Magicraft Remains The Only Game I Can Tank My PC With (Positive)

It takes considerable effort to really stand out in the world of roguelikes, and I should know, because I play an awful lot of them. Alongside good gameplay, responsive controls, and the like, you also really need a good hook. It's not enough to be fun; this has to be unique in one way or another, or at least not completely overdone. An easier task when Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne were released, because the genre was still relatively fresh. Now though, sheesh!

Magicraft stands out because it's a lot like programming, but with magic. Noita actually does this too, but where Noita is concerned with layers upon layers of secrets, Magicraft is concerned with making your brain go brrrr. You pick up wands and spells as you go through each run. Wands have different stats, like mana regen, mana capacity, and spell slots, and spells can be active or passive. Active spells are the ones you cast; passive spells alter the active ones.

That's basically all there is to it, yet the programming can go incredibly deep. You can, for example, cast a spell that shoots a laser. You can also change that laser so that it bounces or so that when it ends, it explodes into butterflies. Not only that, but you can then have those butterflies cause damaging wisps to circle them, and then all of those have a chance to explode into lightning for more damage. You could also have all of those spells split into three when they're done, creating a literal wave of spells that'll brighten up your screen and try to eat your GPU.

I'm not saying that Magicraft is a great game because it can become so chaotic that it drops loads of frames; I just think it's funny that this little indie game is one of the few that can do it. My PC was top-of-the-line three years ago, but now it's starting to feel its age. It's just entertaining to see just how many spells I can have on screen at once before the game hard crashes (which rarely happens).

Magicraft is a highly enjoyable roguelike that helps you feel really clever when you get a good spell going, and has plenty of different strategies you can win with as well. It's one that's also still getting updates even now that it's been out of Early Access on Steam for nearly a year. Dear readers, it's a banger, plain and simple.