, and maybe even a new surprises!»
It sounds like some kind of portal-y, fast-travel-y system for skipping around Gloomwood's increasingly large map. But in the game's patch-notes, New Blood includes a subhead that reads «Area:???» followed by the line «The mirror beckons you». So perhaps there's an interstitial area that connects your fast-travel points, a bit like wandering along the World Tree in God of War: Ragnarok.
Fortunately, New Blood is much clearer about what other gifts the Christmas update brings. For starters, the whole game has been given a seasonal makeover. The map has been sprinkled with snow. The Doctor can wield snowballs, chucking them at enemies to blind them, and at fires to douse them. The enemies have been given new festive skins, like a Krampus outfit for the Goatmen, Reindeer costumes for the Fishdogs and a «tiny Santa
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