I have a ton of games in my Steam backlog. Also called the Steam pile of shame. Every PC gamer has one (and, presumably, console players have their own backlog, too), and it’s often in the several hundreds if not thousands. My M.O. these days is to power through the demos I impulsively download during an indie fest and see if I like any of the games. At the same time, Steam has indie fests all the time. Like all the fucking time. Right now, they have their IndieCade Festival going. Which means more demos to try out!
You can see my dilemma. Every time I got rid of one demo, I added three more. That’s a slight exaggeration, but not that far from being the truth. I’ts a running joke with gamers–that there’s just no way to whittle down a backlog. I’ve thought about doing a series on it–playing all the games in my pile of shame, alphabetically, for five minutes each. I can usually tell if I’m going to like a game within the first five minutes. It’s not as if there has never been a game that didn’t grow on me as I played, but they are very few and far between. For better or worse, I know my tastes well–and this is for all pop culture. I can count on one hand a piece of pop culture that I thought I would hate and it turned out that I liked it.
There was a game that intrigued me when I saw the trailer/read the description. It’s Spells & Secrets by Alchemist Interactive. It’s in the vein of a (sigh) Harry Potter–by the way. I will be glad once we’re at the place where we don’t have to mention that series whilst talking about magic/fantasy worlds that are set in a school with kids. I know that this is the cultural touchstone, but I wince every time. That being said, it’s hard to avoid the comparison with this game so I’m going to unwillingly make a few–but as minimal as possible.
The story is pretty basic. You are new to this school and there are shenanigans going on. The first day you’re there (this is the demo), the school is attacked by creatures unknown. You have a basic wand and are given a basic (junior) spell. It’s a pew-pew spell. No, that’s not what it’s called, but that’s basically what it is. It’s the basic spell from afar, and it’s the spell I used the most by far in the demo. There is also a telekinesis spell that I will admit I haven’t gotten the hang of quite yet. It has it’s use, but it’s not a spell that I really care for. In fact, the best use of it so far is using it for a big-sized chess game.
The game is an action rogue-lite. It’s procedurally generated in that you won’t know which rooms will show up in each run, but the rooms themselves are pretty limited. Meaning, you’ll get the same enemies, the same puzzles, the same notes, etc. So while it’s procedurally-generated, each run still has a same-y feel to it. Also, while there are lore/story things to find in each room, once you find them all for that room, you don’t get anything new.
I’m sure I’ve missed things, but I feel like I’ve pretty much mined the first floor for all it has. I have beaten the first floor boss twice–once in the demo and once several runs later. Let’s talk about the bosses for a minute. There are three different ones that I have run into. I think? There are at least two. I don’t like the bosses because they do so much AOE damage and can shoot their spells faster than I can. Plus, and this is one of my biggest complaints about the game, the spacing in the rooms is not good.
I fully acknowledge that this could be a me-problem. I have been very upfront and honest about my spatial difficulties. I’ve always been bad at it, and my stroke has just made it worse. In addition, my reflexes suck. So bad. Put all this together, and I have to have quite the cushion when I play games like this. And this is a gentle one! I know this isn’t supposed to be that hard. It’s nowhere near as difficult as, say, Binding of Issac Rebirth (Edmund McMillen), but it’s more frustrating because of the constant AOE damage. And, at least with the bosses I’ve faced, it’s not direct shots that I’m taking. Also, some of the assets react poorly to where they are in the space. For example. There was a prize I had won sitting next to a prop I could interact with. Very close to each other. That’s another thing–the assets are charmingly big and clunky, which means that they sometimes crash against each other. In this case, I could not pick up the prize because the other item kept interfering with the prize. It took me several tries to pick up the prize, which really annoyed me.
Another thing that is mixed in this game is how many NPCs there are. SO MANY. SO FUCKING MANY. Before and after a run, you return to the school grounds. You can do many things there, including buying spells from different students and instructors. You can also upgrade the spells as well. There are four factions, and you can join each one after you meet certain criteria. Then you can buy spells from them. I have joined the first faction (buying all the first year spells), which means I can go do things in their library. This includes picking up a potion to carry with me on the run. I have to find the potions in my runs before they’ll show up in the library.
Here’s the thing. I ilke some of the potions, but others are nearly worthless. Also, you can use them once a combat situation. Which I get, but that makes them less useful for the boss fight. We will get to the boss fight in a moment. Also, most of the potions you have to throw or place so that’s difficult for me as well. I have waisted the potion many times because I can’t aim it correctly.
For the love of all that is good, can we please add the option to have a ‘snap to’ aim? I am also trying out Remnant II (Gunfire Games), a shooting soulslike, and I have the same problem. I can’t aim for shit and because Gunfire Games loooooooves to throw a bajillion enemies into a fight, it’s really hard to shoot at any one target when you have the limitations that I do.
Back to this game. It’s hard to aim for one. Also, the bounds of each individual monster aren’t clear and sometimes run into each other. I get frustrated in the boss fights because the boss will call ads and direct them towards me. I can’t reach said boss with my magic if there is an ad in the way. It’s too much for me to track while I’m trying to figure out my spells, move around, aim at the boss, and noting how much mana I have.
By the way. The descriptions of the spells aren’t great. Or why I was given the ones I was given and that I could change them out. I assumed that I had to keep both of the basic ones and just change the third one, but that’s not true. I have not tried to change the pew-pew, but I figured out after several runs that I could swap out the telekinesis spell.
The demo is meaty. It ends after you beat the first floor once (but you can keep playing). That took me some time and most people probably can do it in fewer runs.
This is getting long so I’ll probably write more about it tomorrow.