Magnus Failure

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Magnus Failure is a Graphic Adventure released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game puts players in the role of a man scanning radio signals who sets off in search of a strange signal he uncovered.

The presentation here is unusual. The game’s visuals are represented by black and white 3D characters and environments, with the corners of your vision constantly obscured by darkness. It is not, as far as I can tell, trying to be scary. Rather, it seems to be going for a dark mood and tone, something highlighted by the game’s subdued, moody soundtrack. Still, the presentation alone is going to be off-putting enough for many players to lose interest.

The gameplay, meanwhile, is generally more standard Graphic Adventure fare, although it suffers from a few problems. Firstly, your character movement is dreadfully slow. In addition, the open-ended level design doesn’t make much sense when its open-ended nature just means there’s a lot more nothing to explore. The control scheme is odd and confusing too, and even though this game seems set up for the touchscreen, that feature is not supported.

However, possibly this game’s biggest flaw is its enigmatic story – we’re given very little information about the game’s protagonist or the world he lives in, and what little information we are given is oddly cryptic, as are a lot of this game’s odd details.

In the end, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Magnus Failure lives up to its name – it’s not a failure, but it is a deeply flawed game, and while there’s definitely some imagination that has gone into the world within the game and its presentation, I can’t help but feel that most players will just be left feeling perplexed by this game, if they’re not outright turned off by the game’s presentation. If you’re a Graphic Adventure fan wanting to try something experimental, you may find this to your liking, but most are better off staying away.

tl;dr – Magnus Failure is a Graphic Adventure that has players taking the role of a radio operator searching for the source of a mysterious signal. Unfortunately, between the game’s off-putting presentation, awkward control scheme, and perplexing story, I feel like only Graphic Adventure fans looking to enjoy something experimental will find this game to their liking.

Grade: D+

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