The Magic Circle: Gold Edition (PlayStation 4) Review

By Tomas Barry 29.05.2016

Review for The Magic Circle: Gold Edition on PlayStation 4

Thanks to the rise of platforms such as Steam, the gaming world is relatively accustomed to abstract, small-scale indie projects with plenty of inventiveness and ambition. To create a truly distinct and memorable game experience is harder now than it ever has been before. However, Question's development team of Stephen Alexander, Kain Shin and Jordan Thomas seem up to the task, with their previous work including the BioShock and Dishonored series, and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Their most recent project is a special homage to the trials and tribulations of making a video game. It's a distinct adventure, presumably shaped at least in part by the team's own experiences as developers, and largely enabled through the confident ethos of the booming indie scene. The Magic Circle (previously covered on PC) aims to captivate anyone who's ever played a video game in the last few decades, with an intriguing meta-narrative, backed up with some innovative and evolving 'hacking' mechanics. Without taking itself too seriously, the game playfully subverts expectations of both gameplay and story throughout. As it progresses, it even explores some intriguingly postmodern ideas about the act of creation, which only further emphasises its abstract nature and the relatively new ground that it confidently treads. Yes, many games have attempted to be self-aware and 'meta' before, but none set such lofty and ambitious heights as those in The Magic Circle.

In this first-person adventure, you play a character trapped within an unfinished build of a troubled video game. The nameless and faceless protagonist is assisted through the experience by a mysteriously self-aware disembodied voice. Together, you explore a strikingly conflicted world, unravel the story of the game's doomed development cycle, and attempt to escape with your new self-awareness intact. Whilst uncovering the narrative, you'll get to the bottom of an extended creative conflict between project leaders Ishmael Glider and Maze Evelyn.

Screenshot for The Magic Circle: Gold Edition on PlayStation 4

This clever meta narrative serves as the driving force behind The Magic Circle, both in terms of its extensive and engaging story, as well as its innovative mechanics. From the little details, such as the disembodied voice's cynical quips whilst the player investigates the world, to the broader elements, such as the extraordinary sense of scope and big surprises in store, everything good about the game is derived from this clever ethos.

The meta narrative concept also shapes the gameplay in very intriguing ways, such as the extensive hacking ability. This is the primary way to progress, and mainly used to manipulate creatures that are encountered across the world. The abundant and varied enemies can be slain and then turned into allies who will assist you on your quest. Each type of creature has its own unique abilities that can be swapped in and out, allowing the player to hack their way to their goal. They can be named and have their stats upgraded, and their appearances change based on what abilities they have. By the end, the player has an arsenal of allies that follow the protagonist around, and can be summoned anywhere when they are lost.

You'll likely summon your minions more for their guts than for themselves, but that's in keeping with the themes of the game. At times, the creatures seem like a darker and more depressing version of Pokémon, which they perhaps could have poked more fun at on occasion. Sometimes, there can be an overwhelming feeling by the swelling mass of creatures that can be summoned in one go, but overall the management of these mechanics never feels a chore. Instead, because problems can be solved through multiple hacking methods, you feel creatively gratified when you take your time and solve something inventively. Fast travelling to locations all over the map is also possible at any time, making it easy to apply a new mod to a known problem elsewhere in the world without having to trek back.

Screenshot for The Magic Circle: Gold Edition on PlayStation 4

In many senses, then, this is broadly non-linear in spirit. Each section of The Magic Circle offers ample opportunity to progress in each individual's own way. Once the initial hour is passed through, it's an open-world experience in which you piece together the story through various narrative devices hidden across the map. Some of these are audio logs left by the project leaders, others are developer's notes and various interactive scenes in which you perceive the team at work. This scattered gathering of information works very well in the context of an unfinished game. It feels like an organic method of progressing the story, feeding into the strength of the meta concept. The map isn't huge, but it is large and complex enough to feel like a convincing beta game build.

By the end, you'll have explored the whole world extensively, though you won't have discovered all its secrets. If you're ridiculously dedicated, it is possible to uncover almost everything before progressing to the final part of the game. However, the sense of flow and balance is so well crafted that it's much better to come back and discover what's left further down the line. In addition, delaying the big final story event for exploration and hunting creatures might have a negative effect on the overall narrative.

Screenshot for The Magic Circle: Gold Edition on PlayStation 4

This is partly because if you find the story and its twists engaging, you'll benefit from having the various events fresh in the memory, rather than a little faded. It's certainly a gaming experience best absorbed over a few days, unlike more typical open-world games that are loaded with a more considerable volume of content. That's not to say the game world isn't packed with discoveries, it's just that The Magic Circle only needs a small-scale environment as it leans on its more distinct features, with its powerful, but quirky, story, clever and progressive gameplay and a small set of intriguing characters. The big pay-off comes in the confident way these elements are spliced together, leading to a very memorable and engaging experience. Though small, it's surprisingly rich and inventive in both story and gameplay terms.

If stretching a point, you could accuse the team of occasionally over-relying on the half-realised scrapbook concept of the world. For instance, Ishmael really only has one well-formed vision for the game. It's one of the main aesthetics regularly encountered, yet it's unclear whether the other areas are all part of one particularly bad fantasy theme or all separate. Perhaps it could benefit from one more fleshed out and well-realised vision for the game, but it's hard to feel short-changed when the overall experience flows so nicely for the most part.

The only shame is there's one moment in the first third of the game where the player might consider giving up all together. They may incorrectly assume they've seen everything on offer, when actually they've yet to unlock the full set of game mechanics, which is the point their potential fully dawns on you. Admittedly, though, it's hard to see how this could be rectified since the game is all about thinking outside the box and must force the issue sometimes. It is safe to say this is the most incoherent moment of The Magic Circle, but it's brief and not at all a significant detracting factor overall.

Screenshot for The Magic Circle: Gold Edition on PlayStation 4

Cubed3 Rating

8/10
Rated 8 out of 10

Great - Silver Award

Rated 8 out of 10

Ultimately, The Magic Circle relies on its pure intrigue to sustain the player throughout. It draws on decades of gaming history, offering a short, but poignant, commentary on the state of games today, whilst still managing to deliver something altogether quite different. Occasionally, the game requires your willing patience, but once a couple of hours have been sunk into this fantastic abstract meta game, you'll likely revel in its charm and inventiveness. The Magic Circle is both a pleasant change of pace and a strangely profound gaming experience. It's special for many reasons, but perhaps the most impressive thing is the way it successfully and sophisticatedly engages in a larger debate about creative design. There's almost a self-examining academic quality to it, which certainly is cause for optimism that in the future games can be taken more seriously, and continue to set their own standards for creative measure. If you're feeling somewhat poisoned by all the annual generic money-churning franchises out there, here's the antidote.

Developer

Question

Publisher

Question

Genre

Adventure

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10 (1 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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