The Magic Circle: Gold Edition Reviews
The Magic Circle is a fascinating, satirical look at life beyond the polygon curtain.
The Magic Circle: Gold Edition is a humourous and satirical look at the complexity of game development. At the same time, it’s a fun game that encourages you to experiment with different combinations to reach your goal, leading to a number of bizarre creations, but The Magic Circle: Gold Edition is brought to life by its comedy.
The Magic Circle will appeal to anyone who can laugh at themselves. The story told here forces you to get a little introspective, especially if you’ve ever backed a game and then felt betrayed by the developer when their finished product is nothing like what you expected. This is also a game for anyone who thought they could’ve made a better Duke Nukem Forever (hint: that was a train wreck from the first delay). But with such a short, occasionally preachy story, this doesn’t appeal to everyone.
There’s a ton of replayability, however, and the game’s trophies reward multiple playthroughs.
Providing a unique look at a studio unable to get over its developers' egos to finish a highly anticipated project, The Magic Circle introduces interesting development tool mechanics that aren't as fun to manipulate as they should be.
The presentation of The Magic Circle is simple but striking… I would be lying if I said it wasn’t one of the cleverest uses of a retro aesthetic I’ve ever seen
Overall if you are looking for something original and funny I can’t recommend The Magic Circle: Gold Edition enough. Getting to play through a story about a game in development hell is unique and unlike anything else out there right now. The voice acting is done well and being able to change the properties of the creatures and things in the game is pretty fun too. It has some issues but if you can look past those minor flaws you’ll find a great experience here.
There is a lot to like about The Magic Circle: Gold Edition. This is a really original story, and a clever way to tell it. It might be a short experience, but there is a lot of charm packed into this tiny little package. Additionally, the basics of the gameplay here are quite clever, and it ties back into the story almost perfectly. It is in the execution, though, that things fall apart, and this is one of those games that is a far better experience than it is a game. They never figure out a way to integrate the gameplay into anything cleaver, and all of the puzzles here are extremely basic and not very interesting. This is one of those games that is very easy to root for, but less easy to actually enjoy. It is still probably worth playing through one time just for the story, but don't expect to get too much else out of it.
This is a very weird but certainly interesting game. Its premise is unique and manages to grab the attention of players for many, many hours. I had a lot of fun playing this one for my The Magic Circle: Gold Edition review, and I highly recommend that you give it a go on PlayStation 4. The writing is fun, the gameplay mechanics are fun, and the situations in which players find themselves are fun. It’s definitely worth a play.
The game has a very funny narrative, and is well written, with perfect comedy timing. There are audio logs scattered around the game that serves as collectibles, and they’re all about games development. Not only that but you can also find some secret areas if you explore every corner. I hope you will enjoy the game as much as I have enjoyed doing this The Magic Circle: Gold Edition review. It is a very unique experience that will keep you coming back for more with its weird setting and open potential.
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 may only appeal to a niche crowd but one thing's for sure; those who enjoy it will remember their time exploring its mysterious world for years to come.
The Magic Circle: Gold Edition is a great game that lets us discover a hardship of gamedev, split inartistic visions, explore simple code editing and experience the final product on your own.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Hands down, this game is absolutely brilliant! I had lost all hope in re-kindling my love for this type of game and can wholeheartedly say that The Magic Circle is a true testament to the story-driven puzzle game genre. There are only two things that stopped me from giving this game a well-earned 10/10. The first being the length of game only lasting approximately 4-5 hours depending on whether you plough through or not like I did the first time around and the second was the lack of the sprint function. There is a hell of a lot more to this game than meets the eye and for me to go into any more detail; it would honestly ruin the fun. The story is gripping and makes you think differently about the game development world and all of those games that are stuck in development hell that we just want to see released.
The Magic Circle is a largely successful commentary on big-budget game development and the factors that conspire against making a good game: unattainable perfection, unrealistic fan expectations, business realities to name a few. Though it is not a perfect game by any means, arguable the take-home message of The Magic Circle is that it never could be. The mid-game spilt of free-form creativity versus a more linear guided narrative perhaps means that it'll be disappointing to players looking for either one, but The Magic Circle balances the two nicely, reflecting the game's message of how difficult it can be to build a balanced game.
The Magic Circle: Gold Edition does a great job in helping you realise what it’s like to develop video games without ever really feeling preachy. Although its story is what keeps you wanting to progress to the end, the gameplay does enough to make it an enjoyable experience.