The Magic Circle: Gold Edition was developed and published by Question. It was released for Xbox One on June 29, 2016 for $19.99 CND. A press review copy was provided to XenAndCL and has no bearing on our final review of this game.
The Magic Circle is an action adventure puzzle game where you play the protagonist in an unfinished game. The creators of the game, played by James Urbaniak, Ashly Burch, and Karen Dyer are ‘god like’ and appear in the form of huge floating eyes that are extremely indecisive and do not give you any power or tools whatsoever. You must try to outsmart them by taking their creations and stealing their behaviours and re-making new creatures to help you put the game together making a finished product or at least semi finished. As you progress through the levels a dark comedic story unfolds giving you an idea of just how dysfunctional the creators really are.
The Magic Circle had a very interesting story and the characters were quirky and a bit dark. We enjoyed the way we were able to interact inside the game while it was being created. Even more we enjoyed how we could steal the behaviours of the creatures created by the game designers and put them into other creatures to do our bidding. At first we were unsure of what to do as we did not have a weapon or any means to protect ourselves. This of course is the plan of the designers to leave the player defenceless. Once we figured it out we really enjoyed having such power to change things and to change how the game unfolds and ultimately ends.
The graphics of the game were very interesting and mostly monochrome except the creatures were all different colours. The immediate path of travel emanates colour as well as your character moves. The controls are easy to master and make the game pleasant to play.
The twists and turns in the story kept us interested and wanting to finish till the end. Although it is a short game in comparison to others it feels well put together and is well thought out.
This game was a treat and nothing like anything we have ever played before. The story is great and kept us intrigued until the end. The end is really just the beginning but you can figure that out for yourself. If you are a lover of Indie titles that are not afraid to step outside of the box than this is a game for you! A very enjoyable game from start to finish.
CuteLibrarian's Rating: 3/5
Xenmic's Rating: 4/5