The Land of the Magnates is an action-adventure with heavy platforming sections, developed by a two-person Turkish studio, Permanent Way Games. The story is heavily inspired by Middle Eastern myths and is deeply routed in the history and culture of Arabia, Persia, India, Byzantium and others. This unique premise attracted me to the game, however my overall opinion is rather mixed. This game is buggy with awkward camera angles and controls and poor voice acting. Yet, the game does improve after the introduction with a myriad of fun platforming activities that kept me coming back for more.

Pros

• Unique & interesting settings
  
• Abundance of platforming moves
  
• Relaxing sitar music that are also incorporated into minigames
  
• Entrenched in Persian mythology
  
• Fast momentum and fluidity (after the introduction and first level)

Cons

• Awful, set camera angles
  
• Repetitive combat that is difficult to lock onto specific targets
  
• Ample loading screens
  
• Locked to 60 FPS and often dips under
  
• Poor voice acting with many of the one-line side characters outshining the main characters
  
• Lacking shadows when platforming, making it difficult to ascertain your position

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https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3334907197


You play as Shahbaz, a young prince from the Land of the Sun. Once known as a joyful, bright place but has since become a dark and unwelcoming since the death of its queen and the Kings sudden illness. Shahbaz must travel to distant lands to not only cure his father, but to return the sun to his homeland once more.

The story is relatively basic with the usual motivations we see for main characters beginning lengthy and otherworldly quests. I did not feel any sort of attachment to the characters, most likely due to the subpar voice acting. Lots of the story is told through comic strips which were nice and provided some new visual elements to enjoy


As stated in my introduction, my opinion on the game is heavily mixed. Whilst I have many critiques, I kept wanting to come back to the game and greatly enjoyed the fast momentum in later platforming sections. Yet, this is a far from polished game and some issues are very noticeable, which I will discuss below. The main gameplay is traversing 5 different levels with combat scenes scattered throughout. Dodge spikes, jump on moving platforms and use your musical abilities to interact with the environment. There are some collectables to find that will increase your health and mana which is used for special ability attacks. These are very easy to find as the game is exceptionally linear.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3334376563


Combat
Combat starts off slow, with only one enemy type at a time where you just hit the same button 3x and its dead. However, this improves as new enemy types are introduced. Combat sections are held in small, locked areas. You fight by matching button icons in sets of 3. Each enemy type has a combination that it is weak to, which is displayed above its head. For example, on an Xbox controller, one could be BBY, or YYY and so forth. This does get repetitive quickly, but the main issue I had was trying to target the right enemy.

Camera Angles
Camera angles are nonadjustable by players, they are fixed and move with the character movement. When walking around corners this was the most frustrating and sometimes blocked the view. There are also invisible walls everywhere to try and avoid exploring off the main path.

Platforming
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the game, platforming. In the latter half of the game, you will find yourself swinging through the air, speeding up ramps, sliding on pipes (Ratchet & Clank style), using your abilities to freeze platforms to jump across etc. This is where the game is at its best and feels rewarding as you glide through with speed and ease. My biggest gripe with this, is that the protagonist does not have a shadow. So, when jumping between platforms, I found it quite difficult to judge how far away he is from the ledge. Do I double jump or is a single jump enough? The camera angles don’t help this perception and often platforms are actually much closer than I thought, so I would often jump to my death.

Minigames
There is a sitar rhythm-based minigame which I really enjoyed. It is the classic, hit x button when it reaches the green section. These were simple, but with the unique sound of the instrument, I found they were a welcome quick break from the combat/platforming sections.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3334376760


Each level has its own distinct visual style, from a dark underground, dusty desert, colourless industrial zone, a dark mysterious forest and more. I liked the variation in setting, but wish there were more options to explore them without hitting invisible walls.

The traditional sitar music helps give the game standout, however the poor voice acting had me completely zoned out of the story.

To further explain, the main character and all of whom he speaks to in the introduction just sound very off. Not because of their accents, but the pacing of their dialogue is everywhere. There are awkward gaps, the tone usually did not match what they were saying, or it was very dramatized, but then the character they were speaking to did not match this same demeanour, making the conversation feel very uncomfortable. I can only assume that the voice actors did not get, or understand the context of their lines in an actual dialogue situation. That they did not know what the other persons lines were. What made this even more noticeable, is that there are ample side characters who only say 1 line, and some of these characters were British (or speaking with a British accent) and absolutely outshined the protagonist, and all of the leading characters with a believable performance, of just 1 sentence. Despite it being very odd to hear a British accent in the game, but I don’t think I have ever played a game where such a minimal character was able to outperform a protagonist who speaks constantly.

I looked for an option to be able to play the game in the developers native language to avoid the English cringe, but unfortunately the full audio is only available in English.

This game was played using a controller, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

Technical issues: FPS has a 60cap and often dips slightly under. There are also lengthy loading screens if you die which ruin the fast momentum.

Playtime: 5.5 hours for 1 playthrough (72% achievement completion).

Controller Recommended? Yes

If you’ve made it to the conclusion, you’re probably wondering why have I given this a thumbs up, despite heavily listing my many critiques with the game? This is because despite its issues, I still liked it. I wanted to finish it, and I kept coming back for more. There were many sections that I had an absolute blast with, admiring the unique setting. Being the first project released by a small, two-person team has some associated budget constraints, but I hope to see these issues improved upon in their next project.

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