Magrunner: Dark Pulse Preview

Magrunner: Dark Pulse may be the first game in history to blend a near-future cyberpunk setting with the famed Cthulhu Mythos

Magrunner: Dark Pulse is described as a “first-person action puzzle game set in the near future,” in which a high-tech “friendly competition” between giant corporations descends into a battle for survival, and for the fate of the entire world. How? That’s not entirely clear, but somehow the bright, clean world of the future is pulled into the bizarre and dangerous parallel universe of the dreaded Cthulhu, and it becomes your job to pull it back out.

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The game has a decidedly Portal-like look to it, but in Magrunner you’re equipped with a “Magtech Glove” that allows you to change the magnetic polarity of objects around you. Polarity is represented by the colors red and blue; everything is based on magnetism, and by messing with polarities you’ll make objects attract or repel each other in various ways to solve environmental puzzles, make your way deeper into the strange world around you and ultimately discover the secret behind the world’s descent into madness.

There isn’t much to see in the way of preview videos and screens at this point and what little there is floating around out there looks like a fairly conventional first-person environmental puzzler – again, very much like Portal – with later levels taking a decided turn for the dark. The puzzle-solving looks like it’ll be fun, but I’m even more interested in discovering the whys and wherefores of the game world, and how two wildly different settings can be brought together in a single game. Based on that alone, this is definitely a game worth keeping an eye on.

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Magrunner: Dark Pulse is being developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. No release date has been set.

Andy Chalk

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Long-time PC gamer and shorter-time freelance writer, with work at Gamezebo, The Escapist, PC Gamer, Joystiq and parts unknown. Owner of many cats, drinker of fine beers, eater of too much. A steadfast javelin in a flaccid world.