Each of us at least once dreamed of becoming a real wizard – to pompously wave a wand, strike sparks, create destructive storms and command life itself. The abilities of the main character in the world of Leximan are not so spectacular, but much more useful. Why? Because the young sorcerer, unlike his colleagues in the craft, has the ability to bring words to life, and words are the most dangerous weapon in the world!
Society of Basement Magicians
Leximen’s backstory (that’s the hero’s default name) is rather mysterious – one day he showed up in the middle of the forest on the threshold of the academy of magic with only a book in his hands. It was night outside, pouring rain, and magic was forbidden in the cities, so Director Elementin had no choice but to take the poor guy under his wing. Oh, how he regretted it…
The director was interested in the unusual magic grimoire in Leximen’s hands – the Lexicon. With its help, the main character can form words from a set of letters and thus make anything come true! The main thing is that the necessary letters appear in the book…
As it turned out, academic life was not at all to Leximen’s liking with his abilities. The Lexicon is an extremely unpredictable thing, especially in the hands of a child, and the young magician uses it left and right. He summons cows and demons, conjures huge ducks, sets fire to and throws things, causing chaos wherever he goes. Tired of Leximen’s “genius”, Elementin shamefully sends him to the basement – to study with the same incompetents who are dangerous to society. This exile marks the beginning of Leximen’s long ascent back to the top, and the easiest way to succeed is to assemble your own rescue team!
Leximen can use the grimoire not only in battles, but also while exploring the world – then the player will have to independently write already known spells to solve puzzles and find new zones.
Thanks to their unique personalities, the hero’s companions will definitely be remembered by the end of the journey, even if they were recruited closer to the end of the game – it’s amazing how much I managed to become attached to a couple of black and white pixels in such a short time. The adventures of the young magician themselves are seasoned with absurd humor and witty remarks that constantly refer to pop culture or break the fourth wall. The music also adds charm to the game – it’s nice to listen to dialogues and participate in battles to the “pumping” beats, and more than once I caught myself unconsciously twitching my legs to the beat.
By the will of fate, the heroes will have to go to a metropolis, and the everyday life of pure-blooded wizards in the Muggle world is extraordinary…
Set of mini-games
For all the game’s merits, the lexical puzzles (which are the main mechanic!) are far less entertaining than I had hoped – the story is completely linear, dialogue choices have no effect, and funny letter combinations can only please with a joke that will not go beyond the combat mode and will not affect the state of the world. In the end, Leximan will still have to choose the right option to advance the plot.
Sometimes unique spells from the Lexicon describe themselves, but the result may be unpredictable…
But puzzles and exploration of the world are far from the entire gameplay, because Leximan is not only a puzzle, but also a barista and cleaner simulator, a race, a city builder, an RPG, a platformer and… uh-uh, wait, why so many genres?.. As it turns out, Leximan’s grimoire, although capable of many things, is not omnipotent, and therefore problems often have to be solved without it, especially in those locations where magic is prohibited.
Unique mechanics are available in several mini-games, and many of them are drawn out or out of the game’s atmosphere. On the first day after launch, I paid attention to the global progress of achievements to see at what stage the game was abandoned most often – and it turned out to be a mini-game in the style of city-building with resource farming, where you just need to press one button and count numbers while simultaneously staring at your phone.
With such an abundance of not the most interesting mini-games, it seems especially offensive that the main feature of the game – the lexical puzzle is not used as often and diversely as we would like. There are not many interactions with the help of spells from the grimoire when exploring the world, and during battles there is most often a funny combination of letters and the correct one, and the funny one will not affect the plot in any way, and sometimes it will be fatal.
It’s a shame that these serious flaws prevent me from giving Leximan a good rating, although the idea of putting words together is interesting, the characters are charming and funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story with a good soundtrack. The abundance of drawn-out mini-games did their job: an hour before the final credits, when the game threw RPG mechanics at me – turn-based battles, characteristics, leveling up and relaxing by the fire – I began to die of irritation and boredom. I would rather have fun with spells from the Lexicon, and not spend half an hour in identical battles with books and goblins.
Pros : vocabulary puzzle mechanics; ability to type spells yourself; catchy music; absurd humor; unpredictable plot; memorable characters.
Cons : lazy implementation of the core mechanics and lack of variety – this idea could have been made into a lot more chaos; the game falls apart into a lot of boring and drawn-out mini-games.
