Noita: Magic Without A Spark, but an Abundance of Fire

Time Played:

18 Hours

In a given year I aim to play games with similar mechanics. That's why, after playing Wildfire, I tried Noita. Developed by Nolla Games, I thought their attempt would be better than the mediocre Wildfire, but, you'll see. In its favor, one of the three people that made Noita developed The Swapper.

Noita is a rogue-like where the player controls a wizard. The wizard has a built in levitation device. They can float upwards, or slow their descent. It has a limited but rechargeable supply, which refills quickly when not in use. A skilled player can remain aloft most of the game. The wizard uses wands which cast spells. Every time the player starts a new game, they begin with two wands; a wand with a weak attack spell, and a wand with some sort of explosive effect (bomb, dynamite, firebomb). These starting wands are randomly given to the player from a limited list, but they always receive one of each type. This is only the beginning of the randomness.

Noita is a rogue-like, and in this game death eliminates everything the player acquired in their past life. The only thing that remains is the knowledge of spells, levels, and enemies. These three things are recorded permanently on a screen which appears after each death. Every perk used (me; 47%), with a description. Every spell cast (31%) with the spell details (like damage, mana cost, etc...), and enemies encountered (38%) with their name (names are in Finnish), times killed, and times killed by.

Noita seems inspired by the falling sand style games which briefly fascinated players in the early 2000s. In Noita, every pixel is its own particle, except for enemies. Hovering over anything tells the player its material. Solid objects include peat, ground, damp rock, gold, wood, copper, concrete, brickwork, gunpowder, coal, grey rock, ice, and packed snow. Noita also contains mundane liquids (blood, swamp water, toxic sludge, vomit), and magical liquids (berserkium, polymorphine, invisiblium). With the proper fire the player can fill the screen with various gasses, like steam, smoke, and freezing vapor. Fire is an abundant element; materials burn or explode. While most areas have a path to the exit, the player must spend time mining. Use explosives liberally to extract gold from the terrain. Obtaining a good mining wand for level two (the coal pits) is essential. The Coal Pits have an overabundance of gold trapped in the ground, while level three (Snowy Depths) has none. While many materials will crumble, there are others (brickwork and steel) that are impervious to all but the most potent spells. Dynamite only scratches these materials. When blowing up or carving a tunnel through materials, it's essential to know how they will react. Most terrain hangs suspended in the air if all supports are gone, even leaving frustrating particles too small for the eye to see, preventing the player from moving. But other terrain, like ice, develops dynamic cracks when shot, and falls when it no longer has obvious supports.

Noita also has liquids that affect the player if they stand in them. Oil or whiskey makes the player slippery and flammable. Toxic sludge harms the player over time. If the player ever wants to remove these effects, jump in a safe liquid, like water, or blood. There are also magical liquids like berserkium which causes larger explosions, and increases the damage of spells. Maybe there is a cool method to combining potions, but I never found much use for them. While Noita has a tangential connection to the falling sand games of the past, it doesn't seem as if there is much opportunity for the player to combine them. Noita is much more about spells and combat than mining and materials.

The player wields five wands. They start with two, and exchange them if they reach the maximum. Every wand comes with spells and a variety of stats. Wands have a capacity, or a maximum number of spells attached to the wand. This number ranges from one to ten. Wands with the shuffle ability will randomly cast any spell attached to the wand, while those without will cast the spells in the order they are arranged in the wand. Some wands cast more than one spell at once (spells cast). Wands also have a cast delay, a recharge time, a maximum mana, a mana recharge speed, and a spread. The last shows how much the spell deviates from the spell's target location. On rare occasions a wand will come with a spell that always casts whenever the wand is used, in addition to whatever spell was supposed to be cast.

The list of spells is huge. Apparently I've only used a third of them, which seems almost unbelievable. Spells act in all sorts of different ways from protective bubbles, to explosives, to summoning allies, and to the most common, damaging projectiles. The different types are bewildering in their variety. All spells cost mana from the wand. Noita is not an RPG. The character has nothing unique to them. No stats, no skills. Everything is about the wand. As mentioned above, all wands have a maximum mana and a mana recharge number. Matching the correct spells to the correct wands are key. Spells also have a cast delay, spread, speed of projectile, an explosion radius, a damage from explosion, or a hundred different stats depending on the effect of the spell.

The two main uses of spells are for killing enemies or carving holes in the terrain (though I've heard some people have reached the point where they cast spells for fun!). The variety of spells is immense, but the types of enemies, not so much. Various monsters lurk in the subterranean depths. Some hit the player with their hands, but most employ guns, dynamite, or magic. They are drawn to the player like mosquitoes to light. In the first two areas, enemies are sparse and slow. But by the third area they swarm like Firebugs. Even with devastatingly powerful wands, I found the problem was that I still died. In later levels enemies swarm in hordes, making it difficult to down them before they devour you. Tight passages, and the chaos of battle, with fire, smoke, and explosions, leads to sudden death. Some player's own spells, like Disc Projectile, harm the player. Noita doesn't have enough defensive spells (or I'm just not quick enough to use them properly). My deadly wands were foiled by my low health and lack of defenses. It's not that the spells aren't fun, but that the enemies are too deadly.

Of the eight main areas, or biomes, I only explored six. I would say I passed through the first biome 95% of the time. The second biome, Coal Pits, was almost as easy, with a roughly 90% completion. As mentioned earlier, it's essential to mine gold in this level to ensure further progression. In the Snowy Depths frost creatures ambushed me at every icicle. Maybe I completed this area 50% of the time? The Hissi (Finnish for monster/trickster, like goblins, trolls, giants) Base is defended by elite units and its metal walls are impenetrable to normal explosives. I only beat it 10% of the time. I only overcame the Underground Jungle twice, and lost both times in The Vault. The game data says I attempted 75 excursions. Underground isn't the only location, though new players might initially think so. A vast world exists above-ground. It's explorable without any special equipment. There's a floating island, a massive tree, a desert, a pyramid, a cave, and the Essence of Earth (whatever that is).

But the most important location in Noita is the Holy Mountain. At the bottom of each area is a portal. The portal always brings the player to the Holy Mountain. Every visit to the Holy Mountain completely heals the player and increases their maximum health. The Holy Mountain sells a random selection of wands or spells (this is where the player needs gold). In the Holy Mountain the player can rearrange spells. They can remove spells from a wand and place them in another. Try out different combinations, but don't Anger the Gods! Before leaving the Holy Mountain the player chooses from three random perks, like immunity to fire, or a friendly ghost.

Notia is a bottomless pit of mysteries. I explored enough to realize it had mysteries, without understanding any of them. I don't have a clue what the Orbs of Truth do. I didn't access a fraction of the secret areas. I have no clue if potions are valuable. I didn't use two thirds of the spells. And of course, I didn't reach the final two areas and beat the boss/game. But I started to feel Noita was very repetitive. Every attempt I easily passed through the first two regions. It was so easy it was boring, yet it still took a few minutes. If I could have started in the third area with enough gold and a good wand or two I would have kept exploring. I know I am bad at Noita. But I also wish there was less randomness. The starting wands are random. The map is random. The wands the player finds are random. The enemies are random. The wands, spells, and perks at the Holy Mountain are random. I felt it was difficult to make progress, because there was nothing to make progress with. I enjoy rogue-likes, but I found Noita too uncompromising.

In the end, I stopped because I found myself stuck in a rut. Just get through the first two levels. Earn enough money to buy spells. Spend time developing a powerful wand. Die in the 4^th or 5^th area anyways. I played the same levels for the past eight hours, and wasn't making any forward progress. Noita isn't a bad game, but it wasn't one I could continue exploring.

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