I've been kind of neglecting this blog as of late. However, this is not due to me no longer writing; instead, I've spent more time writing reviews on Letterboxd, Backloggd, or Hardcover. It now occurs to me that I should probably also release those reviews on my blog, so I'll be migrating those here, starting with my "review" of Noita.

Introduction

As an avid fan of all kinds of roguelikes, I think Noita may be the best one I've played yet. At the very least, it's the most beautifully crafted, interesting, and memorable. However, it is definitely not for everyone.

It also breaks with genre tradition by being what I would call an "anti-wiki game"; a game that is made actively worse by using its wiki for looking up information. In fact, I would place it closer to the recent wave of "metroidbraina" games like Outer Wilds, Tunic, or Blue Prince, where a primary mechanic of the game is the act of learning and discovery. Of course, Noita is a bit of an oddball inclusion in this, given that:

  • It is not obviously a puzzle game.
  • It presents the player with a difficult to master combat system that rewards quick thinking and execution.

However, if we can agree that both Blue Prince and Tunic belong, then I don't think Noita is a big stretch.

While I think a lot can be written about Noita's "active gameplay", given that it is very well executed and incredibly deep, I want to focus on this "meta gameplay" in this review, simply for the reason that I haven't seen it discussed much. If anything, it looks like this aspect has been more criticized than lauded, which is a shame.

Note: As per usual for my reviews, I will be including more and more severe spoilers the further along I get. Thus, I would encourage anyone interested in trying out the game to not finish reading this review. I will clearly denote upcoming spoilers so you can jump off at whatever time seems right. :)

Learning Opportunities

Firstly, I want to differentiate between different kinds of learning in video games since this is one of the primary ways video games expect the player to overcome obstacles. Without such a differentiation, you could describe almost any video game as a metroidbraina. I think a decent way of categorizing learning opportunities is by observing when, during gameplay, they come into play:

  • Moment-to-Moment: Executing actions in order to overcome a specific obstacle at hand. This is the kind of stuff that action-oriented games thrive on.
  • Intermediate: Being aware of the various mechanics that drive the game. This may also include knowledge of enemy behavior or item effects. This is the kind of stuff you often look up in wikis.
  • Long-Term: Having a more holistic view on the game, being able to combine intermediate pieces of knowledge in order to formulate a game plan. This is the kind of stuff strategy games thrive on.
  • Meta: Knowledge of what the game even is and what it contains. Some games hide mechanics in plain sight. Once discovered, it ideally adds to the other knowledge categories, as new opportunities become available. This seems to be an integral part of the metroidbraina style of game.

To put that into perspective, lets look at some classic roguelikes that I happen to be fairly familiar with. I'll give some relatively arbitrary numeric scores for illustration on each category, with some rationale afterwards.

Binding of Isaac

  • Moment-to-Moment: 2/5
  • Intermediate: 4/5
  • Long-Term: 2/5
  • Meta: 2/5

While its gameplay is not the most complex, the fact that losing health can be very punishing heavily incentivizes learning individual enemy patterns. Thus, I'd say its moment-to-moment learning opportunities are relatively few, with a larger focus on intermediate learning. In fact, I would argue that most of the learning in Binding of Isaac is to be had in the intermediate category, as learning individual item effects and hidden synergies is another big part.

Initially, it may not seem like the game has much long-term knowledge involved, since you don't have great control over which items you'll have access to. However, with the addition of items like the D6, which lets you reroll items, this drastically changes. Nevertheless, the decision space is still pretty limited and depends heavily on what the game offers you (and which character you choose). Thus, I'd say there is relatively little long-term knowledge involved.

As for meta knowledge, there is a bit, but most of it is invariably discovered as you play the game and unlock new stages and routes. And I think it's pretty minor at the end of the day – there never were any "holy shit" moments, at least not for me.

FTL: Faster Than Light

  • Moment-to-Moment: 1/5
  • Intermediate: 4/5
  • Long-Term: 4/5
  • Meta: 1/5

It probably comes to no surprise that FTL scores very high on long-term knowledge, given that it is a first and foremost a strategy game, not an action game. However, with its real-time, fast paced combat, there is still a decent amount of intermediate depth to be had, especially since there are various enemy types that you'll want to approach differently. Not much moment-to-moment learning though, unless you want to play without pausing.

However, for better or for worse, there is basically no meta knowledge to be had; what you see in your first playthrough is pretty much what you get.

Slay the Spire

  • Moment-to-Moment: 3/5
  • Intermediate: 5/5
  • Long-Term: 5/5
  • Meta: 1/5

Slay the Spire actually has a surprising amount of moment-to-moment decision making, with it being a turn based card game. Which cards from your hand you play and in which order has a huge impact on your success. Of course, its intermediate depth is not to be underestimated either, as enemy encounters and card interactions are very nuanced.

The fact that I give it such a score on long-term learning opportunities is hopefully the least surprising factor. Though I should note that part of this is not just the pure deck construction but also evaluating which encounters you may be weak against and deciding whether to optimize for them or to just trying to avoid them.

And, again, there's basically no meta-game to be discovered – I choose not to include the true ending here.

I think the fact that this game offers so many learning opportunities goes a long way in explaining why it is such a compelling game to master. It probably also doesn't hurt that its difficulty at high ascendancy levels forces you to learn about and improve in all of its aspects.

Tales of Maj'Eyal

  • Moment-to-Moment: 4/5
  • Intermediate: 4/5
  • Long-Term: 4/5
  • Meta: 3/5

Ah, my big introduction to roguelikes that I've spent more than 1500 hours into. I've got to write about ToME at some point…

Anyway, in true "true roguelike" fashion, this game's depth can be pretty overwhelming, though I do think its spread is a bit different from other true roguelikes.

For one, a mid- to late-game character in Tales of Maj'Eyal has access to a ridiculous number of abilities at their disposal. This leads to an incredibly rich moment-to-moment decision space, especially on high difficulties or its infamous difficulty spikes.

I'll rank its intermediate learning opportunity a bit lower that Slay the Spire's, as the rationale is pretty similar but there tends to be fewer encounters in ToME that need to be addressed drastically differently (those start appearing more frequently on insane difficulty and upwards).

Also, just like Slay the Spire, Tales of Maj'Eyal is all about build crafting, taking heavy inspirations from ARPGs. However, build crafting tends to have some pretty universal convergence points, like getting max resistances ASAP, and tends to be a bit less nuanced, due to its relatively deterministic nature.

Finally, ToME gets the highest score in meta-knowledge so far, due to the richness of its campaign and the number of semi-hidden quests and rewards to be discovered. These become an integral part to the long-term strategy of the game but are not immediately obvious when starting out.

Noita

  • Moment-to-Moment: 5/5
  • Intermediate: 5/5
  • Long-Term: 1/5
  • Meta: 5/5

Noita's spread is actually pretty wild to me. I cannot think of many roguelikes with less long-term planning than it, though this may be due to my inexperience with it (the game is an absolute behemoth) – maybe Dead Cells. While there are some permanent perks to be picked up they never felt particularly build-shaping to me. This is not a roguelike where you feel like you got a busted or useless build (though an equivalence exists when it comes to its weapons).

I ended up maxing out all other aspects though, as its combat is extremely fast-paced, explosive, and dynamic. You need to be juggling up to four different wands, four auxiliary items, all of the game's elemental statuses and interactions, the numerous and varied enemies, and probably the terrain as well. This gets overwhelming FAST, but mastering even the first area is incredibly satisfying.

As for the meta-knowledge, I don't want to spoil much (yet). Just believe me when I say that what you see when you first play the game is barely the tip of the iceberg. After more than 60 hours in, I wouldn't be surprised to find out I only found 10% of the secrets to be discovered. Hell, there's an entry for the number of secrets found in the stats page and apparently, I've only found 5 so far. Because of YouTube recommendations, I know of at least one entire game system that I basically haven't interacted with at all so far. Thus, I think it is fair to assume that my estimated long-term decision space is an underestimate and just me being bad at the game.

Tutorialization

The sheer amount of depth is not the only that makes Noita unique in my eyes. It also teaches the player its mechanics through clever level- and encounter-design whilst slowly introducing meta knowledge.

This claim may be a bit surprising, as a common critique of Noita is that it is too opaque and could use a clearer tutorial. Unfortunately, I can't really support it without going into spoilers. What I can say is that Noita's level design is much more static than most of its peers. Each level is designed in such a way that certain mechanics are more readily available and necessary.

For more detail, lets look at how Noita teaches itself! The rest of this review is essentially a case-study of its first few levels and what they taught me. So spoilers ahead!

The Mines & Basic Game Mechanics

The first level strongly emphasizes Noita's elemental mechanics and interactions. You'll find lots of wood, lots of oil, and lots of ways of creating fire. Basically, at some point, most of the level will be on fire and you'll have a bad time unless you figure out how to stop being on fire yourself.

This is where water comes in, which, fortunately enough, can also be found aplenty in this level. The interaction here is obvious: player on fire -> player go in water.

Now, a novice player will still take lots of damage in this level from fire, since you can catch fire basically anywhere but water is somewhat static. Thus, there will still be lots of friction in this level, (hopefully) making you think about what to do to deal with this situation.

This is where two additional core mechanics of Noita come in. The first is probably what most players figure out pretty quickly: destroy a large container of water in order to spread it and put out fire. However, this is still a pretty reactive maneuver that isn't fit for moment-to-moment combat. The second one is the flask, the item that every player starts with but most that new players won't interact with for a good while. Once you figure out that you can use your flask as a fire-extinguisher, even mid-combat, you've essentially solved the first level.

The Coal Pits & More Game Mechanics

The second level is, interestingly enough, very different from the first one. While there are still some flammable materials to be found (most notably coal), fire is not as much of a theme. This is something that Noita does incredibly well – it focuses on certain mechanics in its levels whilst keeping them around in others, even if they are not as much of a focus.

Instead, the focus here is more on moment-to-moment learning. While the first level contains some more threatening enemies (teaching you that maybe you should avoid some fights), the second levels enemies are, on average much more threatening. Additionally, the layout features more vertical movement with its deep drops, thus making you get used to hovering. Finally, the flying enemies combine both themes by providing a bigger combat challenge that makes you use your hover ability mid-combat.

However, there is a more meta learning opportunity being presented here as well: terraforming. This level features gold strewn all over the place. Incidentally, this is probably also the point where you'll start getting your hands on a more reliable way of destroying terrain, like more powerful damaging spell or even a bespoke drill.

Again, these lessons will be essential in later levels whilst also making the first level a bit easier.

The Snowy Depths & A Surprise

At this point, I would urge anyone who is interested in Noita and doesn't think they know what I'll be talking about to stop reading. This was one of my favorite discoveries so far and one that really changed how I approach it. It also didn't take me that long to arrive at, around eight hours of playtime, so it's definitely something anyone can get relatively quickly.

So, once a player has started making it through the third level relatively consistently, they'll probably have discovered something I have failed to mention so far: all the levels appear to have side-areas associated with them. The mines have a lake of lava to their east and the collapsed mines to their west. The coal pits have the fungal cavers to their east. The snowy depths have a weird shaft to their west.

Well, as it turns out, thinking of Noita as a linear game comprised of individual levels is just wrong. While it looks like you are just teleported from one level to the next, the levels are actually connected!

How do you find this out? While there are various ways of getting back to a previous level, the one I found first, and would expect most people to do so, is through the aforementioned shaft. Climbing it is pretty easy and once you do, you'll find yourself below a bridge leading to a lake of lava to the west and a weird chamber to the east. At this point of the game, it won't be too difficult to get past that lake of lava and once you do, you'll find yourself back in the first level.

How Deep Does This Go???

But what's most interesting is that at this point in the game, you'll also likely have a good way of digging, which is not the case in the first level. You'll probably also have noticed that there appears to be stuff at the surface that you can't get to.

So, you dig your way out of the mine and out onto the surface. In most video games, this would lead to nothing or, at most, an Easter egg. Instead, you'll find out that Noita is much, much larger than you would have anticipated.