Magenta Horizon

Review

Your name is Gretel, and you have succumbed to an unfortunate death. As you arrive in the afterlife, the father of the sanctuary welcomes you to your new environment and gives you a slightly better appearance with a mask that looks like an owl. Then you are told that your new occupation will be . . . a reaper! That’s the last thing you remember until a poor soul named Archibald unlocks your sarcophagus with a circular piece he found somewhere in the vast world of the afterlife. So, come on, you little reaper, and let’s discover the world of Magenta Horizon.

Magenta Horizon is a fast-paced 2D action platformer game developed by Maddison Baek and published by 2 Left Thumbs on the Steam platform on the 29^th of May, 2023, as an Early Access game.

Wow, this game absolutely blows me away, and it has been a while since I felt this way with an Early Access game. Magenta Horizon currently consists of the first two acts out of three, with 22 levels. I believe that another 11 levels (act 3) will be released in version 1.0. 

The first thing you will notice when launching the game is the beautiful, stylised artwork which gets better as you progress through both acts. I must mention that I have not finished the second act yet and have another four levels to beat. You see, I try to play each of the games as it is intended to be played. Well, the normal level of difficulty is . . .  quite challenging, to say the least. The good news is that you have two levels under the normal difficulty and one out of two available with this version on the other spectrum, which I am happy to report that I will not even try! I really do like that you can choose the difficulty level if you get stuck in any levels, but you have to do it at the start of the stage after quitting and reloading it.  Yes, I have swapped from normal to lower difficulty on several occasions.

The levels are very well-designed and average in length. In a nutshell, you have to find three colour keys that look like some sort of little worm with spiky teeth. Some keys will open other areas on each level, but on most occasions, except for the bosses’ fights, you will need to find all three keys to get out of the current stage. There are several obstacles, like spikes or larva that you will have to deal with while exploring. But that will not be where your death comes from. You’ll mostly die where you engage with enemies in a concealed space which can be small, average, or large and might also contain spikes and larva, just to make it more entertaining. But ladies and gents, that is just the start of your predicaments with Magenta Horizon.

That’s right, you will encounter plenty of fights on each level. Every time you find one of the three keys, you’ll have to fight off serious opposition. And what makes this game absolutely amazing is the layout of the opposition. In the first few stages, the opposition will be tough but at least you know where they’re coming from; they’re mostly standing on the bottom platform and will rush toward you. But as you progress, you’ll have enemies in the air moving up and down and shooting projectiles in all different ways. Some will be bigger or faster than others. It is absolutely hectic from the get-go!  But what makes this game brilliant is the well-thought-out mechanisms, and let me tell you that they are top-notch as far as I am concerned.  You have a dash, jump, double jump, hooks, normal and heavy attack. The heavy attack will have three phases depending on how long you can press the button. There are a couple of different midair attacks (use your hook-on enemies to swap from one side to the other of the enemy) and four long-range attacks, which you will get by purchasing them through Archibald as well as finding some of them within the level. The other thing you can either find or purchase are pendants to add to your necklace. There are 21 pendants to find, but you can only use seven at any given time. These are basically perks that can help Gretel with attacks, jumps, dash and other things.  Gretel also has a maximum of three health regeneration orbs which you can use on enemies to regain your health. All you have to do is throw one of these orbs onto the enemies, turning them green. You then hit the enemies, and they’ll release more green orbs, at which point you can get closer and absorb the orbs to gain health. The bigger the enemy, the bigger the green orbs. However, some enemies are not affected by the green orb at all.  Others are affected, but only for a short period of time.

That brings me to the enemies. As mentioned, there are many sizes and speeds, and their attacks vary dramatically from one to the other, making the combat phases so good and really challenging. What I love about the enemies, apart from being very aggressive and very different from one another, is how they are designed graphically. They are colourful, and all the animations are just brilliantly done. It’s a pleasure to see the combinations of mechanical opponents such as bikes, helicopters and animals like birds, bats and others. And they haven’t forgotten the vegetation with plants and tree trunks. You'll have to face several mini-bosses and main bosses within the two available acts. I first swapped for a lower difficulty level when I faced the train mini-boss. Oh boy, I got stuck there for many hours! These fights are seriously challenging even if you have a few health orbs in hand. Again, the bosses have different attacks, and they are even more aggressive than the rest, and to make it even harder, they will have help from minions once they’re halfway through their health bar.

Is it a game that is only suitable for hardcore platformer fans? No, it is well-balanced, and the fact that you can choose the difficulty level makes it suitable for everybody. But bear in mind that each increase in difficulty level is steep. Even hardcore players will probably be quite surprised.

Absolutely stunning, colourful artwork and brilliant animations. Top-notch control input and mechanisms. The story is fun and has beautiful illustrations before each level. The levels are really well designed with several levels of difficulty, which you can adjust. The game also offers a training ground and boss rush mode.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com  

Magenta Horizon Steam Store Page