Thelema is one of those "big game, small package" deals. Just a bit over 7MB of disk space, and it contains a world so massive in scale that I couldn't trek through all of it in the 10 minutes for which I played.
Here's the basic rundown: the game is some weird mix of a platformer and an omnidirectional shooter. The gameplay, no doubt, resembles the latter, but the level design resembles the former. I'm actually not sure how I feel about this. The level design doesn't seem to affect the gameplay in any way, and it lead to a few fun moments when I would pretend to "Ninja Gaiden" off the walls by just pressing the left and right directional buttons, so I guess it was clever. Good work.
The gameplay is driven by the weapon upgrades that you can get by clearing grueling successions of enemies without dying. When you die, you are respawned at the beginning of the game, but you keep your weapon upgrades. I only played long enough to get one of these upgrades, the glacier, which was a huge step up from my starting fireball and...well...that's kind of what I don't like about it. Once I got it, I had no reason to ever use the fireball. The game would have been much more engaging had the weapon powerups offered slightly different playstyles, rather than just a numerical damage bonus and increased number of projectiles per click. Extra Credits did an awesome piece on this (yeah, it's been a while since I mentioned them, hasn't it?). Click the link below and check it out. It's one of my favorite episodes.
Anyways, Thelema is fun and competently designed, but I will say that it takes a bit of getting used to. For the first couple minutes of play, you're going to think this is nothing any amateur couldn't scrape together with a basic knowledge of C++, but stick with it a little longer and the game starts to show its true colors. If this game had included a save feature, I might even be inclined to play it some more. That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay antigravitational.
Links
Magic Space Man: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=518
Extra Credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlBR1z-ue-I
