Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 17/Aug 00:01

Leximan – Review

So far, 2024 has proven to be an exceptionally good year for anyone who likes offbeat games. Titles like Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip, Athenian Rhapsody, and most recently Thank Goodness You’re Here! all catered to fans of the weird and wonderful. The latest game that attempts to keep this quirky streak going is Leximan. Just like the aforementioned list of titles, this is one of those games that isn’t easily explained to anyone who hasn’t played it – it needs to be experienced for yourself. We’re not going to let that stop us, of course. Read on to find out what Leximan is all about! Story Our story starts out with Leximan arriving at the Academy Elementinia on a dark and stormy night. Is our hero there to take lessons from the legendary wizard Elementine? Or just to hide from the cold and the rain? It doesn’t really matter, because Elementine instantly becomes interested in Leximan’s Lexicon. It seems like our hero is capable of a unique kind of magic, unlike the elemental magic wielded by the Academy’s wizards. Leximan is able to harness the power of words, although the results of his spell-slinging are… unpredictable. Much to the dismay of the Academy’s students, Leximan is enrolled. After a month of wreaking havoc, he is banished to the academy’s basement, where he quickly makes new friends. However, as you’d expect in a video game, bad things happen and Elementine has no choice but to turn to Leximan and his rag-tag friends to save the school. While the initial setup feels very similar to something like Harry Potter, everything that follows is quite different. We’ll stop telling you about the story here, for two very particular reasons: for one, Leximan’s story relies on surprising the player at every turn, and it’s very good at this too. Secondly, simply telling you what happens next would require a metric ton of context, because this is a story that ends up twisting and turning all over the place, in the best way possible. Graphics We weren’t overly impressed with Leximan’s graphics, although that has more to do with the retro 2D-pixel visuals trope being well overdone at this point. Don’t get us wrong, we understand why Leximan looks like it does, as the visuals pay homage to a specific era of video games. This is further emphasized by the different filters that are applied to the screen by default, although you can turn these off if you want a clearer experience. Your mileage may vary here, especially if you’re a fan of Undertale, as Leximan shares quite a bit of visual DNA with Toby Fox’s masterpiece. As far as visual performance goes, we didn’t encounter any issues, and we’d be surprised if anyone with a current-day PC would. Sound Just like with the visuals, Leximan’s audio sticks to the retro aesthetic, but don’t let this fool you into thinking the game’s soundscape is bland or even simple. There is a surprising amount of different music tracks present in the game, and many of them are outright bops. If you like the game’s music, you can pick up the OST separately on Steam. While the music is the clear highlight here, the game’s sound effects are good as well, adding some audible heft to the game’s dramatic moments. There isn’t any voice acting present in Leximan, but given the retro aesthetic, that’s understandable. Gameplay We’ve seen plenty of games that dip their toes in different genres, but Leximan takes things to the next level. The gameplay feels like a chaotic and out-of-control rollercoaster: at one turn you’re dueling goblins by spelling words at them, and in the next, you’re crossing the street in a Frogger-inspired minigame. It’s frantic, exhilarating, and even somewhat exhausting, yet we couldn’t put the game down once we started playing. Because even though Leximan is all over the place, there is a method to the madness. You don’t need to be an experienced gamer across all the different genres that are being represented here. In fact, Leximan’s mad-cap experience is surprisingly laid-back. No matter if you suddenly find yourself in a bullet hell situation or a classic RPG, you’ll fall back on the same set of magical tools: combining word fragments to cast spells or outright spelling words. Of course, not every word in the English language exists in the game’s lexicon, but there are a surprising amount of possible outcomes present in-game, provided you use common sense. Even then, the game squeezes in surprises. You’d expect that spelling DISARM in a battle would cause an opponent to drop their weapons, not that you’d magic their literal arms out of existence, for example. Figuring out the various sorts of havoc you can cause with your magical powers is half the fun. The other half is that despite the sheer chaos that unfolds on screen, Leximan is a relaxed affair. While it probably could have been a tad more challenging, we really enjoyed the game’s laid-back approach as a way to unwind after a stressful day. Clocking in at around 8 hours from start to finish, Leximan is a fairly short game, but as you can imagine, there is a very high replayability factor here. Using different spells to see how things play out in other ways should be enough of an incentive to revisit the Academy Elementinia after the credits roll. We recommend playing the game at least twice, because knowing what happens beforehand will influence the way you tackle Leximan’s adventure the second time around. Conclusion We’re honestly still not quite sure what kind of game Leximan is, but what we are sure of is that we enjoyed it. From the brilliant writing to the eclectic mix of gameplay genres to the catchy retro soundtrack, there is a lot to like here. Granted, this is the kind of game that caters to a specific niche and that isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you happen to be part of that niche, you’re going to love what’s on offer here.