While the idea of breaking the fourth wall in games in nothing new, The Magic Circle does it in a refreshing way that marries narrative voiceover with gameplay that all take a sledgehammer to the 4th, 5th and 6th walls. As the hero of a game stuck in development hell, its up to you to take control of the very tools of creation and attempt to escape your ghostly purgatory…by shipping a game from inside a game.
The Magic Circle starts off slowly, with you as the hero awakening in a burning village. You quickly gain a sword, which is then quickly snatched away from you as two of the developers swoop down out of the sky and begin arguing over the mechanics and inclusion of the combat system. This sets the overall tone of the game very quickly, as you will often be addressed by the floating eyes that represent the developers, or will find yourself overhearing conversations, arguments and a few bouts of outright insanity from them as they go about trying to complete their game.
Once you move past the opening section, the world of The Magic Circle abruptly opens up. You are given a set of simple yet powerful tools. Your hand allows you to siphon energy from cracks in the world. This energy doubles as your health and also allows you to manipulate the creatures in the game. This powerful tool is the lynchpin of The Magic Circle’s gameplay, and it is a fascinating one. As you move through the black and white world of the game, you will encounter creatures going about their pre-programmed routines. Easily identifiable by the wash of color that follows them (and the player), once in range you can open a circle and trap them. After trapping a monster, you can then edit it, diving into it’s code and modifying every aspect of it.
You can make a mushroom come alive, hopping along after you. You can then give it drooling fangs by granting it the ability to attack with melee. Want it to hate everything but you, The Hero? Go for it! This system expands even further once you happen upon creatures or objects that have special abilities. Rocks, for example, are fireproof. So if you need to cross a lava river, you simply find a rock and take it’s fireproof ability. Then you can edit one of the turtle like creatures that inhabit the world, give it the fireproof ability and ride it across the lava. Adding to the satisfaction of commanding your own horde of custom edited creatures is the ability to set waypoints, which the AI does a very serviceable job of following. At one point, I found myself riding atop a flying, fireproof, railgun equipped turtle creature as I scoured the landscape below clean of enemies. The tools you are given to manipulate the world and its inhabitants are flexible, powerful, novel and a joy to use.
Once you begin to venture deeper into the world of The Magic Circle, you will quickly realize that not everything is as it seems. Buried underneath the fantasy game you are traversing is a hidden, completed and cancelled sci-fi game that is very reminiscent of Doom. It is here that the voice of your in game ally lives. Without spoiling to much of the story, these segments play an important part in the overall arc of the story and provided a fascinating dissonance as the graphics and sounds of the modern game collide with the old. I can’t speak more to the plot without spoiling the end of the game, but suffice it to say that it’s an interesting, if sometimes sanctimonious and preachy jab at the games industry. I found it to be entertaining and by the time the game came to an end, rather satisfying in its own way.
Of course, there are a few nitpicks I have with the game. The art style of the unfinished, black and white world won’t be for everyone. I find that it fits the setting of an unfinished game. The voice acting is good, but there are a few areas where it seems the writers were determined to hammer a point home, with the result that the narration seems to drag on a bit to long. The game is very undirected, which is again refreshing, but it has the potential to leave players frustrated as they explore every corner of the world in an attempt to figure out what to do next. Still, these minor foibles don’t detract form what is an enjoyable and novel experience. My final bit of cuation however would be that The Magic Circle is rather short. My own playthrough clocked in at just over two and a half hours. While I’m always a fan of quality over quantity, the asking price of $19.99 USD may be a bit steep for some given the length of the game.
If you are looking for a short, delightfully irreverent and novel gameplay experience, don’t mind the price tag, and are ready to have your perception of game developers warped and twisted, then by all means give The magic Circle a shot.
SCORE: 8/10
