A worthy successor to an old favorite

Been playing since the beginning, after finding out about it by hearing it was alike ChromatiCraft, my favorite mod of all time. Indeed, that similarity rings true, but it too stands alone as the best modern magic mod, and my third favorite in all.

Spectrum has always been an engaging and unique mod with strong aesthetic and theming, rewarding creativity, discovery, and ingenuity. It is unafraid to make players think, which is much appreciated in an era where many mods mindlessly tell you exactly how to play. And for that effort, it rewards you with fun tools and constructs, often novel in their functionality or use.

Progression is based on exploration. The mod gradually reveals things in the world that you'd think weren't there before the deeper you go, encouraging revisiting of some areas and inviting travel to new ones. At present though, I feel there's not as much hidden in the world as there well could be - cold biomes and deserts get nothing unique for example - so truly and deeply searching the world isn't exactly necessary.

Exploration is one of the few areas I feel it is actually lacking in, in more detail: the structures added are few in variety, and while solving them the first time feels great, at length, you can memorize the solutions - they're the same every time, after all. Some randomization, and/or more puzzle variants, would be welcomed. In addition, as mentioned before there is a lack of unique things to find in more than a few areas of the world, making exploring such areas not really worth it for just Spectrum alone.

Overall progression is extremely well done, requiring engaging with the mod, learning its systems, and solving its puzzles to progress - a very welcome breath of fresh air, as aforementioned. It offers extensive hints for major milestones, but I feel they sour the experience of truly finding something out on your own - and in fact this system wasn't always there. The progression also weaves a story, one which takes us on a journey from our first geode to learning this gemstone-based colorful magic, ultimately leading down to the depths of the world, searching for answers and knowledge - though there isn't too much to find, right now.

Art-wise, the mod is excellent, and is only improving with time. Watching it grow from programmer art to where it is today was inspiring to say the least. It has a very strong and recognizable style that lends an already good mod a lasting visual impression. I feel it is so far only lacking in sound and particles, but those too may well get worked on.

In all, Spectrum is a fantastic exploration- and story-driven mod with engaging and puzzley progression, that only continues to get better with time.