Totally not worth playing through in co-op. The second player can only attack, is not targeted by enemies, and prevents the first player from using any items. I gave this a 3-star rating when I played it by myself, and I do still recommend playing it in single-player because I still enjoyed myself, it just has a lot of issues.
Mana Spark has a lot of potential but just feels under-optimized. Could have used more time with playtesting and getting feedback from those players.
At it's core, Mana Spark is a simple but fun roguelike. The characters are fun to play, there is a good variety of enemies with good design, and surprising attention to detail in a lot of ways.
The arrows kick up water as they fly over it, the goblins in the first area can mount the wolves and you can shoot the goblins off of the wolves. An enemy in the second area has a very well-animated reload mechanic, impressive for how small the sprites are.
The randomly dropped items during your run are all great and are (usually) given in good quantity. When you get a good combo of items and become really strong it's very exciting.
The music that is there is really nice, but there aren't very many tracks.
But the errors are ever-present as well.
--All the classes have too-little HP
--Enemies with shields are heavily present and are annoying to deal with as a ranged class (3/4 classes are ranged)
--There are not enough opportunities to bank you runes (permanent upgrade materials) which are lost when you die if you haven't banked them. You get to bank them after the super easy beginner area where you'll usually only get 1 or 2 and never get more than 4. Then by the time you're done with the first boss you'll have about 15 or so, but there won't be a bank for at least another floor. So when you're starting out you'll frequently be losing 12+ gems when you die, while only banking a few.
--The bosses are so incredibly boring. The first boss closes off its weak point too frequently, the second boss is just waiting around until it decides to pop its head out. We didn't get to the third boss so I don't remember it. But I'm sure it was dumb too.
--The upgrades at camp are really very minor. You can pay to weaken enemies, but only one enemy type can be weakened at a time. You can unlock useable items, but only one can be equipped at a time, and you can't use them in co-op. You can unlock food that gives passive buffs, but they don't feel all that consequential. There are no other upgrade options. You mostly just have to get better and get lucky on the RNG for good item drops.
Final thoughts: Play it by yourself if you find it on sale. It's fun and worth your time if you have the patience to deal with its flaws.
Mana Spark has a lot of potential but just feels under-optimized. Could have used more time with playtesting and getting feedback from those players.
At it's core, Mana Spark is a simple but fun roguelike. The characters are fun to play, there is a good variety of enemies with good design, and surprising attention to detail in a lot of ways.
The arrows kick up water as they fly over it, the goblins in the first area can mount the wolves and you can shoot the goblins off of the wolves. An enemy in the second area has a very well-animated reload mechanic, impressive for how small the sprites are.
The randomly dropped items during your run are all great and are (usually) given in good quantity. When you get a good combo of items and become really strong it's very exciting.
The music that is there is really nice, but there aren't very many tracks.
But the errors are ever-present as well.
--All the classes have too-little HP
--Enemies with shields are heavily present and are annoying to deal with as a ranged class (3/4 classes are ranged)
--There are not enough opportunities to bank you runes (permanent upgrade materials) which are lost when you die if you haven't banked them. You get to bank them after the super easy beginner area where you'll usually only get 1 or 2 and never get more than 4. Then by the time you're done with the first boss you'll have about 15 or so, but there won't be a bank for at least another floor. So when you're starting out you'll frequently be losing 12+ gems when you die, while only banking a few.
--The bosses are so incredibly boring. The first boss closes off its weak point too frequently, the second boss is just waiting around until it decides to pop its head out. We didn't get to the third boss so I don't remember it. But I'm sure it was dumb too.
--The upgrades at camp are really very minor. You can pay to weaken enemies, but only one enemy type can be weakened at a time. You can unlock useable items, but only one can be equipped at a time, and you can't use them in co-op. You can unlock food that gives passive buffs, but they don't feel all that consequential. There are no other upgrade options. You mostly just have to get better and get lucky on the RNG for good item drops.
Final thoughts: Play it by yourself if you find it on sale. It's fun and worth your time if you have the patience to deal with its flaws.