Magrunner: Dark Pulse Channels Portal Fhtagn

Magrunner: Dark Pulse, the game that combines Portal-style puzzles with the mind-melting horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos, launches today.

One of the great things about indie game development is that instead of relentless focus testing and safe sequelization, somebody can say, “Hey! Let’s make a game like Portal, but with Lovecraft!” and next thing you know, bam! You’re playing Magrunner: Dark Pulse! Because that’s exactly what it is: a physics-based puzzle game in which you use faux-magnetics to manipulate objects in a bright, gleaming sci-fi world that’s very suddenly and inexplicably invaded by Team Yog Sothoth.

You’re not going to see that kind of thing coming out of Ubisoft anytime soon, and even better, it works. It doesn’t have quite the refinement or complexity of Valve’s masterpiece puzzler, but it’s challenging and entertaining and the Cthulhu twist gives it a nice dash of straight-faced silliness.

The launch trailer provides a pretty clear look at what’s on offer, but let’s face it: You either want to play this, or you don’t. Magrunner: Dark Pulse will be available a little later today (around 1 pm EDT, I believe) on Steam.