YAPYAP Review: The Chaotic Wizard Extraction

 

YAPYAP Review: Chaotic Wizard Vandalism Is the Extraction Genre Shake-Up We Needed

I’ve played enough “friendslop” games to fill an entire landfill. You know the type—low-poly, janky horror extraction games designed almost entirely to make streamers scream for clips. Most of the time they’re quick cash grabs that lose their charm the moment the novelty fades.

At first glance, YAPYAP looked exactly like one of those games.

Then I actually played it.

Instead of the usual “collect scrap and escape” gameplay loop, YAPYAP replaces looting with something far more entertaining: breaking absolutely everything like a magical hooligan. The result is a chaotic, buggy, unfair, and incredibly hilarious experience. Honestly, it’s the most fun I’ve had yelling at my monitor in years.

The Art of Magical Vandalism

Most extraction games make you feel like prey. You’re crouching, hiding, and praying the monster doesn’t notice you.

YAPYAP flips that idea on its head.

Instead of sneaking around, the game hands you a wand and tells you to be the problem.

Breaking Stuff Beats Stealing Trash

The premise is delightfully ridiculous. You’re a minion summoned by a moon-faced wizard and sent into a rival wizard’s tower. But instead of stealing valuables, your objective is to cause as much property damage as possible.

You smash vases.
You burn books.
You turn furniture into fish.

This shift from looting to vandalism completely changes the pacing of the game. Instead of creeping through hallways, you’re bursting into rooms and setting the dining table on fire just to increase your “Chaos Quota.”

And yes, there is a wand that lets you urinate on rugs.

Watching that chaos meter climb because you vandalized an entire room with magical nonsense taps into something primal. The horror elements quickly turn into slapstick comedy—except you’re the one banging on the monster’s door.

The Three-Night Cycle & Extraction Panic

YAPYAP runs on a three-night quota system.

Hit your chaos target.
Extract safely.
Buy better gear.

Simple enough… in theory.

Each night, the extraction point moves somewhere else on the map. The only clue is a distant tower with flames on top. Finding that location while the timer counts down is stressful enough—but things get even worse when your teammate gets lost in the basement and refuses to admit it.

The game also explains almost nothing.

During my first few runs, I died repeatedly simply because I didn’t know I had to interact with a crystal ball to extract. YAPYAP throws you into the chaos and lets you figure things out the hard way.

Trial by fire, wizard style.

The Voice Recognition Gimmick (That Actually Works)

YAPYAP’s biggest feature is its voice recognition spellcasting.

Instead of pressing buttons, you hold right-click and literally say your spells out loud.

• “Aero” pushes enemies back

• “Up-Dog” levitates you

• “Ignis” sets things on fire

When It Works… and When It Doesn’t

When the system works properly, it feels amazing. Calling out spells while coordinating with your friends genuinely makes you feel like a squad of chaotic wizards.

When it fails?

It’s even funnier.

One of my teammates once screamed “BLINK! BLINK! BLINK!” repeatedly while a giant walking armchair slowly beat him to death because the game refused to recognize the command.

That moment is permanently burned into my brain.

The recognition is fairly forgiving overall, but background noise and strong accents can cause problems. It also occasionally misinterprets casual conversation as spells, which leads to some hilarious accidents.

At one point I launched my friend off a bridge because the game thought my sentence was a spell incantation.

No regrets.

The Wand Arsenal

You start with a basic Wind Wand—and trust me, you should grab it from the tree before entering the tower. Going in empty-handed is basically suicide.

But the real fun begins once the shop opens up.

Some highlights include:

• Grotesque Wand – lets you sneeze on enemies or turn them into fish

• Fire Wand – a destructive DPS powerhouse

• Various chaos-focused tools that amplify your destructive potential

There’s a decent variety for an early release, though unlocking everything requires a bit of grinding.

The “Friendslop” Reality Check

For all its brilliance, YAPYAP is still an indie game—and you can feel it.

Solo Play Is Basically Dead

If you don’t have friends to play with, do not buy this game.

Seriously.

There’s no public matchmaking at launch, and the game clearly isn’t balanced for solo players. Enemies are designed around distracting them with multiple players, and the economy assumes group chaos.

Playing alone feels like wandering around a dark tower talking to yourself until you run out of stamina.

It’s not fun. It’s just depressing.

Performance, Visuals & Jank

Visually, YAPYAP leans heavily into a “cursed PS1” aesthetic, and honestly it fits the vibe perfectly. The chunky models and pixel filters help hide the low-poly environment while adding to the chaotic atmosphere.

That said… the game is janky.

Bugs & Stability

During my playtime I experienced:

• Falling through the floor multiple times

• Wands clipping into the void

• A crash that wiped a successful run

Enemy AI also swings wildly between useless and terrifying. One monster in particular—the Jester—feels wildly unfair. It can sometimes attack through walls or kill you instantly with little counterplay if your wand is on cooldown.

It’s the kind of roughness you expect from a small indie project held together with duct tape and pure ambition.

Final Verdict

YAPYAP is not a polished masterpiece.

It’s a chaotic, buggy, ridiculous sandbox that thrives on unscripted moments of multiplayer comedy. The kind of moments that big AAA studios try—and fail—to manufacture.

For the price of a sandwich, it gives you a playground where you can:

• Turn your best friend into a fish

• Accidentally launch someone off a bridge

• Get brutally murdered by a killer clown

Is it perfect? Absolutely not.

The lack of matchmaking is a serious issue, and the economy could use a balance patch immediately.

But despite all that…

Is it fun? Without a doubt.

If you like this review and want to see more like YapYap, you can click here.  My snapchat is Cara_lynn97. Twitter and Instagram are the same. I stream on twitch multiple days a week! Be sure to follow me to see the live playthroughs of games and anything else I might do and post online.