Magocracy: Experimentation

Free-flying shooter with much emphasis on customization. I would personally recommend getting used to the default values in skirmish mode with health values lowered before actually changing any other combat values. The curated battles are basically just pre-defined battles that are supposed to introduce you to different shot types and benchmark your performance with them at different adjustments. Any battle where you’re not the only one fighting on your side is a spectacle, but due to everyone having the same stats (unless you go to the effort of making a new unit type), directly participating becomes a challenge because of the AI tendency to focus on each other, turning what would otherwise be a duel where the enemy chases you single-mindedly into one where you’re pursuing someone being hounded by issues they consider to be more important than you. The campaign mode is where you’re actually supposed to get your bearings, but does so by increasing relevant parameters per fight until you reach the limits of what you can manage in that section, and move on to the next chapter, skipping the remaining missions left. I stopped after the 10th fight for the first chapter, but I would not recommend bothering once your times start approaching 2 minutes, unless you actually want to test the limits and your patience. While the increasing difficulty to each fight makes for a decent escalation eventually, I wouldn’t use this as anything other than a benchmark for both unit stats and your own performance. Tower mode is essentially a more free-form version of the campaign, with both you and the AI getting larger budgets for unit/shot stats as the fights go on. Skirmish mode actually allows you to adjust whatever you want, though you’ll need to type if you want round numbers and not decimals to the thousandth place. Overall, I think the game is worth a try, though I will mention that there is only gameplay, and not much else beyond the extensive parameters allowed to be adjusted. Evasive patterns surprisingly make for a nice state of mind, even in the more difficult fights, and fighting groups of enemies makes for a great experience, though I’d recommend being experienced or adjusting health first. I will note that the game has terrain/building destruction, and that fights get hilarious if you manage to make them underground. That is all.

This game has a lot of options allowing you to customize the action. The graphics are good and let you get involved in the game. It will take a lot of time to try all the scenarios and will therefore last a long time. I did not run into any negative areas while I was testing the game. Recommended for anyone who likes shooting games.

As someone who was involved in playtesting the game and gave advice on a few of the features, I am not sure if i can give a review per se. As someone who is a huge fan of games that don't hide their depth and allow the user in to their inner workings, I love the degree of access that we have to tweaking the units. It's definitely intimidating for someone going in blind, but if you learn the system it's incredibly versatile. Some advice for new players, take a look at the campaign descriptions which show detailed information about the attributes around which they are themed. That will help you understand all the variables even if you don't want to put in the time to beat all the missions (there are hundreds!). On the other hand, the curated missions are a great addition for those who just want to get in and play. The game is really rewarding to those who are willing to learn it, there is a really unique flow state that I hit in this game that I have barely ever experienced before.

The game is fast and thrilling. I enjoy shooting fast and wide. You can put the game in auto shoot mode, then the game AI will shoot for you. That way you can see the different environments before mastering the playing skills. There are environment in buildings, desert, ice cave, sky flying etc. There are many options you can customize, so you get a different playing experience. You can put in different values for speed, health, shooting rates etc. The 3D radar help you to see the enemy before they appear. You can turn in the direction of dots in the radar. Sometimes when you fly too high or low, the 3D radar disappear. I guess that is like pilot flying lost, they can't tell up or down. This is like pilot training to teach you how to get out of situations like that.