Have you ever heard of a game called Magicka? How about DOTA? League of Legends? The Magicka itself is an interesting RPG game where you can play coop or single player following a storyline. You control a faceless wizard which can combines elements to create spell for battle. Interesting right? One thing that makes the Magicka unique is it’s battle system where you have to combine elements to cast spell. The spells that can be casted range from a defensive shield, defensive wall, armor, projectile weapon/meteor shot, beam weapon/lazor, mines, bombs, storms, arc lightning, power circles, wards.Whew, imagine that.
httpss://youtu.be/NWLENZk-TyM
Magicka reminds me of a Warcraft 3 mod that have similar system but more simple. Can’t remember what it’s called.In Magicka, there are 8 elements you can choose from to play or to cast a spell with which are Water, Life, Shield, Cold in the upper key shortcuts (QWER) and then Lightning, Arcane (or Death), Earth, and lastly Fire which makes the lower key shortcuts (ASDF).
So how does it works? You can combine up to 3 elements in a row by pressing the corresponding key such as F+F+S for example which create a Fire Lazor but you can’t combine elements which cancel out each other. Also the final output of the spell combination will vary based on the elements combinations. You can read it here for more information. Nuff said, you need to experiment and try to remember the combinations. Magicka need at least 1 elements cast. If you press right click without assigning an element, the wizard will attack with his primitive/sacrificial/uber weapon instead. If I want to translate that, your magician become a spellcasting melee warrior albeit with thin armor.
To make a story short, take that game of Magicka, add DOTA style or MOBA style and you have a Magicka: Wizard Wars. A PVP oriented games where you can team up with 3 other faceless wizard and fight other team in a round of chase and kill, or kill neutral creeps and harvest their souls so that it make the enemy Ancient Tree (or Effigy) vulnerable to attack and can be destroyed, or have a man to man duel (or female to female or whatever) and fight to death in a duel arena.
httpss://youtu.be/DTe7FenHWD4
Oh did I mention that the game has friendly fire ON? Yep, I didn’t realize that until I burned both the enemy and friend in the first battle. Then I realized, shit! The game itself did not specifically mention this but all the spells works on enemy and friend alike. So be careful where you point that staff at. You might heal the enemy instead. Want to add more fun? Call in Meteor Shower and watched both your teammates and enemies died.
Magicka: Wizard Wars is a complex game but not as complex as Eve Online. It doesn’t takes much to learn the gameplay but it requires quick reflex, quick judgement, and strong memory. Just like when I played DOTA, my friend keeps screaming Ulti, Ulti yet the enemy scoot away. Well in this game, you realize it will take more that 2 hands to fully utilize the capabilities. Not just elements combine, you also have melee weapon, and magicks to use cast with. I will cover this in the second part of the post.
Magicka: Wizard Wars has 4 game modes that you can select to play. They are:
Soul Harvest
httpss://youtu.be/vv_OeB2n7GU
In Soul Harvest mode, the player will team up with 3 other wizards and perform 2 things. First, kill neutral creeps and harvest their souls. Once it reached 200 souls, the effigy will be vulnerable and you can destroy it. Second, defend your effigy by interrupting the other team soul harvesting by sending them ‘down below’ or steal their creeps. Basically this mode is a harvesting race and killing other is not the main point here. The death cool down penalty is not that bad and allow you to get back into the game quickly and there is no buyout (cause there is no gold). If you want to harvest soul faster, kill the troll.
Wizard Warfare
httpss://youtu.be/aHSAX493Z1k
Wizard warfare mode is more interesting and has high pace. There are limited spawn points (usually 4 at the moment) on the map and the objective here is to control the spawn points. Each time the number of controlled spawn points are higher than the enemy points (2 to 1 or 3 to 1), they will start losing life ticket. When the life ticket dropped to 0, you will not be able to spawn anymore. Other than that, if you lost all your spawn points and all wizards are killed, you lose the game regardless of how many tickets remaining. This game mode requires quick reflex and good teamwork (solo died fast and alone) and if your team are newbies (PUG play), well good luck.
Duel
httpss://youtu.be/b5onfjxvOJc
Team play is not for you? Try out duel mode. This button smashing and clicking mode pit you against another wizard in a fight to the death. You need to be able to throw up defensive wall, plant mine, heal, plant bomb, shoot lazer, cast armor and wards and all this in a few seconds gap. Counter each enemy wizard’s moves and you shall stand victoriously.
Training
In training mode, you can try out the elements combination on a training dummy or 2 imps which can be summoned by walking on a red button on the ground. There is also a series of mini tutorials which explained on how weapon works, shield, wards, and a few other things. Not much to see here except you destroying stuffs.
Conclusion
If you have time to spare, go and download the game and give it a try. The game requires you to install Steam client in order to download and play. It makes a good time waster and can induce carpal tunnel syndrome and major depression but still worth a try.
Magicka: Wizard Wars on Steam