The Magic Circle: Gold Edition Review – Xbox One

When you play through a videogame, do you ever put any thought into the processes involved in allowing said game to be played on your console? Do you ever wonder about the sleepless nights faced by developers, the soul-searching by writers, or the lowly temps forced to replay the same areas over and over again in an attempt to iron out any bugs? Whatever your answer, The Magic Circle: Gold Edition will provide you with a new sense of appreciation for what goes into making a videogame and will encourage you to think about what exists beneath the shiny veneer of the game you’re playing, and exactly how a game works.

The premise of The Magic Circle is that a fantasy game, stuck in development hell for many years, has finally become self-aware and has decided to take matters into its own hands in an attempt to finally get released. From the main menu onwards, players are encouraged to break and remold the game as they see fit, fiddling with the workings of enemies and in-game objects in an attempt to bring down the indecisive powers-that-be. To this extent, The Magic Circle is presented as an unfinished experience, a game-within-a-game, where concept art, placeholder textures and unfinished assets provide the majority of the visual stimulation.

Early into your wanderings through The Magic Circle, you gain the ability to control and command life within the game. This provides the main gameplay crux of the experience, with your avatar being able to bring previously deleted items back into the world and, most excitingly, reconfigure the behaviors of the creatures and objects that already exist. This ranges from being able to change names and movement types to who they view as allies and enemies and even what attacks and special abilities they possess. These skills are used to overcome a number of environmental puzzles and obstacles and messing about in these menu screens is how you’ll spend a lot of your time with the game.

The Magic Circle starts off similarly to a walking simulator such as Dear Esther or Gone Home, with a heavily corridor-led experience teaching you the basics of gameplay mechanics and introducing you to the world of the game. This isn’t as dull as it may initially seem, however, as the game is full of self-referential humor, and nods to both game development and videogame tropes.

The game breaks out of this linearity about a third of the way through its runtime, and the majority of the rest of your time is spent in a more free-form, open-world environment. Unfortunately, it felt here like The Magic Circle lost its way a little bit, with a lack of guidance and any real narrative force driving the player forward. Though it’s still fun wandering about and fiddling around with AI behaviors, it takes a while to discover how to progress, and a lot of trial and error is required to get to this point.

The Magic Circle is an interesting insight into the world of game development, even if it is quite clearly exaggerated and dramatized for a narrative purpose. It delivers an interesting commentary on the pressures of budgets and deadlines, retaining control of creative licenses, and the development of storytelling within a larger world. Though the narrative as a whole is a fairly typical ‘take down the bad guy with your new-found abilities’ style tale, there are a number of fascinating undercurrents available for those willing to dig a little deeper into the backstory.

The Magic Circle isn’t a perfect experience but does deliver an experience that is quite unique. If you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path, The Magic Circle: Gold Edition might be right up your alley.

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Author: Jack Moulder
Born in England but currently living in Toronto, Canada, Jack's been gaming as long as he can remember, which just happens to coincide with his 6th birthday, where he received an original Gameboy and a copy of Tetris, which his parents immediately 'borrowed' and proceeded to rack up all the high scores that Jack's feeble 6-year-old fingers couldn't accomplish. A lover of sports games, RPGs and shooters, Jack's up for playing pretty much anything, so long as it doesn't kick his ass too frequently. He has a delicate temperament.

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