Noita is a physics-based roguelite that just entered early access and plays a bit like the lovechild of Terraria and Zombotron. You begin on the surface and the goal is to descend deeper while avoiding/defeating enemies and using the uniquely detailed physics simulations to your advantage, though in my limited experience, that mostly translates to setting yourself on fire on multiple occasions while trying to incinerate wooden beams. I’m currently in day one of a 7-8 day stretch where I don’t have access to my normal computer, but that may be a blessing in disguise as it revealed just how peculiar Noita‘s programming is; not only does the game speed appear to be tied to the frame rate (resulting in fluctuating character and enemy speeds when the physics get busy and the computer struggles to maintain 60 FPS), but dying and restarting—this is a game with permadeath and nothing appears to carry over between runs—causes the game to shut down and restart. If you have friends who get notified when you begin playing a game, they’re bound to be bombarded with notifications as you slowly figure Noita out.

On a keyboard, you control the main character with WASD and aim/shoot with a mouse. If you choose to enable controller support in the menu and instead go that route, it’s more of a twin-stick setup. Either way, descending deeper often requires finding clever ways of dealing with problems, whether that be a pool of acid, the ceiling raining fire due to an explosion caused by either your own negligence or that of an enemy, or just a large group of enemies likely to overwhelm you.

Wands are your weapon of choice, and there appears to be a decent assortment of wands (some having limited uses and others providing unlimited ammo) with varied effects that can be found while you descend deeper. You’re searching for the portal that leads to the next area, and to that end, these wands can create explosives to deform the environment, set wooden objects on fire, break open walls to cover your foes in acid, and even spawn clouds to flood areas with rain. There are also health upgrades that can be found, powerups that either increase your durability or can be used to alter your wands’ abilities at the hub between levels, and all sorts of environmental hazards and enemies to overcome. Some minor technical quirks aside, Noita is already an intriguing game brimming with promise, and it’s bound to become even better.

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