Announced during Gamescom Opening Night Live, 1001 Threads of Mizan is a three-player co-op action game that’s taking direct inspiration from One Thousand and One Nights, the famous collection of ancient poems and stories that primarily originated in the Middle East. The game’s debut trailer teased epic boss fights against colossal foes, unique forms of traversal, and some high-quality presentation. And after around 20 minutes with the game, I can say that 1001 Threads of Mizan certainly seems to be delivering on those elements.
During Gamescom 2026, I sat down with MBC Game Studio Creative Director Lars Bonde to play around 20 minutes of 1001 Threads of Mizan. Before embarking on our shared folktale-inspired adventure, Bonde told me the simple, yet compelling premise that sparked the game’s development: “What if you could play Shadow of the Colossus with your friends, on magic carpets?”
Now I’m in a Moderately New World With You
My brief 1001 Threads of Mizan preview session began with a short cutscene introducing the game’s overarching narrative, and its three main characters: Yusra, Sufyan, and Malik. Essentially, Shahrazad (the legendary narrator of One Thousand and One Nights) has revived a long-forgotten order of peacekeepers known as the Mizan. With Yusra, Sufyan, and Malik as its new recruits, the Mizan must stop the evil Jinn forces from wreaking havoc on the mortal world. This cutscene teases some intriguing mythological elements and does so in a visually appealing way, with 1001 Threads of Mizan‘s high-quality graphics being on full display during the opening cinematic. Facial textures and animations were particularly noteworthy.
I was then given full control over my Mizan hero, who proceeded to leap off the cliff in front of them. As my character gracefully fell towards the detailed sand dunes below, an on-screen prompt told me to hold down R2, and a magic carpet appeared under me. The next few minutes of gameplay saw me and my fellow Mizan warriors flying in a straight line down a canyon.
The focus during this sequence was purely on getting a feel for the flying mechanics, which I found to be incredibly intuitive and responsive. Flying simply requires the player to hold down the right trigger and move the thumbstick to steer, with a tap of the left trigger allowing players to quickly brake and pivot the direction they’re traveling in. These carpet mechanics, and the fluid and fast freedom of movement they offered, remained the highlight of 1001 Threads of Mizan throughout my hands-on preview.
We soon reached the end of the canyon on our flying carpets and were greeted by some Jinn enemies, who looked like somewhat generic undead soldiers. I delivered a satisfying aerial AoE attack on my carpet and switched to ground combat, which felt all too familiar. I had a light melee attack, a unique heavy attack, a special ability mapped to R1, and a block button mapped to L1 that functions as a parry if timed correctly. I played as Yusra during my 1001 Threads of Mizan demo, a ranged hero who uses a spear and a bow. Though 1001 Threads of Mizan‘s ground combat was responsive and enjoyable enough, it didn’t grab me nearly as much as the demo’s carpet gameplay did, likely due to me having a great deal of experience with similar third-person melee-focused combat systems.
This initial familiarity only grew more apparent during the next few minutes of the demo, in which we were forced into a tight cave where our carpets couldn’t be summoned for aerial combat. Thankfully, we dispatched the Jinn inside the cave with ease and headed back out into the dunes, where a mini-boss was waiting for us. In this fight and the one following it, the magic carpet became the primary focus of gameplay. All three members of our team needed to encircle this boss, dodge the sand tornadoes he’d throw our way, and weave back around to dish out some aerial combos of our own. This fight was fairly well-paced, and it looked suitably impressive.
But the memory of that fight was quickly overshadowed by the boss that followed it. Heading into the Jinn realm, we came face to face with Nazjush, a towering Jinn with four arms and a genuinely terrifying face. This boss fight saw us all dodging huge screen-filling ranged attacks and batting back large spherical projectiles, requiring careful use of the carpet’s brake and pivot mechanic. Though the fight went on just a little too long for my liking, the epic scale of the boss and its relentless, visually-impressive attacks offered a level of spectacle that I think more co-op action games could use.
A Promising Start, But a Long Carpet Ride Ahead
Upon defeating Nazjush, I spoke a little with MBC Creative Director Lars Bonde about the game’s ongoing development, and some questions I had about its gameplay. My first and most pertinent question revolved around 1001 Threads of Mizan‘s overall level structure. Bonde told me that while the demo we played was very linear, the final game will feature several open zones set across both the human and Jinn realms. These zones will be fully explorable via magic carpet and will reportedly feature boss fights, puzzles, and side content that will dive into each playable character’s backstory. Via drop-in/drop-out co-op, friends can join in on as much or as little of this content as they wish.
Bonde also spoke very passionately about the team’s ambitions to create a faithful adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights. Bonde told me that MBC Game Studio consists of developers from around the world, including a dedicated research team that studied the original manuscripts of One Thousand and One Nights, and several employees who have PHDs in ancient literature and textiles. While I think 1001 Threads of Mizan‘s gameplay is very solid based on the brief hands-on session I had, it’s this authenticity and genuine embrace of the folklore that I think could separate the game from its co-op contemporaries, just as long as the final product leans all the way in to it.
- Developer(s)
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MBC Game Studio
- Publisher(s)
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MBC Game Studio
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full
- Number of Players
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1-3 players
