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This game is like the lovechild of Freeform Universal RPG and Barbarians of Lemuria, two games that I consider excellent. But this child is rebellious, and has its own ideas about how things should be done, in ways its parents never considered.
It mixes the free-form traits ("themes" here) of FU RPG with more traditional attributes similar to BoL. Speaking of attributres, another reviewer clearly disliked the name "Thews" for the "strength" attribute, but I really like that the author leaned into it. R.E. Howard used that word a lot in the Conan stories that this game is clearly looking to emulate. Way better than boring old "Strength" or "Might".
The game uses the FU RPG style of resolution. Combat is a fast and bloody affair... every round you will either deal damage, or take damage (never neither, and rarely both - only if fighting a horde of rabble). No slow whittling away at a mountain of hit points here, or tedious "I attacked successfully but they parried and nothing happened". The fact that enemies don't really take turns themselves also greatly speeds things along. The DICE system for combat adds a cool narrative and mechanical flair where on a good hit, you can really visualize the severed limbs, shattered collarbones, and so on. It also manages this without slowing anything down, incorporating a hit location into the intial resolution roll in a clean way that gives option to player and GM alike. "Red Mists" undoubtedly refers to the arterial spray.
The game's metacurrency is also creatively implemented. You have "hero points", "fate points", "bennies" etc. like many games these days. They are tied to your Impluses, which are your most base drives that motivate your character. You can spend your Impulse points to re-roll dice. Additionally, each Impulse can give you a different benefit (more damage if you spend Impluse from Slaughter, social benefits for spending from Debauchery Impulse, etc.). Additionally, instead of regaining these points at some set interval, you can ONLY regain a spent point when you act out the Impulse in a way that causes you trouble. For example, you can regain a Debauchery impulse point by partying all night long and waking up in alley, stripped of all valuables with little memory of the night before. I think this is brilliant and in keeping with the genre.
The Sorcery rules aboslutely reek of Barbarians of Lemuria, in the best possible way. A notable different is that BoL, it's recommended to not have PCs using sorcery, but it's still possible. In Red Mists, sorcery is unequivocally "villains only" and there are no rules at all for the PCs using it.
Also in keeping with the genre, the game is not really for children or the prudish. If it's going to bother you that the first thing on a very short list of NPC services is an hourly rate for a prostitute, maybe look elsewhere.
In short, the game is fast and fun, and the mechanics do a lot to push the story along, paint a vivid picture, and get the PCs repeatedly into trouble.
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