Noita is a beautiful and promising game. For an early access title it feels full of content; even after dozens of hours it feels like I'm still learning and finding new things each run. The game doesn't hand-hold you, but most things are quite natural to learn and feel rewarding. There are some secrets which you'll probably never discover without checking the wiki; it would be nice if there were some tablets or loading screen messages that gave subtle hints. In general I would advise against reading the wiki too much to avoid spoiling yourself on some of the mysteries in the game, however.

You're not given a goal or told what to do; you develop your own strategy and blunder your way around the world. If you like exploration and discovery, you'll like Noita, but if you like a story with set objectives or goals it may not be for you. Unlike other roguelite platformers, such as Spelunky or Risk of Rain, you're free to set your own pace and be as thorough or brisk as you like.

Let's talk about the wand system. When I say "you develop your own strategy", nowhere is this more apparent than the spell system. You can only carry four wands, but when you get to the safe areas between each level - known as the 'Holy Mountain' - you can swap spells between wands or take them out and put them in your inventory. In Noita, wands have statistics but no actual effects (usually), and they store a number of actual spells inside them.

So you go loot bad wands with good spells, slot them into good wands with bad spells, find ways to combo spells or improve them with passive spells... there's tremendous room for creativity. That said, as much as I praise the game for letting the player learn naturally - this is one of the areas of the game where it would really benefit from an actual tutorial. I would recommend reading some of the guides concerning wands if you buy Noita.

If this sounds daunting, don't be afraid. It's up to you how heavily you want to get into this; you can easily just craft mega-shotguns or instakilling railguns just by slapping lots of spells and multi-casts together. Learn at your own pace.

Visually... well, there's only so much you can expect out of a sand game. That said, similar materials are often difficult to tell apart. For example, 'flammable gas' which isn't harmful on its own looks just like 'toxic gas', which certainly is. Also, the colder areas of the map often have little streams of cold air that don't do anything, but the pixels look just like the 'freezing vapour' created by certain enemies and objects which hurt you.

The sound design is adequate; shoot at some wood and it sounds like wood, shoot some metal and it sounds like metal, blow a hole underneath a pocket of water and you get some sweet waterfall ASMR to listen to. Powerful spells usually have some 'oomph' to their sound so you can really feel them. The music picks up at the right moments, and carries trippy vibes that work well with the game's setting.

My largest issue with the game at the moment would be the fifth area, which I won't name or describe too much; it's best to discover things on your own. But the area is a headache to play, confusing to tell what's what and what's going on, and it makes my computer break into cold sweats every time I approach it; it's probably the only part of the game where my FPS noticeable drops, save for random shenanigans like if I detonate a massive pile of toxic waste tanks or cast some crazy world-shattering spell.

All in all, Noita is a weird but promising game. It's structured unusually; you can actually dig through the map and return to previous levels, or simply never enter the dungeon in the first place. Everything about the game is kind of crazy and ambitious, working only through the eldritch power of Finnish space magic. But I love Finnish space magic, and I love this game too.

Noita is promising as a game, but also exciting as a concept. It breaks the mould and it happily does it's own thing. Noita reminds me of why I love indie games. God bless.

Noita is a beautiful and promising game. For an early access title it feels full of content; even after dozens of hours it feels like I'm still learning and finding new things each run. The game doesn't hand-hold you, but most things are quite natural to learn and feel rewarding. There are some secrets which you'll probably never discover without checking the wiki; it would be nice if there were some tablets or loading screen messages that gave subtle hints. In general I would advise against reading the wiki too much to avoid spoiling yourself on some of the mysteries in the game, however. You're not given a goal or told what to do; you develop your own strategy and blunder your way around the world. If you like exploration and discovery, you'll like Noita, but if you like a story with set objectives or goals it may not be for you. Unlike other roguelite platformers, such as Spelunky or Risk of Rain, you're free to set your own pace and be as thorough or brisk as you like. Let's talk about the wand system. When I say "you develop your own strategy", nowhere is this more apparent than the spell system. You can only carry four wands, but when you get to the safe areas between each level - known as the 'Holy Mountain' - you can swap spells between wands or take them out and put them in your inventory. In Noita, wands have statistics but no actual effects (usually), and they store a number of actual spells inside them. So you go loot bad wands with good spells, slot them into good wands with bad spells, find ways to combo spells or improve them with passive spells... there's tremendous room for creativity. That said, as much as I praise the game for letting the player learn naturally - this is one of the areas of the game where it would really benefit from an actual tutorial. I would recommend reading some of the guides concerning wands if you buy Noita. If this sounds daunting, don't be afraid. It's up to you how heavily you want to get into this; you can easily just craft mega-shotguns or instakilling railguns just by slapping lots of spells and multi-casts together. Learn at your own pace. Visually... well, there's only so much you can expect out of a sand game. That said, similar materials are often difficult to tell apart. For example, 'flammable gas' which isn't harmful on its own looks just like 'toxic gas', which certainly is. Also, the colder areas of the map often have little streams of cold air that don't do anything, but the pixels look just like the 'freezing vapour' created by certain enemies and objects which hurt you. The sound design is adequate; shoot at some wood and it sounds like wood, shoot some metal and it sounds like metal, blow a hole underneath a pocket of water and you get some sweet waterfall ASMR to listen to. Powerful spells usually have some 'oomph' to their sound so you can really feel them. The music picks up at the right moments, and carries trippy vibes that work well with the game's setting. My largest issue with the game at the moment would be the fifth area, which I won't name or describe too much; it's best to discover things on your own. But the area is a headache to play, confusing to tell what's what and what's going on, and it makes my computer break into cold sweats every time I approach it; it's probably the only part of the game where my FPS noticeable drops, save for random shenanigans like if I detonate a massive pile of toxic waste tanks or cast some crazy world-shattering spell. All in all, Noita is a weird but promising game. It's structured unusually; you can actually dig through the map and return to previous levels, or simply never enter the dungeon in the first place. Everything about the game is kind of crazy and ambitious, working only through the eldritch power of Finnish space magic. But I love Finnish space magic, and I love this game too. Noita is promising as a game, but also exciting as a concept. It breaks the mould and it happily does it's own thing. Noita reminds me of why I love indie games. God bless.