14 DAY TRIAL // It’s the classic contest of man versus giant cave centipede, the kind of fight that can only happen in an adventure game. I am in charge of the human, Elester, a rogue that has to use his deck of cards to find the best moves and combos to defeat the foul monster and push a quest forward.
My main problem is that the creature strikes hard, taking away one-quarter of my health when it manages to sink its weird claws into me. I’ve focused on stunning and building a lot of block to avoid death. But that in turn means I’m dealing too little damage and the overall strategy isn’t viable in the long run.
I restart the fight and decide to tweak my approach. Elester can enhance his damage by building momentum and by converting blocks into anger. So I use shields and small strikes to prepare, use a card to health myself, and only stun the centipede once. I go down to 25 health but then I deliver a strike that does 49 damage, breaks through its defenses, and wins me the fight.
Magin: The Rat Project Stories is developed by The Rat Project, with publishing handled by Daedalic Entertainment. I played a preview of it on the PC. The title is set to launch before the end of 2023 and mixes adventure and card-based mechanics.
Elester is the protagonist, a roguish fighter who can manipulate Essence. The world seems heavily inspired by low-magic fantasy universes like The Witcher. Everyone’s working an angle, a secretive organization aims to guide events, and people are ready to use violence to solve the smallest problems. There’s a lot of writing, mostly conversational, of decent quality when it’s not aiming for humor.
The Essence manifests only in the presence of strong emotions and affects the world in subtle ways. Gamers will get a stream of choices that will influence both what kind of cards their character has and how the narrative evolves.
Elester talks and interacts with objects to find out more about his tasks and the world. When an enemy appears, Magin shifts to a turn-based card-driven system for combat. The gamer has three action points to spend on cards to both attack an enemy or enhance his own protections.
Opponents hit hard, so it’s important to avoid incoming damage and have healing in reserve. Players get a clear idea of what the enemy will do next turn and have to plan well to pull off the big combos that can take someone out of the fight.
The system works but isn’t very exciting. Presumably, as the narrative progresses, gamers get more cards and extra options to spice things up. I also hope that at least some characters are more than archetypes.
Magin: The Rat Project Stories has a very comic-book-inspired look. Characters will move through the environments naturally but any kind of complex interaction is depicted using carefully crafted panels. It’s a system that makes conversations feel dynamic, even if they aren’t. Combat is static and the cards are designed to offer all details needed for good tactical decisions. The voice work is pretty fantasy world standard, as is the soundtrack.
Conclusion
The preview also featured the more annoying elements of the adventure space: a focus on fetch-quests and conversations that act as exposition. Magin: The Rat Project Stories' potential will be wasted if the developers don’t find ways to offer less of them and more interesting exploration and combat moments.
A preview key was provided by the publisher.
