While auto-shooters existed, mostly on mobile, before Vampire Survivors made its way to the scene, the moment people saw how the subgenre could be done properly it came to define the standard. Now, whether games in that vein that have arrived since that time started development earlier, or are simply somehow oblivious to the high bar that has been set, there’s simply no realistic way to act like it doesn’t exist.

Keeping that in mind, we have Spellagis, a game that I originally had hoped could be a twin-stick shooter with how it looked, but quickly instead found it to be an underwhelming auto-shooter. Probably the biggest sin it commits is that there’s no getting around its being bare bones and honestly just dull. The pace of play is glacial, in general the enhancements you’ll have to choose from are pretty generic, and when the competition is stacking loads of enemies and excitement into the mix the anemic enemy counts here just don’t stack up.

Throw in some concerns with your character’s hitbox feeling a bit too big, making you feel like you’re taking on damage from phantom hits periodically, and there’s also a potential for some irritation here. I suppose the game tries to compensate with unlocks for new characters with different base stats and new abilities, but none of it can overcome the 10 ton weight of indifference to the experience that crushes the gameplay far too quickly. Perhaps if the likes of Vampire Survivors, or even some other contemporaries, were expensive the budget price could help Spellagis feel like it has more value to offer but there’s just no good reason to settle for this lackluster offering.