This is easily one of the most unique mods I’ve ever seen in terms of both the gameplay experience and the aesthetics, and is the one mod that made me invested in modded Minecraft again after a more than ten-year-old break. The feeling of discovery, exploration and puzzle solving at its core is wonderful, and the guidebook strikes a very good balance to tell you just the right amount of things. While there are still some mechanics that might be a bit rough around the edges – at the time of the review – those still do not detract from the overall enjoyment of the mod, especially if you experience it in a spoiler-free way.

Highly recommended,

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.

I love magic mods. I love the sense of fantasy they install and the exploration and lore, everything about them. But sadly many magic mods feel kind of samey. But Spectrum is unique. It’s got a phenomenal progression system, powered by Revelationary, so that you’re constantly discovering new things and fulfilling a sense of wonder. The art is incredible for the most part, everything feels so vibrant and polished. It’s awesome to craft and discover new things, and explore the various new structures and eventually uncover an entirely new world. From simply satisfying decoration, to committing terrorism and other war crimes, this mod has a lot to explore. That said, there are a few things stopping me from saying this mod is truly perfect

– The mod is a work in progress which can be seen, particularly in some of the structures and worldgen. The structures they add can feel pretty repetitive, with very few options for variation. Additionally, the dimension can feel really annoying to explore, without a tonne of variety and entering the dimension is a bit of a slog.

– It adds a lot of overpowered gear and items but doesn’t actually have anything that justifies it. It can get pretty overpowered quite quickly and the threats it adds aren’t really enough to justify it. Especially when it gets to the point where a pickaxe is doing more damage than a netherite sword.

– Using it with WTHIT/Jade and Xaero’s can sometimes accidentally reveal stuff you shouldn’t know, which makes it a bit disappointing to have the surprise ruined and break immersion.

All in all though, the above isn’t nearly enough to disregard how much it does well. It’s so, so close to being an absolute masterpiece. If I could give it 4.8 stars I would, but for now, 4/5.