Doing a brand new IP in gaming is often a risky business. It can sometimes be safer to stick to well-known brands, but some new IPs can take off like lightning. Is Magus the next new brand?

The game opens when Magus is broken out of jail by a mysterious woman, who reveals that he is in fact the last of the gods, and that he must now retake the world for the divine. Already, I have so many questions. How does a full-grown man spend his whole life not knowing he’s a god? Why does a god look like a rejected space marine? The story is the first of many flaws as it’s just an excuse for the game to play out the way it does. It doesn’t help that at times the dialogue is comically bad and melodramatic, and the seemingly voice-less Magus doesn’t have a lot of charm, as most of his options when talking to people consist mainly have different shades of jerk. No matter what, he never comes off as a character to root for, even in an evil way.

The overall design of the game would have been great, had this been an early PS2 title. The stiff character models, the clunky controls, the uninspired landscapes, the ridiculously designed menu system, they all remind me of games from the early 2000’s. The gameplay is essentially a basic third-person shooter, where you change your main shots by absorbing colors from rocks. This is so surreal, it may be intentionally done for the sake of humor.

The problems with Magus are numerous, which is sad, given its initially interesting concept. It’s not broken to play, it’s just not fun.

Pros:

• It’s an interesting idea, a god attempting to reclaim a world that’s done away with its deities.

Cons:

• It looks like a game from the previous generation of gaming.
• It’s built like a game from the previous generation of gaming.
• It plays like a less fun version of a game from the previous generation of gaming.