When 1001 Threads of Mizan was announced at Gamescom, it immediately caught my attention. Not just because it looked good, but because it arrived at an interesting time for anyone craving an adventure rooted in Arabic folklore and aesthetics. With Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia remake cancelled, MBC Game Studio’s debut feels like it has wandered into a gap that has been sitting there for far too long.
And unlike the usual Gamescom routine of watching a trailer, grabbing some swag and moving along, MBC Game Studio actually put a controller in my hands. The team walked us through the story and lore before letting us play the pre-alpha demo ourselves. That made the reveal considerably more interesting because I wasn’t just watching Mizan — I was actually playing it.
Three heroes, and a surprisingly good solo option
The story takes us thousands of years into the past, when humans and jinn lived together and created Mizancraft, an ancient technology powered by jinn flame that appears almost magical. Things eventually went spectacularly wrong; the jinn were imprisoned, and now their king wants to return and rewrite his story. Standing in his way are three heroes: Yusra, the ranged fighter with her bow; Malik, the heavy sword-and-shield warrior; and Sufyan, the faster, more agile swordsman.
The three characters, Yusra, Malik, and Sufyan, aren’t simply cosmetic choices. Their different combat styles give each player a distinct role, which becomes particularly important when you’re playing with two other people.
That’s because Mizan supports up to three-player co-op, but here’s the interesting part: it has been built as a proper single-player experience too. There are no AI companions awkwardly clogging up the screen or pretending to be your best friends. You can experience the story alone, or have one or two actual friends drop into your adventure when you want some company.
I got to experience the three-player version at Gamescom, and honestly? This is where the game really clicked for me. There was something wonderfully chaotic about three players flying, attacking, and scrambling around the same gigantic enemy. It reminded me of Borderlands: perfectly playable alone, but considerably more fun when your friends are making questionable decisions beside you.
The flying carpet is no gimmick
Then there’s the flying carpet. Oh boy, the flying carpet. I expected it to be a flashy traversal gimmick. Instead, it might genuinely be the best thing about the game. It moves with a surprising amount of fluidity, and the controls felt refined enough that I quickly stopped thinking about the fact that I was, well, flying around on a carpet. The developers have clearly spent a lot of time getting the movement right, and that work shows.
Think Spider-Man’s web-swinging, except someone looked at a magic carpet and said, “Yeah, let’s make that our movement system.” And it isn’t just for getting from A to B. The carpet feeds directly into combat, letting players move between ground and elevated positions while enemies attack across different vertical levels. It’s almost a little Just Cause in spirit: traversal becomes part of the fighting rather than something you do between fights.
Nazjush says hello
The Gamescom demo culminated in a boss fight against Nazjush, a colossal jinn that made our three-person squad look hilariously tiny.
This is where the carpet mechanic really earns its keep. We had to dodge projectiles, fly around the boss, identify vulnerable points, and coordinate our attacks. Suddenly, that verticality wasn’t just there to make the trailer look cool. It was actually shaping how we played.
A carpet ride with a lot of cultural soul
But there’s another reason the world of 1001 Threads of Mizan stood out to me. It doesn’t feel like a Western studio simply pulling “Arabian” elements out of a checklist and sprinkling them over a fantasy game. Coming from a Middle Eastern studio, the desert environments, costumes, artwork, colours, architecture, and Arabic influences feel much more like a genuine celebration of the region’s visual identity. Even the way the world is presented has a certain warmth to it.
If you’ve ever travelled through the Middle East, you’ll probably recognise some of that visual richness: the way the colours, landscapes and traditional designs come together, without the game ever feeling like it’s trying to recreate the real world. It’s fantasy, absolutely, but it feels like fantasy made by people who actually understand the cultural roots they’re drawing from.
And that’s ultimately why I walked away from 1001 Threads of Mizan so impressed. No, it isn’t reinventing every part of the action-adventure formula, and we still have plenty to learn about the full game. But it has a fantastic hook in that flying carpet, a genuinely fun co-op experience, and a world that feels like it has its own identity rather than borrowing someone else’s. I walked onto the Gamescom show floor already excited to play Mizan; I walked away genuinely wanting more. If this was only my first carpet ride, I’m very curious to see where MBC Game Studio takes me next.
