Leximan was provided by Marvelous for review. Thank you!
The age of 2D hilarious games has boomed since Undertale graced the scene. Yes it was heavily influenced by Earthbound/Mother, but at its core, it's a lovely 2D game packed with weird and quirky humor. Since then, we have seen lots of other games enter the fray aiming to invoke similar feelings, and while some have succeeded, others haven't. Leximan feels like it's trying to do the same, but adds in some extra bits to make it feel like it stands out. And while there are some small stumbles here and there, it succeeds in putting together an experience I would happily recommend to others.
I consider the humor and gameplay mechanics to easily be the selling point and reason you should play Leximan. It has that quirky humor that similar games in the genre have, but it was a bit more lighthearted and ridiculous without going into gross humor. I was laughing when when the wizards were all arguing about their tower being destroyed, or how customers interacted with you and your friend when making coffee, and it kept me hooked enough to keep playing through the game, even when the story started to get a little boring.
However, Leximan's actual gameplay is far less boring. The game's "core" mechanic is putting together groups of letters to make words, which you cast to solve whatever problem is in front of you. This can result in some hilarious outcomes, but there wasn't as much of this gameplay as I initially expected in the game. I would have loved more of this, but we do have other varieties of genre-mashing gameplay here to make up for it. I don't want to go too much into detail since the unexpected nature of the changes, but expect to be shocked that it can change so much.
The actual story itself revolves around a wizard who can use Lexomancy, which is stringing words together to form spells. You arrive at Elementine's school as a child and are taken in to train in the wizarding ways, but after a month of trying (and blowing up the school), you are sent to the basement. From there, you essentially start to show you are not a reject and lead your school through the loss of their home and what comes next. It starts off relatively interesting, but towards the time they get to the city, I wasn't as interested anymore. The game does pick up towards the end with a really strange turn of events, but the journey to get there was carried by its humor.
Leximan's visuals and UI elements feel very similar to games like Undertale. It has black-and-white retro-esque pixel visuals that have just enough detail to know exactly what you are looking at. There is some color sprinkled throughout to define the environment and the spells you use, but it sticks to black and white for characters. There is no voice acting either, only text dialogue, which is accentuated with different wave effects for important parts of the conversation. It didn't feel too overwhelming, and I enjoyed the visuals overall.
And then we have Steam Deck performance, which is just fantastic.
There should be no issue playing Leximan on the Steam Deck, which if you look at the game, isn't all that surprising. It runs at 90 FPS without any TDP limit and sticks to around 8W - 9W battery drain. There are some small spikes here and there as well, but for the most part, it will stick to this area. You can set the framerate to 60 to bring battery drain down to 7W - 8W, but there will still be those spikes, so it doesn't feel worthwhile in the end.
There aren't a ton of options here, but you can toggle the screen shake, flash, and warp effects, the color bleed effect, a more friendly/easy-to-read font, and how animated the words will be.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it does have a warping effect at the top and bottom like an old TV screen, so it may be on purpose. There is controller and cloud save support, but there are no HDR settings.
Leximan is an interesting 2D title that is filled with great humor to keep you invested until the end. The gameplay mechanics change in odd ways you wouldn't expect, which is a big part of the appeal, and the jokes never get too disgusting and are just plain ol' funny. The story gets a little boring in the beginning, but the humor carries it until the end, where things start getting much more intriguing. Playing on the Steam Deck is fantastic though, and definitely my favorite way to experience the game. If you like Undertale and want something that will feel like its own experience, this is the game for you!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Leximan is an enjoyable and hilarious 2D experience that is carried by the jokes and gameplay variety, and it's perfect on the Steam Deck.
