The roguelite platformer, like Spelunky, Catacomb Kids, Cave Blazers, is often you against the environment, be it traps or enemies or tricky platforming. But in the pixel art caves of Noita, the environment is not just a threat; it’s a weapon, able to manipulated and molded to destroy your enemies.
And kill you too, if you’re not careful.
Crafted by a trio of developers who created (either alone or as part of a team) The Swapper, Environmental Station Alpha, and Crayon Physics, Noita unleashes your powerful magic upon a simulated dynamic world. Fluids slosh and flow, wood burns and shatters, ice melts and crumbles away, lava hardens into stone, water freezes, gas ignites, and so on. Your elemental magic can use those interactions to your advantage, filling an area with lava or cracking upon a vat of acid to flood a room.
Of course that means you have to be careful not to destroy yourself in the process, as the resulting physics simulation brings down the ceiling or sends you tumbling into the lake you just electrified. Your wizard will also have offensive spells to attack directly, and increased agility to leap and hover across the vast ruins and caverns, but as befitting a roguelite, the threat of permadeath looms over every risky manuever and fight.
Noita is slated to release on PC, first on Early Access, although there’s no release timeframe yet. You can find more details on the game and developer Nolla Games through their site and Twitter page.
