I take magic for granted. I seemingly use it in every game and when a firestorm is only a button press away it's easy to focus on the destructive results rather than the curious components that go into a spell. The magic in Mages of Mystralia is outlawed, but your character can't help having the powers that she does. She has to learn to hide her powers at the same time as learning new more powerful spells. That conflict immediately endeared me to the character and pulled me much deeper into the game than I expected to go.

Instead of just having a bunch of preset spells, I got to mix and match magical abilities to make new spells. That means enemies went down more explosively and impossible puzzles suddenly had creative solutions. I got lost in a game that probably got lost in everyone's list of releases. Thanks for the fireball shot, Mages of Mystralia.

Games of 2017

Throughout January, the Games of 2017 will lead the way towards The 2017 Grimmys - Horrible Night's Games of the Year Awards.

Previous years