Game Reviews

Spellcrafter: The Path of Magic

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Spellcrafter: The Path of Magic

There's an interesting idea at the core of Spellcrafter: The Path of Magic, but it's a little clumsily handled. There are glitches here, and the decent concepts it throws together never quite gel together.

There's fun to be had, and it's an engaging take on the tactical RPG, but it stutters along rather than striding, and for some the frustrations are going to be too much.

Scribble wars

The game casts you as a resurrected knight who's on a quest to save the world. Along the way you pick up a party of followers, who you use in battles against the beasts and monsters of the world.

Proceedings are split into two parts. There's exploration, where you tap on the screen to move around the world, opening chests and talking to characters. Then there's the fights, which are turn-based endeavours.

Fighting takes up most of your time, and you'll need to spend the gold you earn on hiring new recruits for your army. You can move and attack with your units, but your main character can just cast spells.

You hurl these out by drawing on the screen. You've got a spell book that shows you what you need to scribble, and the quicker you wiggle your finger across the screen the more damage your attacks do.

It's an intriguing system, but unfortunately it feels a little tacked on - an after thought rather than the core mechanic. And it doesn't always work either.

Spells disappointment

Without the spell-casting Spellcrafter is a solid, unremarkable, slightly annoying tactical RPG. With it, well, it's pretty much the same.

It's not that attractive, but there's a spirit to proceedings that means if you're a fan of the genre you'll probably get something out of it.

But it's just not enthralling enough, or confident enough, to wholeheartedly recommend.

Spellcrafter: The Path of Magic

There's some interesting ideas here, but Spellcrafter: The Path of Magic doesn't manage to see them through
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.